Photos by Taylor Ha

Thirty-three cadets officially began their military leadership careers on May 17 at Fordham’s Rose Hill campus. At the 94th commissioning ceremony for Fordham’s Army and Navy ROTC program, speakers praised this year’s cadets for all they had accomplished so far while also describing what’s required of those who lead America’s soldiers and sailors.

For one thing, the guest speaker said, there are no days off.

“You are leaders 24/7, 365,” said Lt. Gen. Maria Barrett, commanding general of the U.S. Army Cyber Command, at the ceremony held at the University Church. “Lead by example. … You should hold yourself to a higher standard, because trust me, soldiers notice everything their leaders do.”

She conferred several other lessons gleaned from her 36-year career: Get to know your troops. Listen to noncommissioned officers; they’ll tell you what you need to hear. When you inevitably make a mistake, “get over it, fast,” and learn from it. Enjoy yourselves, as hard as it may be sometimes, and serve with passion and zest. Set high standards, communicate them clearly, and hold your service members accountable.

“At the end of the day, soldiers want to be part of a winning team, and they want a leader they trust and respect,” Barrett said.

Love-Driven Leadership

She then administered the oath of office to the cadets, who came from several New York-area universities including Fordham, which was to hold its University-wide commencement the next day. Most cadets were bound for the Army, the Army Reserve, and Army National Guard. One was commissioned in the Navy and one in the Marine Corps. One cadet, Miguel Angel-Sandoval, was an Army enlistee who would take part in a Yellow Ribbon ceremony honoring Fordham’s student veterans later that day.

Lt. Col. Paul Tanghe, Ph.D., professor of military science and the officer in charge of the Army ROTC program, noted the diversity of the cadets: they comprised 24 ethnicities and hailed from 11 states as well as countries as far away as South Korea and Senegal. And 40% were multilingual, speaking a total of 13 languages, Tanghe said in his remarks.

He lauded the cadets for demonstrating the love-driven leadership exhorted by two of their recent class dinner speakers, not to mention St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order, and legendary football coach Vince Lombardi, FCRH ’37.

“Love-driven leadership is how great officers lead, it’s how the Jesuits educate, it’s why ROTC has the home and the partnership that we have here at Fordham,” Tanghe said.

Cadets received various awards and honors, including the President’s Saber, presented to Brian T. Inguanti, a member of Fordham College at Rose Hill’s Class of 2024 who was headed for the Army Corps of Engineers. The Rev. Joseph M. McShane Award for Excellence in Faculty Support to ROTC was presented to Matthew Butler, PCS ’17, senior director of military and veterans’ services at Fordham.

In her own address, Fordham’s president, Tania Tetlow, noted the essential role played by the cadets’ family members gathered in the University Church.

“You have raised, supported, challenged, inspired these extraordinary men and women graduating here today,” she said. “You have rooted them in service, you imbued them with courage, and so we are so grateful for you this morning.” 

Moglia, an award-winning football coach and transformational business executive, is just the fourth alumnus to be honored with the Fordham Founder’s Award as well as induction into Fordham’s Hall of Honor and its Athletics Hall of Fame. He is also a member of Fordham Prep’s Hall of Honor and Football Hall of Fame, and received an honorary doctorate from the University in 2009.

“Joe embodies the Fordham way,” said Tania Tetlow, Fordham’s president. “From his time as a student at the Prep, his undergrad days at Fordham University, and throughout his business and coaching career, Joe has been closely connected to Fordham and all this institution stands for. Joe has made us proud by clearly living the Fordham principles and mission. The stadium upgrades wouldn’t be possible without Joe’s continued generosity to the University. We are honored to name this stadium after him.”

Fordham will begin renovations to Moglia Stadium at Jack Coffey Field in order to make the stadium a top-tier venue for games and University events. The improved facility will feature a state-of-the-art video board, seating and press box renovations, upgraded lighting, and other improvements that help raise the profile of the University, boost recruitment, and enhance the game-day experience.

A Life of Leadership on the Field and in the Boardroom

A son of immigrants who grew up in the Dyckman Street area at the northern end of Manhattan, Moglia played football and baseball for four years at Fordham Prep before attending Fordham College at Rose Hill.

