It’s been called a venerable throwback, a hidden gem, a cathedral of college sports. Since its inaugural game in January 1925, ‘Rose Thrill’ has always been much more than a gym.

They don’t make them like they used to, you might say, and you’d be right. Consider Rose Hill Gym’s exterior walls. The builder’s “local gray stone” is likely a mix of Fordham gneiss and Manhattan schist—the ancient, gritty bedrock upon which much of New York City is built. Could there be a more symbolically apt building material for a Fordham icon?

Through the decades, the gym has been the site of countless athletic contests. It’s where students push themselves to excel—amid the roar of the crowd or just the echoey squeak of sneakers on hardwood. And it’s where generations have gathered for momentous events, from Fordham presidents’ welcome addresses (where many students and families first fall in love with the University) to unforgettable concerts, baccalaureate Masses, and award ceremonies.

As the gym turns 100, here’s a look at some of the many moments and people whose energy, camaraderie, grit, and grace have brought the building to life since 1925.

The strength of the Fordham athlete finds root in spirited competition, a strong will to win, forbearance in defeat, and tempered joy in victory.

John Francis “Jack” Coffey

Widely considered the father of Fordham sports, Jack Coffey, a 1910 grad, served as the graduate manager of athletics and baseball coach for nearly 35 years, overseeing the Rams’ rise to national renown, particularly in football.

When Coffey retired in 1958, Pulitzer Prize-winning sports columnist and fellow Fordham grad Arthur Daley wrote that Coffey always “seemed as much a part of the Fordham landscape as the university’s gymnasium.” He called Coffey “the soul of erudition,” not just a coach and administrator but “a friend, confidant, and advisor of … generations of athletes.”

Test Your Rose Hill Gym IQ

Rose Hill Gym has been the beloved stomping grounds of many a Ram. Do you know it well enough to knock out this quiz as quickly as the Fordham Flash* might have?

Check out the answers at the bottom of this story.

* Who’s the Fordham Flash? None other than Frankie Frisch, Class of 1920. Arguably the Fordham sports GOAT, he excelled in baseball, track, football, and basketball before going on to a Hall of Fame pro baseball career.

1. The gym was considered so big for its time that Rams called it …

• The Meadow
• The Prairie
• The Plains

2. When it opened, the gym boasted …

• Equipment for weightlifting
• Three 400-square-foot boxing rings in the basement
• A swimming pool, with cutting-edge machinery for filtering and purifying water

3. Which Fordham men’s basketball star was the latest to have his number retired and jersey hoisted to the gym’s rafters?

• Ken Charles
• Ed Conlin
• Charlie Yelverton

4. What did Cindy Vojtech do for a Rose Hill Gym encore after her stellar volleyball career?

• Sang the national anthem
• Joined the WFUV broadcast team
• Delivered a valedictory address

5. Which women’s basketball star’s buzzer-beater against Rhode Island inspired a SportsCenter anchor to kick off the night’s highlights from the “Boogie Down Bronx”?

• Anna DeWolfe
• Mobolaji Akiode
• Abigail Corning

Highlights in the History of the Rose Hill Gym

1925 Brought a Flurry to Fordham

Fordham was in the midst of “a million dollar year” when the Rose Hill Gym opened in 1925, declared the Maroon yearbook staff. In addition to the gym, they cited a new campus bookstore and seismic lab along with a new library that was halfway to completion.

But it was the gym that dominated the team’s attention: “The sight of its huge, though artistically proportioned bulk is quite enough to instill in every Fordhamite a full-grown superiority complex.”

Fordham leaders clearly had great confidence in the gym’s architect, Emile G. Perrot, who also designed what would become Duane Library. “Architecture,” Perrot once said, “is the incarnation in stone of the thought and life of the civilization it represents.”

Keepsakes Lie Behind the Cornerstone

When the gym’s cornerstone was laid on a Sunday afternoon in early November 1923, a copper box of treasures from those times was buried alongside it. A list in the Walsh Library archives documents the contents.

Some items speak to Fordham’s Catholic and Jesuit ties, among them a medal of St. Ignatius and St. Francis Xavier. There are U.S. stamps, coins, and a flag bearing 48 stars along with copies of New York newspapers from the day.

There is no mistaking the school pride of the collection’s curators. Included are the Fordham catalog, University seal and colors, a copy of The Fordham Ram, and photos of campus buildings and grounds.

Finally, recognizing the gym’s calling as a home for sports and community, the copper box boasts Fordham athletics schedules, popular University songs, and the athletic association’s constitution.

A treasure trove, indeed—one now more than a century old.

1925: The new gym opens, hosting its first basketball game on January 16. The Rams beat Boston College 46-16 in a contest refereed by former four-sport star Frankie Frisch, the Fordham Flash, then a second baseman for the New York Giants.

Coach Ed Kelleher’s “Wonder Fives” go on to win 85 games and lose only nine between 1924 and 1929, christening the gym in spectacular fashion.

1927: A record 6,000 fans turn out to see Fordham beat City College of New York on January 22, a crowd well beyond the gym’s current 3,200-seat capacity.

1936: Foul weather forces the football Rams to practice in the gym. The team’s nationally renowned line, the Seven Blocks of Granite, includes Fordham senior and future pro football icon Vince Lombardi.

c. 1940: Trainer Jake Weber operates out of the gym’s basement. A fixture at Fordham for more than three decades until 1942, he also trains U.S. Olympic teams and is known for his “magic elixirs” and “baking machines” used to soothe student-athletes’ sore muscles.

1943: Bob Mullens earns All-America honors and leads the Rams to their first appearance in the National Invitation Tournament. He goes on to play for the New York Knicks in their inaugural season (1946–47), and in 2019, Fordham retires his No. 7.

1953: In his third season as head coach, Johnny Bach, a 1948 grad, leads the Rams to their first NCAA Tournament berth. He goes on to become Fordham’s all-time winningest coach, compiling a 264-192 record in 18 seasons. He departs Fordham in 1968 and later joins the NBA. As an assistant coach, Bach helps lead the Chicago Bulls to three straight titles in the early 1990s and leaves an indelible mark on Michael Jordan, who calls him “truly one of the greatest basketball minds of all time.”

1964: Women’s basketball begins as a club sport after Barbara Hartnett Hall and several of her classmates pitch the idea. “We went to talk to the athletic director … and [he was]surprisingly open to it,” Hall, a four-year captain, later recalls.

1965: The gym is the scene of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s final high school game. Then known as Lew Alcindor, he leads Power Memorial to victory in the New York Catholic High School Athletic Association Championship on March 7.

Video: Watch highlights of the NBA legend’s standout performance in a packed Rose Hill Gym.

1966: The Beach Boys bring their surf rock to the Bronx on March 18, at the height of their popularity. The Lovin’ Spoonful is also on the bill.

On December 3, Simon and Garfunkel perform the first of their two concerts at the Rose Hill Gym, taking the stage for Winter Weekend. The following year, they return on October 13 to play Homecoming.

RELATED STORY: Rockin’ Rose Hill: A Look Back at Campus Concerts Since the ’60s

1967: Men’s basketball beats Iona on February 25 to launch a school-record 25-game winning streak in the gym. The home streak lasts until December 17, 1969.

The Supremes, featuring Diana Ross, perform in the gym on March 11. Future stars Gladys Knight & the Pips open the show.

1970: Women’s basketball debuts as a varsity sport, beating NYU in its first game.

“We started winning games we weren’t supposed to win, and you couldn’t get in the Rose Hill Gym. It was … a real happening. When that team played, it was New York City’s team.”

Frank McLaughlin, FCRH ’69, former longtime athletics director, on the magical 26-3 season of the 1970–1971 men’s basketball team. He was an assistant to head coach Digger Phelps that year, when the Rams rose to No. 9 in the national rankings.

