With his wife, Margaret “Posy” Courtney, by his side, two-time Olympic gold medalist Tom Courtney, FCRH ’55, joined the reunion festivities by Zoom from Florida. He took questions from his longtime friend and former Fordham track teammate Bob Mackin, FCRH ’55, who was among those in Loyola Hall.

Prior to the discussion, audience members watched a video of Courtney’s dramatic come-from-behind victory in the 800-meter race on November 26, 1956, at the Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. Courtney—who later said he was proud to be described in the Melbourne newspapers as “The Fordham Ram”—set an Olympic record that day with a time of 1:47.7 before nearly collapsing from exhaustion.

“I was totally, absolutely spent,” he recalled during the reunion event. “All I could think of is, ‘I am in such bad, painful condition, I will never run again.’”

But he ran the next day, and several days later, on December 1, he anchored the U.S. team’s four-man 1,600-meter relay, winning his second gold medal. Because it was the last Olympics not broadcast live on television, he had to call his parents in Livingston, New Jersey, to let them know that he won.

Upon returning to New York, Courtney appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, and on December 12, 1956, Fordham feted him with a dinner at Mamma Leone’s restaurant in Manhattan and a parade in the Bronx—from Poe Park on the Grand Concourse to the Rose Hill Gymnasium, where he received a “huge, triple-decked, silver trophy” from Fordham President Laurence J. McGinley, S.J., The Ram reported the next day.

“Few men have worked as hard and achieved such personal fame in such a short time as Fordham’s Tom Courtney,” Ram reporters Ronald Land and Bill Sturner wrote.

The Fordham University Band led the procession through the Bronx, followed by the student body and the Livingston High School band. Wearing his white Olympics sport coat and a straw hat, Courtney rode down Fordham Road in the back of an open-top orange Cadillac—an experience he recounted in his 2018 memoir, The Inside Track.

“That was a lovely time,” he wrote, “and I was in a convertible with my coach, Artie O’Connor,” a 1928 Fordham graduate who offered Courtney a full scholarship and was the first to suggest that he try to make the U.S. Olympic team. “He was very motivational for me. As we went along, he took my losses much harder than I did. He was a dedicated, wonderful man. He loved Fordham and it helped me to love Fordham.”

After the Olympics, Courtney continued to set world records in 1956 and 1957 before retiring from competition. In 1971, he was one of the first five people, including Vince Lombardi, FCRH ’37, to be inducted into the Fordham Athletics Hall of Fame. He earned an M.B.A. from Harvard University and enjoyed a long career in business, retiring in 2011 as chairman of the board of Oppenheimer Funds.

“Fordham was a wonderful place, and I’m thankful for my experience there—and my scholarship too,” said Courtney, who for many years has been a generous supporter of the University.

Brian Horowitz, FCRH ’10, GSE ’11, head coach of the Fordham men’s track and field and cross country teams, thanked Courtney for his support of the program’s student-athletes.

“Walking into the Lombardi Center each day and seeing the Olympic rings and knowing that you represented Fordham so well is a real inspiration for myself as a coach and for the current members of the team,” Horowitz said. “We hope to continue to make you proud.”

Watch Courtney’s inspiring effort in this clip from Greatest Thrills from the Olympics. Host Bob Considine interviews Courtney, calling his run “the most courageous race I’ve seen in 25 years of sportswriting.”

“He literally took a piece of chalk and drew a circle around a part of the park,’” Gooden said with a smile.

From there, Gooden went on to Fordham Prep and began running competitively.

“I’d run a mile and that was OK to me, but then what my coach used to do was he’d continuously add miles and just didn’t tell me,” he said with a laugh. “We started running two miles and then I’d say, ‘Coach, it felt a little longer today.’ And he’d say, ‘Oh, don’t worry about it, you’re just getting really good at it.’ Eventually, I started to realize that I ran three miles and he just wasn’t telling me.”