“I loved and always appreciated the education I got from Fordham,” Moglia said, citing its Jesuit approach as well as the many strong friendships he formed via the University and the Prep. “I’m proud to have been able to have a positive impact on the lives of others, and that all traces back to Fordham. A big part of whatever success I’ve achieved across two career paths is because of the education that I received there.”

When Joe began at Fordham, he was already a husband and father, and completely responsible for his education. He funded those expenses by driving a yellow taxi cab and a truck for the United States Postal Service. He also worked in his father’s fruit store, all the while carrying a full course load at Rose Hill. Due to his responsibilities, Moglia wasn’t able to be part of the Rams football team, but it was at Fordham that he began his football coaching career as an assistant at Fordham Prep.

His coaching experience and the education he received at both the Prep and the University were formative for him, leading him to formulate, at age 21, his leadership philosophy – BAM – which defines the principles of a leader: standing on one’s own two feet, taking responsibility for oneself, treating others with dignity and respect, and accepting the consequences of one’s actions.

This philosophy, he said, “dealt with everything: The idea of spiritual soundness, really knowing who you are so you can make better decisions under stress; courage, the guts to do what you really believe is right; love, the recognition that leadership is not about you, it’s about the well-being of others; and the ability to adapt and adjust when things are not going particularly well.”

This philosophy guided him in his one-of-a-kind career as a winning head college football coach and successful Wall Street executive, he said. He coached high school and college football after graduating from Fordham and went to work on Wall Street in 1984, at Merrill Lynch, and eventually became CEO and board chairman of TD Ameritrade.

When he stepped down as CEO from TD Ameritrade in 2008, shareholders had enjoyed a 500% return. Joe stayed on as chairman of the TD Ameritrade board through 2020 when the firm was acquired by Charles Schwab. When the deal was announced, the combined company was worth $100 billion and had client assets of $7 trillion; when Moglia first arrived, these numbers were $700 million and $24 billion.

After stepping down as CEO of TD Ameritrade, Moglia decided to go back to football as a Division I head coach. In 2012, Moglia was named head football coach at Coastal Carolina University. In his last 11 years as a college football coach, Joe was part of eight championship teams and received the Eddie Robinson National Coach of the Year Award and the Lombardi Award. He was also inducted into 10 Halls of Fame, including the Vince Lombardi Hall of Fame, named for the 1937 Fordham alumnus. Moglia now serves as chair of athletics and is an advisor to Coastal Carolina University President Michael T. Benson.

Moglia Stadium

Moglia Stadium is part of a complex at the Bronx campus that includes Jack Coffey Field—the playing field for football and soccer—as well as Houlihan Park, the University’s baseball venue. The renovations will be a “game changer” because of the importance of the stadium as “a central theater of school spirit and school pride—internally on campus, externally in New York City and the tri-state area, and also for our alumni base,” said Fordham’s director of athletics, Ed Kull. The benefits of the stadium upgrades will extend not only to football and other sports but also to Fordham Prep, which uses University facilities as part of athletics collaborations, Kull said.

The stadium improvements also include new connections with a video control room in the Lombardi Center that, when completed, will be used to livestream all home athletics events and provide a training ground for WFUV student announcers and other students interested in broadcasting.

A new digital scoreboard and VIP viewing box are planned, along with other seating improvements.

The project will build on other recent enhancements like new offices for the football program, also supported by University benefactors. The stadium upgrades will help Fordham achieve parity with the stadiums at competitor schools and boost recruitment, “the lifeblood of the program,” aiding the program in its goal of once again reaching the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) playoffs every year, said Joe Conlin, head football coach.

Kull said the football program tries—successfully—to recruit student-athletes who can be academic achievers at Fordham. Conlin also noted the team’s many community service efforts, such as visiting children in elementary and middle schools and working with Team IMPACT, a nonprofit that supports children living with serious illness or disability.

The revamped stadium will reflect “the class of institution that Fordham is,” Conlin said. “We should have a great game-day experience. We should have a great stadium. It’s a fantastic school and we have a fantastic fan base, and we have the best tailgate in FCS football, so the stadium should match that.”

“It’s such a unique bunch of guys from all different walks of life, and they’ve gone on to do some incredible things,” Murray said of his former teammates. “And we pride ourselves on staying connected and helping those that have not only come before us but also will come after us as well. It’s a real fraternity there, and the bond is strong.”