1971: With gritty team play, men’s basketball captures the hearts of New Yorkers, packing the gym and selling out multiple games at Madison Square Garden on the way to a 26-3 record and a top 10 national ranking. The magical season ends with a loss to Villanova in the NCAA Tournament’s East Regional Semifinals.

RELATED STORY: ‘The Darlings of New York’: An Oral History of the 1970–1971 Fordham Men’s Basketball Team

1974: Women’s volleyball posts a 4-3 record in its first season.

1975: Eight years after his last performance in the Rose Hill Gym, singer-songwriter Paul Simon returns to tape a skit for the second-ever episode of Saturday Night Live. In the skit, which airs on October 18, he goes one-on-one with basketball great Connie Hawkins. Despite a 1-foot-4-inch height disadvantage, Simon pulls off the upset—and some deadpan comedy. “First of all, when my outside shot is on, it’s really on,” he says in a mock postgame interview with broadcaster Marv Albert.

1983: Men’s basketball upsets top-seeded Iona to win the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference title.

1984: The Ramones play their hits in the gym on April 27. But basketball is also on the mind of NYC’s seminal punk band, according to concert committee chair Joe Cerra, then a Fordham senior. “[We] had to keep giving Joey Ramone updates on the Knicks game,” he recalled in a 2013 interview with this magazine.

1990: Jean Prioleau hits a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to lead Fordham to a 69-68 win over Seton Hall on November 29, spoiling Fordham grad P.J. Carlesimo’s return to Rose Hill as Seton Hall’s head coach.

Video: “Bang!” Fordham grad and Hall of Fame basketball broadcaster Mike Breen, FCRH ’83, makes the call as Prioleau hits the game-winning shot. Fans rush onto the Rose Hill Gym floor to join the celebration as Prioleau is carried off the court.

1991: Men’s basketball wins the first of two straight Patriot League titles.

1992: Women’s basketball claims its first Patriot League title, a feat the Rams would repeat in 1994.

2000: Volleyball star Cindy Vojtech becomes the first (and, to this date, only) Ram to earn three straight Academic All-America honors, picking up the awards in two sports. Following her senior volleyball season, she joined the women’s crew and helped lead them to a second-place finish at the Dad Vail Regatta in 2000.

She went on to earn a Ph.D. in economics and is currently a principal economist with the Federal Reserve in Washington, D.C., and a member of the Fordham President’s Council, helping to provide scholarship support to Fordham students.

2001: Fat Joe and Ashanti use the Rose Hill Gym in their “That’s Luv” music video.

2004: Fordham retires the No. 11 jersey of Ed Conlin, a standout player for the Rams who went on to a 10-year NBA career after graduating in 1955. “He played with a passion,” Conlin’s former Fordham coach, Johnny Bach, says at the ceremony. “We need people like Ed Conlin, people who love the game and who love Fordham.” He remains the men’s team’s all-time leading scorer (1,886) and rebounder (1,930).

2010: Fordham retires Anne Gregory O’Connell’s No. 55. A 1980 grad, she led the Rams to four consecutive postseason appearances and remains Fordham’s all-time leading scorer (2,548) and rebounder (1,999).

2012: Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Stephen Colbert meet in the gym on September 14 for “The Cardinal and Colbert: Humor, Joy, and the Spiritual Life.” The discussion, moderated by bestselling author James Martin, S.J., draws a crowd of more than 3,000 “cheering, stomping, chanting students,” The New York Times reports, calling it “the most successful Roman Catholic youth evangelization event since Pope John Paul II last appeared at World Youth Day” in 2000.

2014: Women’s basketball captures its first Atlantic 10 title and holds an NCAA Tournament selection show watch party in the gym. They would go on to win the title again in 2019.

2021: The rapper A$AP Ferg (now known as Ferg) headlines the November 4 “Late Night on the Hill” event that kicks off the 2021–2022 basketball season.

2022: Fordham hosts—and on November 22, the men’s basketball team wins—the first Konchalski Classic, an annual basketball tournament to honor the life and legacy of 1968 Fordham grad Tom Konchalski, one of the most trusted basketball scouts in the country. His four-decade career included assessments of Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James as high schoolers.

In February 2021, one day after Konchalski’s death at the age of 74, New York Knicks broadcaster Mike Breen, FCRH ’83, told viewers that while Konchalski “may not have been what’s called a household name, in basketball homes, he was legendary.”

“Tom was the most influential, the most respected, and the most loved high school basketball scout in the country,” Breen said. “He helped thousands of young men, thousands of high school basketball players, achieve their dreams of playing college basketball and beyond. And every single day, he did it with kindness and humility.”

On November 29, the gym floor is designated the Frank McLaughlin Family Court—a tribute to Frank McLaughlin, the 1969 grad and former basketball star who became a devoted coach and longtime athletic director.

2023: After raucous home crowds seem to will the men’s basketball team to a pair of impressive victories in January, head coach Keith Urgo coins a new nickname for the historic gym when he opens a press conference with five words: “How about Rose Thrill, man!”

RELATED STORY: The Rise of ‘Rose Thrill’: Fans Fuel Fordham Basketball Resurgence

2024: In September, the University unveils a new court surface featuring a prominent Fordham script wordmark set over the silhouette of a large Ram head.

Did we miss your favorite Rose Hill Gym moments?

Share your own Rose Hill Gym story on the Fordham athletics website celebrating the gym’s 100th anniversary.

Answers to the ‘Test Your Rose Hill Gym IQ’ Quiz

1. The Prairie 2. A swimming pool 3. Fordham retired Charlie Yelverton’s No. 34 in 2023. 4. Cindy Vojtech was the valedictorian of the Gabelli School of Business Class of 2000. 5. Anna DeWolfe hit the game-winner against Rhode Island on February 22, 2023.

VIDEO: Watch DeWolfe’s game-winning shot.

But off the court, Tsimbila’s story is anything but typical.

Here are five things to know about this star Fordham Ram.

1. He’s Representing Cameroon in Olympic Qualifiers.

After graduating, Tsimbila will suit up for his country and head to training camp for the Cameroon National Basketball team this July in Latvia. Cameroon is one of six teams competing in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament ahead of the Paris games this summer.

“I’ve always dreamed about wearing my Cameroon jersey,” he said.

2. He Speaks Five Languages.

Tsimbila grew up in Cameroon speaking French, Arabic, Lingala, and Banham—but mastering English is among his proudest accomplishments.

“I learned basic English with my friends in the locker room, but in the locker room, we don’t always use proper formal language,” said Tsimbila, who attended high school in Maryland.

When a recruiter said his English wasn’t strong enough to succeed in college, Tsimbila worried—after several attempts—that he might never pass his proficiency exams.

Then he called his mom.

“She told me, ‘Son, if you believe in something, you have to go after it and do whatever it takes,’” Tsimbila said.

By summer’s end, Tsimbila not only passed his exam—he nearly doubled his score.

3. He Wants to Be an FBI or CIA Agent.

Tsimbila is graduating from the School of Professional and Continuing Studies with an individualized major in arts and computers. After graduation, he’ll pursue a master’s degree in cybersecurity at Fordham while continuing to play for the Rams. He plans to apply to work for the FBI or CIA.

4. His Bond with Coach Keith Urgo Goes Beyond Fordham.

Tsimbila forged a special connection with Fordham Head Basketball Coach Keith Urgo—before either became a Ram.

When COVID-19 and visa complications made it impossible to return home for Tsimbila—then playing for Penn State with Urgo as assistant coach—Urgo promised his star recruit he would personally make the trip to Cameroon to reassure Tsimbila’s family that their son’s future was in good hands.

“Abdou is everything a coach could ever want in a player,” Urgo said.

When Urgo came to Fordham, one of his first moves was to recruit Tsimbila from the transfer portal. Again, it was Tsimbila’s mother who swayed his decision.