That baseline work set the stage for Gooden’s track and field career at Fordham, where he’s run a variety of mid-distance races, from 400 to 800 meters. During the 2018-2019 season, Gooden, who received an athletic scholarship to run at Fordham, earned two medals for Fordham within two weeks: He was a bronze medalist at the Atlantic 10 Championship in the 500-meter run, and he earned another bronze at the IC4A Championship in the 500-meter race while also helping the relay team place fifth.

Those two weeks were intense, Gooden said.

“Two of our best 400-meter runners went down, an old captain of mine and one of my teammates, and the team definitely needed me to just be able to be there for them and the ability to be able to give them 100% with both my individual [races], and my relay was, it was a really great feeling,” he said.

Finding Motivation as the Anchor Leg

While Gooden has had strong individual performances, his coaches said he really shines when passing the baton to others.

“He really thrives in the relays, and I think that’s because he’s such a team player,” said Brian Horowitz, head track and field coach. “[He has] exceptional performances on the track, and he’s definitely a good role model for some of our freshmen and sophomores this year, bringing them under his wing.”

Gooden, a senior English major at Fordham College at Rose Hill who loves to write, said it’s the competition in relays that fuels him.

“Being the anchor leg …is definitely a very big activation for me to ‘hunt down’ whoever is in front of me,” he said. “I love just being able to get parallel with somebody else and say, ‘OK, let’s see how much we can give.’”

Gooden said that he felt the team was really hitting its stride right before the COVID-19 pandemic hit last spring.

“We missed the school record by 0.2 [seconds],” he said. “We’d come really close to that. And that was a really big step for us.”

Advocating for Fellow Athletes

For Gooden, that passion and drive also extends to his commitments off the field, where he’s working to improve the lives of student-athletes and grow partnerships between the athletics program and the Bronx community. As someone who has faced discrimination and racial microaggressions throughout his athletic career, he said he wants to make sure other student-athletes don’t have to face the same issues. And being a commuting student-athlete gave Gooden insight into the needs of others like him—such as the importance of schedule flexibility to fit in training, or having to factor in commuting time to get to programs and activities.

“Being a student athlete, it seems like the life, [but]it’s a lot of hours, especially for me,” he said.

Gooden used his participation as a member of the Fordham Athletics Social Justice Task Force, Fordham Connect, and the Athletics’ Advisory Committee, to bring these issues to light. He’s also been working with his coaches and staff to implement changes, such as improved advising, more support, and an updated handbook for student-athletes on their rights. The handbook includes a new reporting protocol for bias-related incidents and hate crimes, a policy on student demonstrations, and an updated mission and purpose statement.

“I’m trying to encourage a lot of coaches to look beyond just the athlete, and look at the personal side, the home side, the individual themselves,” he said. “I think, one, that makes a strong team and two, it allows a coach to nurture an overall better athlete when you take all those things into account.”

Making Strides in Diversity

Horowitz said that Gooden, who has also had to battle hamstring injuries, has been a leader for other teammates and athletes.

“Arthur was quick to just jump in and lend his voice and work with myself and the entire Athletics Department to make sure that we are focusing on all the needs of our student athletes and being as inclusive in everything as possible,” he said.

Gooden highlighted the athletics department’s diversity initiatives, which he has been a part of, and his coaching staff’s attentiveness to the needs of student-athletes as signs of progress, in addition to the handbook, he said.

“There’s been different implementations of diversity training within the athletic staff now in a variety of ways, from guest speakers to workshops,” Gooden said.

‘Unfinished Business’

Gooden said he plans to continue working on his creative writing, and possibly pursue law school after getting a master’s in English.

“I fell in love with writing—when I have time, I write poetry for myself. I like stories. I love storytelling, spoken word poetry, and when I have more time I write music and things of that nature,” he said.

His goal is to continue running at Fordham in graduate school, as he had a few years left of eligibility due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I would definitely like to fifth year because those school records hang on my mind—when I was a sophomore, I missed the school record by 0.3 or 0.4 [seconds], so I definitely have an air of unfinished business to take care of,” he said.