Mapping Out a Plan with Family Roots

Sports were a big part of Murray’s childhood in Mahwah, New Jersey, where he lived with his mother, Irish-immigrant father, and brother. His father taught him how to kick a ball before he learned to walk, he said, and he went on to play soccer and Gaelic football, as well as a bit of baseball to “assimilate into the American culture.”

Growing up, Murray said they weren’t just sports crazy in his house, they were family crazy, too. “My [mom’s parents] lived a couple of blocks away from us, and we would be on the phone back to Ireland once every week, or once every two weeks,” he said. His family still visits Ireland regularly, at least once a year (barring a hiatus when COVID-19 paused international travel). During those summer trips as a kid, Murray didn’t just catch up with family and friends; he spent a lot of time training.

“It was funny: I’d get these very interesting looks as a 13-, 14-year-old kid kicking an American football in some of the most famous [Gaelic football] stadiums in Ireland,” he said. The training paid off. Murray enrolled at Don Bosco Preparatory High School, a private, all-boys Roman Catholic school in Ramsey, New Jersey, where he played football.

“We went on to win three state championships, we were nationally ranked every year, playing on ESPN, really getting a lot of great notoriety,” Murray said. Despite his proven skill, Murray was undersized for a football player—”or so a lot of college coaches told” him—so recruitment for college football was “slow to none.” His mother, Linda, a 1986 Fordham College at Rose Hill graduate, made a natural suggestion: Why not check out Fordham? The pair visited the Rose Hill campus, Murray introduced himself to the coach, and they “made it happen,” he said.

“Made it happen” may be a bit of an understatement: Now a member of the Fordham University Athletics Hall of Fame, Murray was a consensus All-American placekicker in 2012, his senior year. He holds Fordham’s record for punting average in a season and is ranked fourth on the University’s list for career field goals made.

During the Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2019, Joe Sullivan, FCRH ’14, one of Murray’s former teammates, said the kicker “had a big leg,” but he was known for his humility and for overcoming adversity.

“Pat was always good, but he wasn’t an NFL-ready player when he got to Fordham,” Sullivan said. “In fact, during his junior year, he missed a few kicks and the coach decided to bench him … but instead of letting it get to him, he let it drive him. He finished up the rest of that year with one of the greatest punting performances in the history of Fordham football.”

Murray’s senior year, he regained the starting position and “had one of the most prolific kicking seasons in the history of college football,” Sullivan added. “His character was always his greatest attribute.”

Life in the NFL—and Beyond

Shortly after graduating from Fordham with a degree in finance in 2013, Murray got his NFL break. Though he was invited to mini-camp with the Chicago Bears, the team released him in favor of Pro Bowler Robbie Gould, who had been the team’s kicker since 2005. Murray spent the rest of the 2013 season working out “for, gosh, at least one team every week” until the very end of the year, when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers brought him back for a second tryout and signed him.

“In training camp that summer, I was perfect,” he said. “I made all my kicks and I beat out the incumbent and had a fantastic rookie year.” Unfortunately, the 2015 preseason saw Murray receiving his first of two career-shortening injuries and, after shuffling to the Cleveland Browns and back to Tampa Bay again, the kicker decided to “move on with the rest of [his]life” and start looking for jobs.

Cue 2020 and a global pandemic, though, and Murray wasn’t getting the callbacks he wanted. He “was a little downtrodden,” but he wasn’t at a loss: When he joined the National Football League, Murray had adopted a mantra—the NFL, he told himself, also stands for “not for long.” And so he vowed to continue his education. He enrolled in the online MBA program at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, taking advantage of a partnership between the school and the NFL Players Association that enables current and former NFL players to pursue a graduate business degree.

“You have access to some incredible faculty, and it’s an opportunity to have an advanced degree paid for because of what you did during your time within the NFL,” he said. “So for me, it was a no-brainer.”

Murray hasn’t completely left professional sports behind. As a client services associate in UBS’ Tampa, Florida, office, he helps to expand the firm’s footprint with athletes and entertainers.

“I believe it’s been a unique career, however, a very rewarding career that has allowed me to gain a lot of different skill sets,” he said.

Ties That Bind

Murray, who lives in Florida with his wife, Sara, and their 1-year-old daughter, Ellie, tries to make it back to Fordham as much as he can. Just this week, he was slated to participate in the 2022 Gridiron Golf Outing in Eastchester, New York, with Fordham football coach Joe Conlin, but the event has been rescheduled for May. Once the Rams football season starts on September 1, Murray plans to make the trek up to attend some games, including perhaps the Homecoming game on Saturday, September 17.