“She said, ‘That man came all the way to Cameroon to tell me that he cares about you not just as a player, but as a human being,’” Tsimbila recalled. “‘I think you should follow that man—he wants the best for you.’”

5. Fordham Is ‘the Best Decision’ He’s Ever Made.

According to Tsimbila, his decision to transfer to Fordham has paid off beyond the court.

Last summer, Fordham Basketball provided financial and logistical support for Tsimbila to travel home for the first time in six years.

“There’s no other school in America that would have done something like that for me,” he said.

During his senior season, he learned that his family was affected by devastating landslides in Cameroon.

“I received a lot of support from people at Fordham that I never would have imagined,” he said.

Despite those family challenges, Tsimbila had one of his strongest seasons.

“I won’t be sad when I leave Fordham because I know I can come back here anytime,” he said. “Fordham for me means home.”

Remember, on the evening of May 18, New York’s Empire State Building will be illuminated in Fordham maroon for our graduates.

A goalkeeper from Ghana pursues his ‘right to dream’

As a child in Ghana, Rashid Nuhu attended Right to Dream, a youth development academy that combines soccer training with academic coursework. He earned a scholarship to the Kent School in Connecticut, where he was encouraged to consider Fordham by fellow Right to Dream graduate Nathaniel Bekoe, GABELLI ’14, who played for the Rams from 2010 to 2013.

Nuhu starred at Rose Hill, helping to lead Fordham to the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals in 2018 before earning a degree in economics.

But professional success didn’t come immediately. He was drafted by the New York Red Bulls in 2019 and spent a year in the club’s development system. Without a contract after parting ways with the organization, Nuhu began training at Rose Hill. One day, men’s soccer coach Carlo Acquista told him about an opportunity to try out for Union Omaha in the third-division USL League One, whose coach had inquired about Nuhu.

“I was like, Yeah, why not?” Nuhu says. “I didn’t have a team. If there’s a team that wants me, that’s what I want.”

Nuhu went to the tryout, made the team, and has thrived ever since, winning a championship with the club in 2021 and earning the 2022 Golden Glove award as the league’s Goalkeeper of the Year.

“It was surreal for me, going through hardship,” he says. “I could have given up, I could have quit, but I kept on going and now things are falling into place, and it feels great to see your hard work pay off.”

In his senior year, the Rams won the 1987 Liberty Conference title—an experience that helped him see the value of “finding a niche for yourself” on the team and contributing “in a meaningful manner” even if you aren’t the “star” player, he said.

He also found a mentor in Rich Marrin Sr., FCRH ’67, LAW ’70, a former Fordham football player who helped Curcio navigate Fordham Law School and his early career.

Today, Curcio is an equity partner at Quirk and Bakalor, a law firm in Garden City, New York. And he’s following in Marrin’s footsteps as president of the Gridiron Club, a booster club for Fordham football alumni and others who wish to support the team—with fundraising, yes, but also through one-on-one mentoring.

“We have these career nights for the kids on the team, where we give them the opportunity to ask us questions about different industries and how we can help them make connections in those fields,” Curcio said. “I’m trying to help out in every way I can.”

A lifelong New Yorker, Curcio was born in Parkchester, not too far from Fordham’s Rose Hill campus in the Bronx. His family moved to the Whitestone neighborhood of Queens when he was just 2 years old, but they were back in the Bronx often—to visit his grandmother, for afternoon trips to the New York Botanical Garden and the Bronx Zoo with his aunt and cousins, and for family parties on Arthur Avenue.

When it was time for college, Curcio was drawn to Fordham—and to the opportunity to continue playing football. “I had a friend from high school that was on the team who took an interest in bringing me up there, having me visit with the coach, that kind of thing—and I just fell in love with the campus,” he said.

Today, Curcio is not the only Ram in the family: He and his wife, Christine, are members of the Parent Ambassador Committee. And their son, Matthew, graduated from Fordham College at Lincoln Center in 2022.

Fordham Five

 What are you most passionate about?
I try to make it a rule to be passionate about whatever it is I’m doing at the time. More specifically, I am passionate about traveling, food, Fordham football, and the New York Rangers.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?Whatever you’re doing, do it. I know it’s a necessary skill in this day and age, but I find that if you’re multitasking, you’re often doing two things wrong at the same time.

What’s your favorite place in New York City? In the world?
I love New York City—I have never had an address outside of New York City and have a chip on my shoulder about being from the greatest city in the world. There are so many places we love, but if I had to pick two, I’d say the 1964–’65 Panorama Map of New York City at the Queens Museum and Madison Square Garden. The former has fascinated me since I was a little kid, and the latter has been a mainstay in my life since my dad, who is no longer with us, started taking me to Ranger games when I was 6 or 7. I’ve shared season tickets with a buddy from high school for the past 30 years. When I look up at that iconic ceiling, I feel at home.

In the world, we’ve been fortunate to travel a good amount, and there are a ton of places that have left me with great memoires, especially along the Amalfi coast. But to pick one specifically, I’d probably have to say Notre Dame—the cathedral in Paris, not the school in South Bend. We were there when my son was 12, and we walked up to the top and took pictures with all the gargoyles. They’re absolutely some of my favorite photos of him. It really hit home to see it burning on television. We’ve made donations to the restoration effort.

Name a book that has had a lasting influence on you.
Who Moved My Cheese. I wish I had a more profound response, but this simple book about change in your life has left a lasting influence. I’ve gone back to it a couple of times at different transition times over the years.

Who is the Fordham grad or professor you admire most?
I’d have to start with my head football coach, Larry Glueck. The life lessons learned playing for him have served me well. Rich Marrin Sr., who was president of the Gridiron Club when I was a player, helped guide me when making the tough decision to go to law school. He also made me understand the importance of paying that mentoring role forward, and he gave me the advice listed above.

John Lumelleau, FCRH ’74; John Costantino, GABELLI ’67, LAW ’70; John Zizzo, FCRH ’69; Pete Signori, GABELLI ‘68—and all the other gentlemen who played football before me and remain involved with the program, including former teammate and law school classmate Judge Robert Holdman, FCRH ’86, LAW ’91, who reached out and brought me back to be a part of the Gridiron Club.

“I didn’t have too much gear—it was all in the laundry,” said Mehta, who graduated from the Gabelli School of Business in May.

He texted his friends: “What if we just went shirtless and just painted our chests for this game?”

They were immediately in.

“I got the text at like 11:30 the night before the game,” his friend John O’Friel, FCRH ’23, said with a smile. “And I was like, ‘Bet.’”

The Shirtless Herd

The pair recruited other friends and the group painted their chests to spell out R-A-M-S. The Shirtless Herd was born, and the Rams upset Saint Louis, the top team in the A-10 conference at that time.

O’Friel said the group grew over time, adding members and changing up their lettering.

“People were like, ‘Oh, this is cool, let’s do this,’” O’Friel said. “And that’s how we got ‘Bronx Built’ going, and ‘Urgonomics’—we started getting longer words, because more people want to be a part of it.”

The group caught the eye of Coach Keith Urgo.

“How about Rose Thrill, man!” Urgo said in the postgame press conference, using the nickname he coined for the loud atmosphere that the Shirtless Herd and other fans brought to the Rose Hill Gym. “The last couple of games, they have no idea how intense that atmosphere really is…we gotta continue that. We need that. It makes a world of difference.”

Social Media and Word of Mouth

The Shirtless Herd was just one part of a much-talked-about student fan section that came to life in 2023 as the men’s basketball team reached heights not seen for 30 years. Students packed the gym, creating a standing-room-only, loud, competitive atmosphere that caught the attention not only of Urgo but also the media.

In addition to the Herd, there were Instagram pages created that helped publicize the games and related events, such as @thehillfordham run by Sam Jones, a rising junior in the Gabelli School of Business.

“I thought, ‘maybe if we started an Instagram page, we could get a core group of people that went to every single game,’” he said.