Mulkeen, a member of the Bronx Borough Anti-Crime Unit, was struggling with a man who had fled when he and other officers stopped to question him while patrolling near the Edenwald Houses on East 229th Street, according to police. Mulkeen was shot three times at approximately 12:30 a.m. and pronounced dead at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx.

“The Fordham family has lost one of its own to senseless violence today,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham.

“Brian Mulkeen went out into the world to do exactly what we expect of our alumni—be a man for others—and he was slain in service to the local community.

“Our hearts go out to Brian’s family and loved ones, and to his fellow officers. I know the Fordham community joins me in prayer for the repose of Brian’s soul, and for his family and loved ones as they mourn his untimely death.”

A wake is set for 1 to 4 and 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 3, at Smith, Seaman & Quackenbush Funeral Home at 117 Maple Ave. East in Monroe, New York. The funeral Mass will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at the Church of the Sacred Heart at 26 Still Road in Monroe. Cardinal Timothy Dolan will celebrate the Mass and Father McShane will be a concelebrant.

Fordham flags will be flown at half-mast until after services.

Mayor Bill de Blasio ordered flags flown at half-mast, as did Westchester County Executive George Latimer, FCRH ’74, according to CBS New York. Mulkeen lived in Westchester County’s Yorktown Heights with his girlfriend, also a New York City police officer. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, FCRH ’79, also commented on the shooting, saying Mulkeen “put his life on the line and … lost it in service to the people of this city,” according to the Associated Press.

Going Above and Beyond for Others

Mulkeen was “just a tremendous human being,” quick to put aside whatever he was doing to help someone else, said Brian Horowitz, FCRH ’10, head coach of the cross country/track and field program. “[His] first thing was to care about everyone else, put aside whatever he’s doing and really step up.”

In fact, Horowitz, who knew Mulkeen as an undergraduate, said he had recently asked Mulkeen if he would return as a volunteer throwing coach. “He was quick to say ‘yes’ and was very excited about the opportunity,” despite his busy schedule, Horowitz said.

Mulkeen was going to start as soon as next week, Horowitz said. He spoke to Mulkeen on Saturday, when Mulkeen said he had to work and wouldn’t be able to make it to the Fordham football game that day, where recently retired cross country/track and field head coach Tom Dewey was to be honored.

In the program, “it’s been really difficult for everyone to really wrap their heads around” what happened, Horowitz said, describing Mulkeen’s contagious enthusiasm and care for others. “If you met Brian, you fell in love with him.”

A two-year captain in the program, Mulkeen was a multiple-time scorer at the Atlantic 10 Championship in the weight throw for indoor track and the hammer throw for outdoor track. As a senior, he earned a bronze medal at the Atlantic 10 Indoor Track and Field Championship in the weight throw. He was a member of the Atlantic 10 Commissioner’s Honor Roll, and helped the Rams win the 2008 Metropolitan Outdoor Track and Field Championship for the first time in program history.

Horowitz described Mulkeen as a hard worker who “went above and beyond,” both on the playing field and in the classroom. He worked on Wall Street after graduating, but turned to police work to find something more fulfilling.

“He always wanted to do better for the people around him,” he said.

Mulkeen “was a remarkable human being. Everybody loved him,” Mulkeen’s father, also named Brian Mulkeen, told the New York Post.

An Officer’s Sacrifice

Mulkeen was patrolling near Edenwald Houses because of recent gang activity in the area, said NYPD Chief Terence A. Monahan, FCLC ’85, in prepared remarks on Sept. 29. The man that Mulkeen was struggling with was shot by police and died at the scene. Monahan identified him as a 27-year-old man on probation for a narcotics-related arrest last year who had been arrested several times before.

“Tonight is a vivid example of the dangers New York City cops face every day.”

UPDATE (Oct. 10): Fordham University has established the Brian Mulkeen, GABELLI ’08, Memorial Endowed Scholarship, which will go to an undergraduate student at the Gabelli School of Business. The Office of Student Financial Services, in consultation with the dean of the Gabelli School of Business, shall award the scholarship to academically high-performing students who might be unable to stay at the University without financial support. Gifts in support of the scholarship can be made here.