Murray said one of the reasons he comes back to campus is to serve as a resource for current student-athletes. It’s a privilege that he said was afforded to him as a student, and one he’s eager to pay forward.

“My whole life, it hasn’t just been me out there,” he said. “I’ve had help along the way—from a fantastic upbringing by my mother and father to a great training partner in my brother to all of the people that I competed against. And the foundation that was built from those early years of playing baseball or playing Gaelic football or playing soccer, culminating in running out onto the field on Sunday to represent a professional sports organization, I never did it alone.”

And he doesn’t expect Fordham’s up-and-coming athletes to do it alone, either. That’s why, he said, he wants to be there for them. He said players can ask Ed Kull, Fordham’s director of intercollegiate athletics, or any of their coaches for his phone number, and he’ll answer.

Murray added that his open-door policy isn’t just for questions about football or business, it extends to all of life, including mental health issues, which he feels need more attention.

“It’s a topic that needs to be discussed more—not only among men. … Pretty much everybody has something that they’re battling,” he said. “Call me up. We’ll have a chat,” he said he tells student-athletes. “I think if there were more open-door policies, we could help out a lot of people.”

Fordham Five (Plus One)

What are you most passionate about?
This one is easy. Family. My family means everything to me. They are the reason I strive to be at least 1% better each and every day. My amazing wife and my beautiful daughter have given me so much in life, and I truly cannot imagine my world without them. I am so lucky to be a girl dad!

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
It’s not happening to you; it’s happening for you. I have had trials and tribulations, just as anyone else has, and the most important lesson I have learned is that feeling bad for yourself does not usually solve the problem. I have learned to take these times of struggle and turn them into learning opportunities, and that has made a huge difference in my life.

What’s your favorite place in New York City? In the world?
Wow, this is a tough one! In New York City, it would have to be the Bethesda Fountain, which is where I asked my wife to marry me, or the Long Hall pub in midtown. The Long Hall has the best pint of Guinness outside of Ireland, and it is one of my first stops every time I come back!

In the world, it is Ireland. Being Irish is a massive part of who I am. I would not have accomplished the things I have without the Irish influence in my life. From playing Gaelic football as a kid in the Bronx to kicking points in the NFL, Ireland’s culture and history have truly left their mark on me.

Name a book that has had a lasting influence on you.
I have two: What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School by Mark McCormack is an easy read and filled with incredible knowledge from one of the most successful entrepreneurs of all time. And The Choice by Philly McMahon. This book is written by a Gaelic footballer who was born on the “wrong side of the tracks,” shall we say. Through his own heartache of watching his brother suffer with addiction, he learned valuable life lessons that shaped him into one of the best athletes of his time and a budding fitness entrepreneur.

Who is the Fordham grad or professor you admire most?
This may be cliché, but it has to be Vince Lombardi. If you have not had the chance to read When Pride Still Mattered [David Maraniss’ biography of the 1937 Fordham graduate], I highly recommend picking it up. His life, his time at Fordham, his time at West Point, and in the NFL are all incredibly unique and show why he is regarded as one of the best coaches in football history.

What are you optimistic about?
I try to approach each day with a sense of optimism knowing that my actions can cause happiness in others’ lives. I strive to do the right thing and treat people how I would want to be treated and, in turn, I hope I can provide some sense of optimism and happiness to those around me.

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.”

From Oct. 1 to 4, hundreds of alumni, family, and friends—from as far as Germany—tuned in for an expanded series of virtual events that drew on some of the best-loved Homecoming traditions, like the 5K Ram Run and tailgate parties, and included a “pub” trivia competition, updates on academic and student life amid COVID-19, and a tribute to the 50th anniversary of a Fordham football milestone.

In addition to joining panels and discussions sponsored by the Office of Alumni Relations, Fordham graduates took to social media, where thousands viewed Homecoming Instagram stories and tweets shared via the @fordhamalumni accounts, and others used the #FordhamHomecoming20 hashtag to post their own messages, including pictures of pets and kids decked out in Fordham gear.

A Forum for FCLC

Things kicked off on Thursday evening with a panel discussion featuring two relative newcomers to the Fordham College at Lincoln Center community: Laura Auricchio, Ph.D., who became dean of the college in August 2019, and Tracyann Williams, Ph.D., who joined FCLC as assistant dean for student support and success last February.