Jones talked about the account with people in the community, including David Greco, the owner of Mike’s Deli on Arthur Avenue, which is a sponsor of Fordham athletics. Greco put him in touch with a few athletics staff members who were also working on increasing turnout.

“It just merged beautifully—we worked together throughout this semester to put on events [like pre- and post-game meetups] and and push the times of the games and push people to get there,” he said.

The main draw, of course, was the team’s performance. The men’s team finished third in the conference—after preseason polls projected them to finish last—and reached the semifinals of the A-10 tournament

While Urgo made sure his players were ready on the court, he also emphasized the importance of building a culture off the court, with slogans like “It’s a great day to be a Ram” and shoutouts to the fans for their support. Urgo and the players said it was a big part of why the Rams won their final six home games and went 18-2 overall at home.

Jones said being a part of this fan culture was “an absolute dream.”

“It changes your college experience—just to be walking around campus and hear, ‘oh, are you going to the basketball game?’” he said. “I loved it.”

Subway Chants on the Ride to Barclays

Mehta said that the credit really goes to Urgo for fostering the environment.

“He’s built a great culture here,” Mehta said. “He has a relationship with the students, with the fans. They’ve done a great job feeding off the energy and encouraging students to come back.”

And that energy expanded beyond students. When the team played in the A-10 tournament at the Barclays Center, Fordham fans, including students, alumni, and parents, packed the arena.

“It was great—on the subway on the way to the games, you had ‘let’s go Fordham!’ chants ringing throughout the cars,” Mehta said.

Keeping It Going

While many members of the fan section graduated, they hope that the tradition will be carried on. Jones, who is a junior, said that the plan is to build on this past year’s success and use it for other sports.

Jones said one of the most special things about Fordham is “how much of a family it really is.” That’s why he encourages students, particularly first-year students, to attend the games.

“Those are the events that you’re really going to remember—going to all the basketball games and yelling your heart out and standing the entire time in the fan section,” he said. “You’re meeting all these new people and you have all these friends and you see them at the next basketball game—it just creates such a strong culture.”

Visit fordhamsports.com to find the schedules for all teams and athletics events. Students attend for free with a student ID, while others can purchase tickets in advance.

The men’s team is enjoying its best year in decades under the first-year head coach, with 22 wins heading into the Feb. 25 game against the University of Rhode Island in the historic Rose Hill Gym. The Rams have won 16 of 18 games at home this year, drawing sell-out crowds to “Rose Thrill,” as the 98-year-old gym has come to be known. Meanwhile, the women’s team sits tied for third in the Atlantic 10 just days before the conference tournament is set to start. Both teams have brought excitement, thrills, and their share of media attention to Rose Hill.

Fordham basketball fever reached a peak on Wednesday evening, Feb. 22, when the men’s team faced Loyola University Chicago in the Windy City and the women took on the University of Rhode Island in the Bronx.

In their final home game of the season, the women were down 65-63 with eight seconds to go when graduate transfer Jada Dapaa knocked down an off-balance layup to tie the game and send it to overtime.

With the clock ticking down in overtime, the Rams were trailing once again, this time 73-71 with just under five seconds to play. That’s when senior guard and Cumberland, Maine, native Anna DeWolfe dribbled up the court and launched a three—“from Maine!” according to ESPN anchor Scott Van Pelt—to give her team the win. DeWolfe was mobbed on the court by her teammates and coaches, celebrating the upset victory against second-place Rhode Island.

Van Pelt was so impressed, he kicked off SportsCenter with the highlights from Rose Hill. “We begin with the best thing I saw today, which comes to us from the Boogie Down Bronx,” he said.

https://twitter.com/FordhamRams/status/1628617260192395264?s=20

ABC’s Robin Roberts also couldn’t resist DeWolfe’s buzzer beater, showing it on Good Morning America.

Thanks for the love @RobinRoberts @GMA!!!#TougherTogether pic.twitter.com/J6f4RdghdO

— Fordham WBB (@FordhamWBB) February 23, 2023

About 800 miles from “Rose Thrill,” the men’s team pulled off its own exciting victory in Chicago. Led by graduate student guard Darius Quisenberry, who put up 26 points, the Rams beat Loyola Chicago 71-69. It was a close game throughout, with the Rams trailing by one point at halftime, but the team pulled ahead with just over six minutes left and never looked back.

Wake up with the highlights from win no. 2⃣2⃣ pic.twitter.com/j8gBuDljZK

— Fordham Basketball (@FordhamMBB) February 23, 2023

Alumni across the country have been tuning in to support the team. The Maroon Club hosted a pregame meetup before taking in the men’s game in Chicago, and the Alumni Chapter of Los Angeles gathered to watch the game at State Social House in West Hollywood. And students have given the Rams a notable boost at home.

“The campus community is flying high watching the team, which means you had better arrive early at the gym to get to your spot,” Roger Clark reported in a piece for NY1 following the team’s comeback victory against the University of Massachusetts on Feb. 8.

Following the game, Urgo and the players praised the Fordham faithful. “We have the opportunity to really do something special here with the fan base, and it’s a result of getting the right guys in the program that fit not just the basketball program but the entire community,” Urgo said in a press conference following the game.

Tyler Cole, a first-year student from Brooklyn, is among those who have been impressed. “It’s honestly very fun and exciting, and I feel like the team shows warmth; they are like a family to us,” Cole told NY1.

What’s Next

Both teams are in action on Saturday, Feb. 25. It’s the final game of the year for the women’s team as they travel to North Carolina to take on Davidson at 1 p.m. The men will host the University of Rhode Island starting at 2:30 p.m. The men’s game will include a special tribute to the 1970–1971 Rams team that captivated New York City basketball fans on its way to a 26-3 record and the East regional semifinals of the NCAA Tournament. In addition, Fordham will honor former star Charlie Yelverton, FCRH ’71, whose No. 34 will be retired.

After Saturday, the men have two more games ahead of the Atlantic 10 tournament—at George Mason University on Wednesday, March 1, and back at Rose Hill for a 2 p.m. tipoff against Duquesne on Saturday, March 4.

Alumni support for the teams also continues, with gatherings planned across the country. The Alumni Chapter of Charlotte is gathering for the women’s game against Davidson. And on March 1, the Alumni Chapter of Washington, D.C., will bring together alumni, family, friends, and fans to cheer on the Rams against George Mason at EagleBank Arena in Fairfax, Virginia.

The women’s A-10 tournament is set to begin on Wednesday, March 1, at the Chase Fieldhouse in Wilmington, Delaware. And the men’s A-10 tournament starts the following Tuesday, March 7, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, and runs through the championship game, set for Sunday, March 12. The opening-round matchups will be finalized at the end of the regular season, but right now, both Fordham teams are in third place in the conference.

Fordham athletics is encouraging alumni, family, and friends in the New York area to cheer on the team at the Barclays Center. All-session tickets for the tournament are on sale now and fans can keep an eye out on the Atlantic 10 website for updates as the tournament gets closer.

“I stand on the shoulders of hundreds of people who saw something in me and who gave me an opportunity to be successful,” he said. “It was up to me to continue to push forward, but there were hundreds of people who actually pried the door open or at least gave me a glimpse of what success looked like.”

As a member of the President’s Council—a group of successful alumni who are committed to mentoring Fordham’s future leaders, funding key initiatives, and raising the University’s profile—and a loyal supporter of both Fordham athletics and the Fordham Founder’s Undergraduate Scholarship Fund, Caldwell said he is able to pay it forward to students who “need that one shot or opportunity. That’s all it took for me to get where I am today: just somebody opening the door and showing me what’s possible.”

Redefining Success

Caldwell and his siblings were raised by their mother, Dawn, in Baltimore. He didn’t have much ambition as a kid: His goals were to earn a high school diploma, secure a job in government, and have a baby—“that was what the legal route of success was,” he said. Though Caldwell is close to his mother and counts her as the most positive influence in his life, as a kid, the most financially successful people in his life were drug dealers.

“I vividly remember modeling myself behind my uncle, who was in that life and who sold drugs, and trying to be like him because he was the richest person I knew, thinking, ‘If I want to be rich … then I need to do what he does or act like him,’” he said.

Fortunately, Caldwell was a talented athlete who earned a basketball scholarship to attend St. Paul’s School for Boys, a college preparatory school outside of Baltimore. And when two of his brothers were murdered when he was in high school, prompting his mother to send him to live with one of his classmates, he got a glimpse at another kind of success: His classmates were thinking about colleges and careers, and they had both a “mom and a dad at home,” showing him “oh, this is what a family looks like.” Caldwell realized that not only did he now want the same things, but with a bit of focus and effort, he could persevere and earn them. When he earned a football scholarship to attend Fordham, he got his chance.

Leveraging an Injury for a Master’s Degree

At Fordham, Caldwell studied finance at the Gabelli School of Business. Though he had a new focus and determination, he said he couldn’t have succeeded without the support he received on campus: He, and countless other student-athletes, had a Catholic nun, Ann Walsh, R.H.S.M., behind them. As a sort of second mom, “she was the person that, if we were doing something we shouldn’t have been doing, would discipline us in her beautiful way. … You could tell it came with love,” he said.

She would “bring you to her office and walk you through an entire book; she’d read an entire book with you to make sure that you understood the coursework,” he said. “She went above and beyond what her job required to help us succeed. She will always be one of the catalysts of my success.”

During his first year on the football team, Caldwell was injured, giving him the option to come back for a fifth year to play. He agreed, but only if he could get into a master’s program. He did: He earned a B.S. in finance in 2010, an M.A. in humanities in 2011, and an M.B.A. in 2017.

Getting a Leg Up from the Fordham Network

Though he worked hard and made the most of the support and opportunities the University offered him, Caldwell is the first to point out that he owes many of his career breaks to the Fordham alumni network.

He learned about his first job after graduation, as an associate on the variable annuity sales desk at MetLife, from one of his teammates, whose father was an executive at the company. Since then, he’s worked at three other companies, and every job he’s gotten since he graduated has been through a Fordham alumnus.

Arguably the most important connection he forged at the University, though, was with Katheryn Pereyra-Caldwell, FCRH ’08, now his wife. Already parents to 2-year-old Chloe, the couple is expecting their second child, a boy, in November.

“I met my wife at Fordham,” he said. “The first three clients I brought on here at Goldman have been Fordham alumni. … Fordham has just been the anchor of my career, of my time and my life here in New York City, so I feel like it’s my duty to give back as much as I can.”

Holding Open the Door

Caldwell said he feels indebted to the University for “opening so many doors, creating so many opportunities when it comes to jobs, or advice, or mentors,” and that’s why he feels that it’s his duty to give back however he can—sharing his time, speaking at events, giving financially.

This past May, Caldwell attended a graduation reception at the Rose Hill campus for first-generation college students, getting to know the small group of attendees and encouraging them to stay in touch.

Through such events and serving on the President’s Council, Caldwell said he believes he’s in the best position to help pry open doors for Fordham students from backgrounds similar to his own, students who just need a chance to thrive. He also hopes that, with that support, those students feel empowered to take risks.

“I wish I would’ve taken more chances [growing up],” he said. “As a Black man in America, I felt like I didn’t have that many chances, so when I get this one opportunity, I got to take it and I got to make the most of it. Now how I look at life is it’s okay to fail. It’s okay to fall short or to start over. It’s not about how many times you get knocked down; what’s more important is how many times you get back up.”

Fordham Five (Plus One)

What are you most passionate about?
I’m most passionate about the next generation. Some would argue that I’m a success story, but what they fail to realize is that I could not get to where I am in life without the help of others. Because of this, I feel like it’s my duty to give back to the next generation. This is why I go out of my way to help as many people as I can.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?  
Don’t be afraid to take risk. Success in my mind is about how many times you get back up after being knocked down.

What’s your favorite place in New York City? In the world?
This is a tough question. When I was younger, I would have said the end zone after scoring a touchdown on the football field at Fordham, but now I would say the whale room at the American Museum of Natural History, [where I go]with my 2-year-old daughter, Chloe.

My favorite place in the world is back home in Baltimore with my mom and siblings, enjoying a bushel of Maryland blue crabs.

Name a book that has had a lasting influence on you.
The Daily Stoic, a book written by Ryan Holiday that provides 366 meditations on peace, wisdom, and perseverance. Each day, you’re supposed to read an excerpt from the book, which gives you a full day of insight and reflection.

Who is the Fordham grad or professor you admire most?  
The Fordham grad that I admire the most is my wife: one of the hardest workers I know. She has overcome a tremendous amount of adversity and is now a well-respected attorney.

What are you optimistic about?  
Although the political and social landscape has been rocky, I am encouraged when I see diversity in leadership at big institutions like Fordham University. I haven’t had a chance to meet Tania Tetlow yet, but I’m excited to see the first woman and first lay president to lead Fordham University since it was founded.

What was the first day on the job like? “It was really intense, and it was very, very, intimidating. Everything was my responsibility,” she said. “There was only one judge as well.”

During this and other moments in her multifaceted career, she said, she was well served by what she had learned at Fordham—not just writing and debating skills honed in her political science classes but also the habit of seeing things through a compassionate lens. “Cura personalis is not just a phrase,” she said, referring to the Jesuit ideal of caring for the whole person. “It is throughout everything at Fordham, and it shapes you.”

A philanthropic leader once described as a “rainmaker” by The Boston Globe, Luccio Jordan has given back to Fordham for 17 years as a trustee and one of the University’s most generous benefactors. A recipient of the 2012 Fordham Founder’s Award, she has been a leader in Fordham campaigns that raised funds for endowed chairs, scholarships and financial aid, and other critical needs.

Advancing Fordham Athletics

Today, she is playing a leadership role in another fundraising priority: athletics. That and scholarship giving are her focus areas as a co-chair of Cura Personalis | For Every Fordham Student, a $350 million fundraising campaign designed to enhance the entire Fordham student experience.

This is the first Fordham campaign to have athletics as a pillar. A key priority is the New Era Fund to support the basketball program, to which Luccio Jordan recently made a major gift. Last season, supported by this fund, the men’s team improved its record to 16-16 under a new head coach, Kyle Neptune, who left in April to become head men’s basketball coach at Villanova and handed off the reins to the new head coach, Keith Urgo. Next year, given the strength of the team and its staff, “there’s no reason why basketball should not put Fordham back in the spotlight, where we belong,” she said. “Some of the greatest names in sports history have been a part of Fordham’s history, and we are reclaiming our place in the sports conversation.”

Why is athletics being elevated in the University’s fundraising now, at this moment?
Athletics has long been a part of our strategic plan. Under the leadership of Father McShane [Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of the University], Fordham has experienced tremendous growth, where we completed a comprehensive campaign that resulted in the transformation of Hughes Hall into a home for the Gabelli School of Business and new residence halls being built on the Rose Hill campus. We also completed construction of the new Fordham Law School and residence hall building at the Lincoln Center campus. We raised $175 million for student financial aid and, as you know, we have embarked on a new campaign and have recently dedicated the new McShane Campus Center. We are focusing on athletics now because we can. Since Fordham University is in a very strong place, this is the natural next step.

I think Fordham, as a community, has realized what other schools have done by embracing the additive nature of athletics and that it really is integral to the student experience. It’s complementary to the academic mission and the overall development of our students as future leaders. There’s a long list of schools—Villanova, Boston College, Georgetown, Duke—that have embraced athletics, and doing so has raised the profile of those universities. It shines a light on the institution. I just am so excited for Fordham that we are finally doing the same.