Fordham University Alumni Association Advisory Board member Samara Finn Holland, FCLC ’03, moderated the discussion, during which the deans shared their observations about FCLC students.

“They are an amazing bunch of people,” Auricchio said. “These are students who are not only intelligent and motivated, but they’re really just decent, kind, wonderful human beings.” She recalled several instances of students greeting her when they saw her around the city.

Auricchio noted that political science, economics, and psychology are the three most popular majors among current FCLC students, and the fashion studies minor is growing particularly quickly. She said her office is focused on four areas: connecting to neighbors, enriching courses, enhancing research, and globalizing the curriculum.

Both she and Williams addressed the unique challenges faculty and students face during the pandemic, and Williams noted that part of her job is to help students acknowledge their feelings of disappointment that it’s not a typical academic year, and doing what she can to assist them.

“I am very much interested in always asking students what their needs are and not deciding for them,” she said.

Having worked at other New York City universities before arriving at FCLC, both Auricchio and Williams shared what they think makes Fordham so special.

“I feel as though it’s a unique place where students can come be part of a deeply caring, close-knit community that will support them and help them as they branch out into the city,” Auricchio said. “And to me, it’s just the best of both worlds.”

Pub Trivia at Home

Alumnus Tim Tubridy, FCRH ’99, and his brother, James Tubridy, co-owners of DJs @ Work, hosted a virtual pub trivia session on Friday night. Attendees were invited to answer 10 Fordham-themed questions, either individually or as teams.

The first question of the night delved into a bit of the University’s architectural history: “For what church were the stained-glass windows in the University church intended?” Father McShane delivered both the question and answer (St. Patrick’s Cathedral, when it was located on Mulberry Street), joking that he’d been imagining Jeopardy! theme music playing as he gave contestants time to respond.

Other fun facts unearthed during the Q&A included how many books are housed in the Fordham libraries (more than 2 million), how many acres the Lincoln Center and Rose Hill campuses encompass (8 and 85, respectively), and how many live ram mascots have lived on campus (28).

At the end of the hour-long session, three teams were tied for first place with a whopping 20,000 points each.

A Virtual 5K Ram Run

While the 5K Ram Run is usually held at Rose Hill during Homecoming weekend, this year, alumni were invited to run, jog, or walk a five-kilometer trek of their own and to share photos on social media. Runners were also encouraged to share their finishing times by taking screenshots of their running apps, and the Office of Alumni Relations will be sending prizes to those who submitted their times.

Justin LaCoursiere, FCRH ’12, posted a photo from Central Park and said, “Fordham Homecoming looks a little different this year, but I’m still taking part in some fun [virtual]activities, like the Annual 5K Ram Run.”

Academic and Student Life Amid the Pandemic

On Saturday morning, a panel of Fordham administrators and faculty discussed the continued uncertainty of COVID-19, its impact on current and prospective Fordham students, and how they’re working to build and strengthen a sense of community under the circumstances. The conversation was moderated by Michael Griffin, associate vice president for alumni relations.

J. Patrick Hornbeck, professor of theology, secretary of the Faculty Senate, and special faculty advisor to the provost for strategic planning, said that soon after Fordham canceled in-person classes and shifted to a virtual format this past March, faculty began planning to avoid such abrupt disruptions for the fall semester. That’s how Fordham developed its flexible hybrid model, which mixes online and in-person learning.

“We would provide opportunities for students to learn and for faculty to teach in several different modalities,” he said. “The idea was, we did not know how things were going to go week-by-week and month-by-month. How could we deliver [a Fordham education]regardless of the way the pandemic would play out?”

During the panel, Patricia Peek, Ph.D., dean of undergraduate admission, said that some of the changes implemented this year, such as virtual guided tours and information sessions, could become permanent to help make Fordham more accessible in the long term.

“I think, even when we’re fully on the ground, we will now always have virtual events because they’re providing so many opportunities and access for students,” she said.

Clint Ramos, head of design and production for Fordham Theatre, noted that the shift “was especially challenging for theatre because our education … is really experiential and a lot of our pedagogy is founded on the ability to gather.” But he said the program has met these challenges head-on, pointing to opportunities for creativity, like a collaborative effort he initiated with theater programs at Princeton, Georgetown, SUNY Purchase, and UMass Amherst. The One Flea Spare Project allows students to virtually attend classes at other universities and collaborate with each other on projects on multiple platforms based on themes in One Flea Spare, a 1995 play by Naomi Wallace set in a plague-ravaged London during the 17th century.