You said athletics is integral to the student experience. Can you elaborate?
In addition to the almost one-third of our student body who participate in varsity sports, club sports, and intramural teams, you have the rest of the students who benefit and participate: they work in the athletic department, they are trainers or managers for teams, they work on WFUV broadcasting the games, they are fans. It enriches not just the student-athlete; it enriches the entire community. There’s a phrase we use in athletics and in fundraising, and in particular for basketball—it’s like the front porch of the institution. You need something for people to gather around, because there is this need for people to find commonality in something that’s exciting and positive.

Can you describe the New Era Fund’s uses and the response to it?
I think people have been waiting for the men’s team to excel, and we have been able to raise money for the New Era Fund in a very short period of time. These resources are used to increase financial support for the entire basketball staff. It is really a holistic fund for the athletic department and the basketball program to use—we need more trainers, we need nutritionists, we need meals, we need foreign tour trips for both the men’s and women’s basketball teams, as well as tutors and charter flights so that less class time is missed. We have to remember they’re still students. We are asking them to represent Fordham at a level that we aspire to be at, so we need to support them. They’re learning leadership skills, they’re learning discipline, focus, physical and mental stamina, that ability to work together as a team, and there’s a lot that goes into that.

I think this past season was almost like a test case for us, because it showed what you can achieve if you’re focused, if you bring the right people together. If you support the program the way it should be supported, you can get results. It raises the excitement level, having various Fordham student-athletes highlighted as Atlantic 10 Player of the Week. Fordham started to be back in that conversation again, in a New York way.

We will also look to expand our media partnerships and footprint locally and nationally. The other important area will be to upgrade the locker rooms, office space, and training facilities to stay on par with the A-10. The improvements to the Rose Hill Gym will continue to cement its place as Fordham’s “6th man.”

How does athletics fundraising benefit the rest of the University?
My involvement with my husband’s alma mater, Harvard, and sitting on financial aid committees and campaign committees with him, taught me the importance of an integrated approach to fundraising. I wanted to replicate some of the things that happened there. Jerry would say that some of the biggest donors to Harvard were people who played a sport. They might have been swimmers, they might have been baseball players, football players, but they made gifts because of their feeling of belonging, because they were part of a team and what that felt like and how that shaped them. However, they didn’t just give to athletics—they might give to refurbish a field or build a weight center or offices or a new auditorium or gym, but they were also building science labs and endowing scholarships and professorships. More broadly, athletics benefits fundraising across the University as the success of our teams inspires and excites our Fordham communities who represent the past, the present, and, with victories on the field, a robust future “Ramily.”

Looking back on your career, do you have any advice for students?
Every task you take on, do it as well as you can, because you might use that skill again. When I was a newly installed prosecutor, after working for not even six weeks in the Norfolk County District Attorney’s office, I was told they were moving me to one of our satellite courts, which covered five different towns. They said, “You’re going to run the court.” And I said, “I don’t even know if I passed the bar yet.” My supervisor said, “Don’t worry, you’re certified. We need you out there because it’s a short-staffed courthouse.”

So, I didn’t have a full-time secretary. I didn’t have a dedicated victim witness advocate for the victims and witnesses in my cases. It was just me. When I asked, “Why me?” they said, “Well, you’re the only one who knows how to do everything.” Because as an intern, I had worked the switchboard for the office, I had worked as a victim witness advocate, as an investigator for the various attorneys, and as a secretary. I had helped write briefs. I actually didn’t realize how prepared I was walking into the courthouse. You never know whether the job you’re currently doing is going to be necessary for the job you will be doing. I think that was a good lesson for me.

Also, being in a courthouse and being a prosecutor is a huge responsibility. I think it also taught me to treat people equitably, and with compassion, because you never know what someone’s going through.

Is there a book that had a lasting influence on you?
Yes, it’s a book called There Are No Children Here, and it describes the experience of a family, and particularly focuses on two of the brothers, who grew up in Chicago’s housing projects. It made such an impression on me, reading it when I was in the legal profession. In law school, when I worked for a domestic violence clinical lab, I accompanied women to court and helped them to obtain restraining orders, and domestic violence is a theme in the book. However, the bigger theme is what is happening in society, particularly to children in areas like this housing project, which was notorious for gangs and drugs and violence.

I think the most important part of the book is the idea that children, if given a chance, want to succeed and can succeed. And so for me, that lasting impression is the power of education. Keeping the playing field as level and as open as we can has been critically important to me and to my family. My husband went to Harvard on scholarship, and he says that if somebody did not pay for him to go to school, he wouldn’t be who he is. We’ve endowed scholarships at Harvard and at Fordham, because to us, keeping access is critical. Fordham is one of the most inclusive communities, and we need to ensure that everyone who wants a Fordham education can get one!

What are you optimistic about?
The direction of Fordham! I’ve been involved for 17 years, and over that time I’ve seen Fordham continue to excel and keep the focus on the student and the student experience. Fordham has risen in the rankings while staying true to the mission and cura personalis. So, Fordham’s direction gives me hope based upon everything else that’s going on in the world.

To inquire about giving in support of Fordham athletics or another area of the University, please contact Michael Boyd, senior associate vice president for development and university relations, at 212-636-6525 or [email protected]. Learn more about Cura Personalis | For Every Fordham Student, our campaign to reinvest in every aspect of the Fordham student experience.

For Luigi Fata, however, a keen focus on mentorship is not just for the new year; it’s business as usual.

“My fundamental belief is it’s always beneficial to you to help others—as much as it’s beneficial to them getting the help,” said Fata, a 1991 graduate of Fordham’s Gabelli School of Business.

He’s a firm believer in empowering people, whether he’s working as vice president of E.T. Browne Drug Company, which manufactures the Palmer’s brand of cocoa butter products, or participating in the Fordham Mentoring Program, which he said he’s done for about 10 years.

“I realized, now I have the ability to share my story with others and help them get through the process of what they want to be when they grow up,” he said. “It’s very important to find what makes people tick and what their passions are and, as a leader or a manager or a mentor, help them do more of that.”

Navigating Fordham as a First-Generation Student

Born in the Bronx to an Italian immigrant and a Yonkers native, Fata grew up just miles from Fordham’s Rose Hill campus, but he “had no real idea” or sense of the University until his older sister enrolled in an evening course.

“My mom was a high school student and my dad, being an immigrant, only went to third grade,” Fata said. “So, we never really knew what college was about until my sister went.”

Now, attending Fordham is a family affair: Fata met his wife, Maria Calicchia-Fata, FCRH ’92, at the University, and he and Maria are two-time Ram parents. Their son, Nicholas, is a junior at Fordham College at Rose Hill and their daughter, Marisa, majored in communication and culture, earning both a B.A. and M.A. after completing an accelerated master’s degree program through the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences last year.

Fata said that as soon he and his father drove onto campus to drop his sister off for class, he knew he’d apply to Fordham when the time came. He initially enrolled as a liberal arts major in hopes of becoming a teacher, but switched things up, ultimately earning a degree in business administration with a concentration in marketing and a minor in management.

Fata also played basketball at Fordham. As a standout player on his high school team, he had received athletics scholarship offers from some Division II schools, so he assumed it would be pretty easy to “walk on” to Fordham’s Division I team. He quickly learned just how wrong he was when he arrived “as a scrawny little freshman,” he said, and discovered how much “bigger, stronger, and faster” the team was.

But it wasn’t a total bust: Fata ended up captaining the junior varsity basketball team and meeting “most of my good friends to this day.” And he credits his tryout woes with teaching him new ways to approach—and ultimately solve—problems.

“Those experiences really help define you,” he said. “That’s why playing basketball was one of the best things I did at Fordham: learning how to fight for something like that is a lifelong skill. Never give up on an idea, and find your way through a problem.”

Teaching It Forward

That drive and appetite for problem-solving has served him well in his sales career, he said. Starting with his first sales job with Duracell fresh out of college—an opportunity he discovered when he attended a Fordham career fair—Fata has worked in sales and marketing for various consumer products, from batteries and razors to makeup and skin care.

“I started as a sales rep, where I’d go into the store, and I would literally do things like clean the shelves, straighten up the product on shelves, dust off the product, make it look good, and then jump in my car, go to the next store, and do the same thing,” Fata said. “It was real grunt work at the time, but it was all about learning.”

Fata’s desire to teach never left him, and in 1992 he decided to pursue an M.B.A. to be better positioned to teach as an adjunct professor down the line. He graduated from Long Island University’s satellite campus at Mercy College in Westchester County, New York, in 1996. Degree in hand, Fata has taught at a community college in Westchester “as part of my giving back, as part of me feeling like I could scratch that itch of being a teacher while being in the business world.”

In that vein, Fata got involved in the Fordham Mentoring Program. “It’s partially teaching” and “partially helping people understand their opportunities,” he said.

In May, he participated in the University’s First-Generation Celebration, a virtual event featuring alumni speakers and mentors familiar with the challenges associated with being the first in your family to attend college.

His participation in that celebration and his service as a mentor have created a “virtuous circle” of sorts. At the kickoff event for the 2021–2022 Fordham Mentoring Program, Fata shared a story about one of his mentees, Marie Lynch, FCRH ’18, and his daughter. When Marisa was a first-year student at Fordham, Lynch helped her secure an internship in the athletics department. Now Lynch is officially a mentor herself, having joined the Fordham Mentoring Program last fall.

“As Fordham alumni, we always will put out a hand,” Fata said. “It’s a question of whether you choose, as a Fordham student, to take that hand and run with it. At some point [after you graduate, you reach your hand out, too], like Marie did. She reached her hand out to my daughter, and it came full circle.”

Fordham Five (Plus One)

What are you most passionate about? People!

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received? Be uniquely, genuinely, honestly you!

What’s your favorite place in New York City? Grand Central Station. In the world? Fontana di Trevi in Rome.

Name a book that has had a lasting influence on you? The Catcher in the Rye

Who is the Fordham grad or professor you admire most? My wife—teacher and best mom ever!

What are you optimistic about? Life in general.

From tennis star Naomi Osaka’s willingness to say “it’s OK to not be OK” to the panic attack-prone title character of the T.V. show Ted Lasso, mental health in sports seems to be having its moment. But the professionalization of wellness in sports is still evolving and involves far more than having a psychologist on staff.  It’s about coordinating every aspect of a student-athlete’s well-being, psychologically, physically, emotionally and spiritually, said Djenane Paul.

In September, Paul was promoted to become Fordham’s Deputy Athletic Director for Student-Athlete Welfare and Competitive Excellence. She’s been working since 2016 to bring together the many parts of student-athlete wellness, including nutrition, sports medicine, strength and conditioning, and behavioral health. Her efforts have created an infrastructure on which a full-fledged student-athlete mental health program at Fordham could grow.

Centering Wellness on Cura Personalis

“Part of the goal was to normalize mental health and to build [the program]from a place where student-athlete wellness is rooted in cura personalis,” said Paul. “If we believe that we need to care for the whole unique individual, then we needed it to be consistent with every aspect of a student-athlete’s education, including athletics.”

According to an August 2021 statement on mental health challenges for athletes from the American College of Sports Medicine, approximately 30% of women and 25% of men who are student-athletes report having anxiety, and only 10% of all college athletes with known mental health conditions seek care from a mental health professional. Fortunately, Fordham Athletics had been building its wellness program well before the pandemic exacerbated the issue, said Paul.

Fordham Athletic Director Ed Kull said many aspects of health—including mental health, wellness, and nutrition—are top priorities for Fordham athletics under the University’s $350 million fundraising campaign, Cura Personalis | For Every Fordham Student, which seeks to reinvest in all aspects of the student experience. Other priorities include support for students’ academic efforts and personal, leadership, and career development.

“Our Rams are high-achieving individuals and we are continually identifying new ways to care for their whole person–both in and out of competition,” Kull said.

Paul initially sought guidance from Counseling and Psychological Services Director Jeffrey Ng, Psy. D.; sports performance psychologist Jonathan Fader, Ph.D., and his firm SportStrata; and the students themselves, like Sydney Canessa, GABELLI ’17. Canessa was a senior playing softball when she helped Paul design, distribute, and analyze data from a survey for the then-nascent athlete mental health program.

The anonymous survey asked student-athletes if they or their teammates have ever struggled with mental health, whether they would consider seeing a sports psychologist, and whether they wanted the department to have a therapist on staff. Paul said that she was not surprised to learn that student-athletes were not only open to discussing mental health, but they were also open to seeing a mental health professional. The survey spurred Canessa to work with teammates and Paul to form T.E.A.M. Fordham (Together Everyone Achieves More), which seeks to help student-athletes mentally prepare for their post-athletic careers.

“I personally saw teammates struggle and I thought it would make a huge difference if all athletes could help each other,” said Canessa, adding that her peers didn’t view seeing a therapist as a weakness.

Canessa said that for most student-athletes, graduation often means breaking away from a life-long passion which is the very reason that T.E.A.M Fordham was created—to ensure that student-athletes were prepared for their life after Fordham.

“The majority of us would not become professional athletes once we graduated, so we wanted to make sure that once college was over we didn’t have an identity crisis,” said Canessa.

In 2020, as one athletic season after another was canceled due to the pandemic and discussions around social unrest continued, student-athletes once again pulled together with Paul and Associate Athletic Director for Compliance and Student-Athlete Development Jamilah Ali-Shaffer. With their advisers, along with the Fordham Athletics Social Justice Task Force, they formed a student-athlete-led group called Fordham Connect. Its mission is to create a safe space where student-athletes can engage in open conversations about issues affecting them and foster a healthier environment within Fordham Athletics.  While T.E.A.M. Fordham honed its focus on helping student-athletes prepare for a post-academic life and developing the whole person, the Fordham Connect aims to erase the stigma around vulnerability and mental health in sports.

Kickstarting a Wellness Program with NCAA Support

But back in 2017, Paul was still just getting the ball rolling. She took the survey findings to then-Athletic Director David Roach, who backed her plan to further explore formalizing a mental health and wellness program. It’s a position Kull continues to prioritize and support.

At the time Roach was athletic director, the NCAA distributed a one-time grant to assist college athletic departments in promoting health and well-being. The monies were allocated toward mental health and sports psychology, allowing the athletic department to retain SportsStrata as consultants for six years. The funding is now in its fifth year.

Fortuitously, Paul was then approached by Lauren Shute, GSS ’20. Shute, a former student-athlete and sports journalist, was getting her Master of Social Work degree at Fordham. She was interested in the intersection of sports wellness and social work, a field that’s still developing. She asked Paul if she could do her required field placement at Fordham Athletics to help design a program that includes a social worker.

Shute said social workers are trained at helping clients navigate the many existing services already available to them.

“With college athletics, you’re communicating with a lot of systems: a strength and conditioning coach, a dietitian, an academic coach, psychological services, professors,” she said.

She added that coordinating care also must factor in a student-athlete’s background and home life alongside the “macro level factors,” something that social workers are trained to do.

One way to introduce student-athletes to various services, Shute said, is to bring all the players and support staff together to discuss a particular topic, such as body image. Shute and Paul did just that in 2019.

“We facilitated the discussion and teammates did open up,” she said.

It was the first of many discussions organized with coaches, team members, a nurse practitioner from Health Services, the institution’s dietitian, and a psychologist from Counseling and Psychological Services. Other topics included were anxiety, depression, family discord, and transitioning out of sport.