Juan Carlos Matos, assistant vice president for student affairs for diversity and inclusion, spoke about creative ways in which students have tried to maintain a sense of community, whether or not they’re studying on campus. This has included hosting socially distanced outdoor events, such as a “silent disco” on the plaza at Lincoln Center or a musical performance from the Coffey Field bleachers at Rose Hill, for an online audience and a limited number of students in person.

He also said that the pandemic has sharpened students’ focus on social justice, in particular the calls for racial equality that were revitalized this summer.

“Energy that usually is exhausted on other things was nailed into Black Lives Matter in a way where folks who have privilege are just realizing, ‘Hey, these things are happening,’ whereas folks on the margins have always experienced these things.”

Matos said this has spurred action at the University, including an anti-racism plan from Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham. And he said the offices of student and multicultural affairs are continuing to offer a variety of programming to keep students engaged. One of the benefits of having virtual or hybrid events is that more students can attend.

“Sometimes it’s difficult for someone to have to choose one campus or the other or we may be offering something on one campus and not the other,” he said. “But virtually, now people can attend in any capacity.”

Shakespeare and Pop Culture

Shakespearean scholar Mary Bly, Ph.D., chair of Fordham’s English department, led a mini-class titled “Pop Romeo & Juliet” on Saturday afternoon. Attendees were encouraged to watch Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 film, Romeo + Juliet, prior to the class, during which Bly delved into the afterlife of the teen duo and their famous star-crossed love.

“Sociologists have made a pretty reasonable case for the argument that Romeo and Juliet actually changed the way we think about love in the Western world, which is very interesting,” Bly said.

Joined by English professor Shoshana Enelow, Bly discussed the idea of cultural capital, looking at how the characters of Romeo and Juliet have survived and how they’ve been transformed in modern adaptations, other films, music, and advertisements. She and Enelow drew parallels to West Side Story, the Beatles, and even a Taylor Swift music video, inviting attendees to write in impressions and examples of their own using Zoom’s Q&A feature.

An Afternoon with Athletics

Fordham sports fans attended two athletics-focused virtual events on Saturday afternoon, including a conversation between Ed Kull, interim director of athletics, and Head Football Coach Joe Conlin.

While the football season, along with those of other fall sports, has been pushed back to spring 2021, winter sports like basketball are planning to get started in late November. Kull highlighted some of the work that has been done to facilities during the pandemic, noting that not having students around for games has allowed several projects to be completed earlier than expected. Among the upgrades that players, coaches, and fans will now find are a new floor for the Frank McLaughlin Family Basketball Court in Rose Hill Gym, renovations to the strength and conditioning and team medicine spaces, and new offices for football staff.

As his team prepares to play in the spring, Conlin discussed the changes to workouts and practices they’ve had to adopt in the time of COVID-19, including health monitoring, socially distanced weight training, and wearing masks under their helmets during practice. Although he and his staff are not allowed to recruit high school players in person this year, they have been talking to recruits over Zoom and reviewing videos to assess their strength and athleticism.

“It’s been challenging at times, but it’s also been a lot of fun,” he said of this new way of doing things on and off the field. “We’ll continue to make it work for as long as we have to.”

Kull noted that out of the 44 seniors across spring sports whose final season was interrupted by cancellations last spring, 19 have decided to come back for a fifth year of eligibility.

Later that afternoon, the Tubridy brothers returned to host a virtual tailgate party that featured a welcome from Father McShane, trivia, performances by the Fordham band from the Coffey Field bleachers, and video updates from departments and groups like the Fordham University Alumni Association, the Center for Community Engaged Learning, and the Mimes and Mummers Alumni Association.

Kull and Conlin also returned for a pre-recorded video from the gravesite of Fordham graduate and NFL coaching legend Vince Lombardi, FCRH ’37, an appropriate lead-in to the tailgate’s final portion: a roundtable discussion with nine players from Fordham’s 1970 football team, which defeated Georgetown 50 years ago during that year’s homecoming game, just weeks after Lombardi’s death.

Moderated by WFUV’s Emmanuel Berbari, a Fordham College at Rose Hill senior, the players recalled the dominant ground game displayed by the Rams in their 39-17 win over the Hoyas, led by Eric Dadd’s 235 rushing yards and three touchdowns. Kevin Sherry, GABELLI ’70, who played offensive tackle, noted that Georgetown had beaten Fordham the previous year, and the Rams were looking for revenge.

Perhaps an even greater motivation for the team was the emotional pregame scene, when Lombardi’s widow, Marie, his brother Joseph, and the remaining members of Fordham’s “Seven Blocks of Granite” offensive line from Lombardi’s playing days honored the Fordham and NFL legend, who had died of colon cancer on September 3. The 1970 season also marked the return of varsity football to Fordham.

Peter “Pino” Carlesimo, FCRH ’71, the team’s starting quarterback, was among the panelists. “I think the importance of the game can be summed up very easily when I when I looked at that film and I saw my uncle Pete [Carlesimo, FCRH ’40, Fordham’s athletic director at the time] escorting Mrs. Lombardi off the field and tears coming down her eyes,” he said. “It was probably the biggest game I played in my career.”

Closing with Centeredness and Prayer

On Sunday morning, Carol Gibney, associate director of campus ministry for spiritual and pastoral ministries and director of spiritual life, leadership, and service, led a session focusing on “integrating Ignatian spirituality with the practice of yoga.” During the 45-minute practice, Gibney used breathwork to break down the word “grace,” infusing the ideas of gratitude, reflection, affirmation, centeredness, and enthusiasm and excitement into the yoga flow.

The virtual—but still communal—Homecoming weekend came to a close with a livestream of Mass from University Church, concelebrated by Father McShane and Damian O’Connell, S.J., alumni chaplain.

—Additional reporting by Kelly Kultys and Sierra McCleary-Harris

On Jan. 18, the 42-year-old Fordham Law grad was voted NFL Executive of the Year by the Pro Football Writers Association.

Roseman has avoided the spotlight since then, calling the award a credit to the entire Eagles organization. But in recent weeks, journalists and fans alike have been singing his praises, referring to him as a “genius” and a “magician,” and crediting him for a series of shrewd, often bold roster moves that have paid off in a big way this year.

The Eagles overcame back-to-back losing seasons and some potentially devastating player injuries to soar to a 13-3 regular-season record and advance to the Super Bowl, thanks in large part to the depth of young and veteran talent Roseman brought together.

“Every one of his free-agent or traded-for acquisitions were successes,” Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Jeff McLane wrote on Jan. 21, after the Eagles beat the Minnesota Vikings, 38-7, to win the NFC championship.

Now the resilient Eagles are set to face the New England Patriots, winners of two of the past three Super Bowls. Philly will be underdogs on Feb. 4, just as they were in their first two playoff games this year. But that’s a role the team and its fans seem to relish. And it’s one that’s long been familiar to Roseman, who overcame long odds just to land a job in the NFL.

Here are five things to know about Howie Roseman before the big game:

1. He’s living his childhood dream.

Roseman was born in Brooklyn but grew up in suburban New Jersey, where he rooted for the New York Jets and dreamed of a career in an NFL team’s front office. He once said that when he was 9 or 10 years old, “people would ask what I was going to do. I’d say, I’m going to be general manager of a National Football League team. They used to laugh.”

2. His persistence is legendary.

In a 2014 interview with Bleacher Report, Roseman estimated that between his senior year of high school and his third year of law school, he wrote more than 1,000 letters to NFL teams (one letter to each team, several times a year) in hopes of landing a job.

He received rejection letters that could be “stacked as high as the ceiling in any room in your house,” he said, and he admitted that he “really didn’t have a backup plan, which, looking back on it really wasn’t so smart.”

3. A Fordham Law degree helped him get his foot in the door.

Roseman received a glimmer of hope during his senior year at the University of Florida. Mike Tannenbaum, who worked in the New York Jets player personnel department at the time, agreed to give Roseman some advice by phone. No team would hire him as a scout, Tannenbaum reportedly said, because Roseman had no football experience. But if he were to earn a law degree, he might be able to sell himself as a salary-cap expert.

So Roseman enrolled at Fordham Law School. Shortly after earning a J.D. in May 2000, he landed his first NFL position: an unpaid summer internship with the Eagles. And he hasn’t forgotten his alma mater. In spring 2011, he returned to Fordham to deliver the keynote address at the annual Fordham Sports Law Symposium.