Program Continuity is Key

With every new partnership that Paul fosters, she makes sure that it’s not a one-shot deal. She accepted Shute as an intern provided the GSS partnership continued after she graduated. This year another GSS student was assigned a field placement in Athletics, the second since Shute’s placement. By the end of Shute’s tenure the discussion groups succeeded in getting the word out that a social worker was on hand to help. Coaches and teammates now regularly refer athletes to them.

“My experience was fantastic and what was interesting to me is that a lot of the kids at Fordham are not looking for a career in sports; they’re really there to get an education, they were so trusting and so open and willing to talk about different issues and that’s why the program works so well,” said Shute

In addition to the GSS field placements, Paul helped foster other new partnerships that will continue into the foreseeable future, including partnerships with Boston University, which has sent several sports psychologist interns to Fordham and the consulting partnership with SportStrata has grown to include a contracted mental performance coach who is a licensed mental health counselor.

Coaches at the Center

Paul said aspects of her new role aren’t really all that new. Rather it’s a formalization of support structure that already existed organically.

“We wanted to make sure there was a reporting structure for the coaches and that they were aware of all of the mental health resources available to their student-athletes,” she said. “We then make sure that psychological services, health services, and sports medicine get involved, but the first line of defense will always be the coaches.”

An impromptu interview with a member of the football team on the Rose Hill Gymnasium steps confirmed as much. Fordham College at Rose Hill junior Jeff Ciccio plays tight end on the football team. He said that if he has an issue, he has no problem going to Head Coach Joe Conlin because the coach talks about mental health in team meetings.

“He is very strong with that and likes to talk about it in team meetings and lets us know that he’s always there for us,” said Ciccio. “And another one of my coaches helps me a lot, he likes to check in on me because I’ve gone through some stuff early in my life and he went through something very similar to what I went through.”

Student-athletes usually exhibit the same mental health concerns as the general student population, from relationship concerns to family issues and academic struggles, Melissa Gluck, Ph.D., the therapist dedicated to helping student-athletes from Counseling and Psychological Services.

“The most important thing to remember when serving the athletic community is that these student-athletes are people first and you have to treat the person before the ‘athlete,’” said Gluck. “It’s really easy to think that because they are athletes their problems will be vastly different than other students but that is just not the case.”

However, one key difference is that student-athletes are working two full-time jobs as Fordham students and as athletes, she said. She added that in treatment it’s important to consider team dynamics and what their coaches expect from them.

Fordham coaches believe that having strong mental health is part of the strategy for success, said Paul.

For his part, Ciccio credits Coach Conlin as “the best coach around to keep us mentally strong.”

“We’re only as strong as our weakest link. We got to make sure that everyone is as mentally strong as each other, because not everyone is going to be as physically strong as the next guy in the weight room, so it all comes down to mental. And I think here at Fordham we are very strong mentally.”

To inquire about supporting athletics or another area of the University, please contact Michael Boyd, senior associate vice president for development and university relations, at 212-636-6525 or [email protected]. Learn more about Cura Personalis | For Every Fordham Student, our campaign to reinvest in every aspect of the Fordham student experience.

For more information on giving in support of Fordham athletics, contact Kara Field at [email protected]. Learn more about Cura Personalis | For Every Fordham Student, a $350 million fundraising campaign to reinvest in all  aspect of the Fordham experience.  

They’re backed by new energy among fans, a network of enthusiastic student supporters—and a new pool of alumni gifts that athletics director Ed Kull likens to startup funding.

Indeed, the name of the fund—the New Era Fund—reflects the hope that men’s basketball can begin anew after past struggles and that the women’s team can continue its past success.

“Our overall goal right now is to build something from the ground up, something that people are proud of, and want to invest in, because they think it’s special,” Neptune said.

The new fundraising effort is fueled by a belief in the potential of men’s and women’s basketball to advance the University generally—and a hunger for a new winning culture in the men’s program, which has had just two winning seasons since joining the Atlantic 10 in 1995.

For Every Fordham Student-Athlete

As part of its current fundraising campaign, Cura Personalis | For Every Fordham Student, the University is seeking new investments in all sports programs, including men’s and women’s basketball, to enhance the student experience in multiple ways: by supporting student-athletes’ overall development; by stirring new Fordham pride on campus; and by bringing new renown to the University.

Other universities “have really used athletics and maximized them … to elevate the profile of the university,” said Darlene Luccio Jordan, FCRH ’89, a Fordham trustee, co-chair of the campaign, and leader in athletics fundraising. “Strong athletics goes hand in hand with [the]student experience, so it fits perfectly into this campaign and the large themes of the campaign.”

She also noted the potential for athletics to draw interest from donors who start by supporting athletics but go on to invest in other areas, including endowed professorships and financial aid.

Don Almeida, GABELLI ’73, another University trustee and a Cura Personalis campaign cabinet member, said a strong basketball program can draw in lots of new non-alumni donors who are excited about athletics. It can also signal excellence at the University more generally, and showcase Fordham not only nationally but also globally, in part by leveraging the University’s New York location, he said.

“It’s not [just]about basketball. Basketball is the enabler,” he said. “It’s the method by which Fordham can leverage all its good attributes with a national and international profile and with donors, alumni, students, parents, and others.”

“If you have a national profile, you’re on national TV, you’re in the national press, and everybody gets to know real quickly what Fordham is,” he said.

And new investment in the team is essential, Neptune said. “We’re going against a really, really good league,” in which multiple schools are spending two to four times as much on their teams, he said.

The New Era Fund has drawn more than $3 million in giving to date. It offers support for the men’s and women’s programs in hiring and retaining a talented coaching staff, Kull said, in addition to other things such as marketing, production equipment for recording games, and software to help players analyze the performance of teams they’re about to play against.

It could also fund facilities renovations or charter flights that minimize the disruption of student-athletes’ academic schedules by providing faster, more convenient travel to and from games, he said.

The Herd

Meanwhile, Fordham athletics is also working with a student group dubbed the Herd (formerly Fordham Fanatics) to build new enthusiasm for basketball and all other sports teams at the University.

The basketball season began with a Nov. 4 “Late Night on the Hill” celebration at the historic Rose Hill Gym; rap star A$AP Ferg performed for a crowd of 2,700 students, with student-athletes in attendance. And the Herd’s five student organizers are corralling students via social media and other means to fill the stands for all Fordham sports—from basketball and football to water polo, swimming and diving, softball, and everything in between—and restore the athletics energy that was muted last year because of pandemic lockdowns.

“Already this year there’s been a huge culture change in the fan base,” said one member of the Herd, Dillane Wehbe, a swim team member and a senior at the Gabelli School of Business. “That’s what we’re really going for, just to make the whole experience better—for students to … have fun at the games, for athletes to really feel like they’re being supported by their school.

“It’s a whole new crowd at the games, a whole new energy,” he said.

Another Herd member, women’s basketball team member Kaitlyn Downey, also a senior at Gabelli, is happy to be playing in front of others again after a year of games in “quiet, quiet gym,” with only a recording of applause. “You never really appreciated it, having fans in the stands, until you realize what it’s like when there’s none there,” she said.

Both the women’s and men’s basketball teams are off to encouraging starts, with the men having won seven of their first 12 games and the women surging to 8-3 on a four-game win streak. The Herd members are trying to fill the Rose Hill Gym for home games for both men’s and women’s basketball to fire up the players and fuel their success, said another member of the team, Thomas Aiello, a junior at Fordham College at Rose Hill.

“Just trying to get that feeling back is so imperative to … everything that we’re trying to do,” he said. “When the Rose Hill Gym is full, there’s nothing like it at all.”

To ask about contributing to the New Era Fund, contact Kara Field, director of athletic development and assistant athletic director, at 212-636-8896 or [email protected].

Learn more about Cura Personalis | For Every Fordham Student and make a gift.

If you have a question about giving to Fordham, call 212-636-6550 or send an email to [email protected].