4. He rose from intern to general manager in just 10 years.

Roseman initially shared a desk with an administrative assistant in the Eagles’ front office, but before long, he was hired full time as staff counsel and began a rapid, steady climb through the corporate ranks—to director of football administration in 2003, vice president of player personnel in 2008, and general manager in 2010. By then, he was 34 years old, the youngest GM in the league at the time. He’s been in his current position as head of football operations since 2015.

5. He’s the latest exemplar of Fordham’s Super Bowl connections.

Fordham’s ties to the big game date back to the very first one. On Jan. 15, 1967, Fordham grad Vince Lombardi, FCRH ’37, led the Green Bay Packers to victory in what later became known as Super Bowl I. He repeated the feat the following year. After his untimely death in September 1970, the NFL named its championship trophy in his honor.

One of Lombardi’s Fordham classmates, Wellington Mara, FCRH ’37, also had a share in two Super Bowl victories. As longtime co-owner of the New York Giants, he steered the team to the top in 1987 and 1991.

More recently, Wellington’s son John Mara—a 1979 Fordham Law grad and the Giants’ current president, CEO, and co-owner—has hoisted the Lombardi Trophy twice, in 2008 and 2012. In both games, the odds were against his team, and in both games, the Giants defeated the New England Patriots.

No doubt Roseman will be looking to extend that Fordham underdog tradition on Super Bowl Sunday.

Update (Feb. 5): The Eagles defeated the Patriots, 41-33, to win the Super Bowl 52. After the game, Roseman told NBC Sports Philadelphia, “It’s hard to win a world championship. Everything has to go right. And not everything went right for us. … [But] we’re world champions forever. This group is a special group.” 

John’s wife Maureen and daughters were joined by his broadcast partner for many years, Marv Albert, in accepting the award, which pays homage to the illustrious Fordham player and coach who later went on to a distinguished career in the National Basketball Association (NBA).  It was noted that Andariese was coached by Bach (1956-60), the winningest coach in Rams’ history, who also played hoops at Fordham (1943-47), and was coached by the football icon Vince Lombardi, the freshman basketball coach at the time.

“He and Johnny Bach are up there, amazed,” said Maureen Andariese. “They were like bookends, the two nicest, most handsome men I’ve ever been around.

“Everything about him was ‘you’re going to win it,’” she continued in her emotional remarks. “His attitude was never give up. Fight, fight, fight. I hope this night brings the Fordham teams significant success.”

Adam Silver, the NBA commissioner and a close friend of Andariese, reflected on Andariese’s career and offered personal anecdotes. He remembered that Andariese would delight in the simplicity of a great BLT sandwich – “the bacon Adam, the bacon” – and recalled the nattily-dressed broadcaster’s love for fine clothing: “He was Johnny Hoops, but we called him ‘Johnny Suits,’” laughed Silver. “’Feel this (fabric) Adam.’ If he liked a BLT sandwich, you can imagine how he felt about fabric.”

Albert cited the qualities that made “Johnny Hoops” so superb at his chosen craft: “his passion for the game, his ability to break it down, and his sense of humor,” and recalled that his friend would always chuckle when Albert referred to him on the air as the “53^rd all-time leading rebounder in Fordham basketball history.”

“Somewhere Johnny Hoops and his one-time coach are taking this all in,” wrapped up Albert.

Andariese starred at Fordham under Bach’s tutelage from 1956 to 1960, appearing in two National Invitational Tournaments as an All-City player, and serving as team captain in his senior season at Rose Hill. The two remained close friends for six decades.

John Cirillo, FCRH ’78, contributed to this report.

It would take more than a century for the Rams to score a win against the Black Knights.

Up until World War I, most East coast colleges played on a small scale. This so-called “infant era” brought Fordham together with Princeton, Columbia, NYU, Navy, and, of course, Army. It wasn’t until after the war that the Rams developed their legendary status. In 1936, sportswriter Grantland “Granny” Rice referred to Fordham’s front line as the Fordham Wall, which shortly thereafter evolved into the Seven Blocks of Granite with the legendary Vince Lombardi, FCRH ’37, anchoring the famous offensive line.

Lombardi—From Campus to Post

After a brief stint as a student at Fordham Law, Lombardi worked as a high school teacher and football coach in New Jersey before returning to Rose Hill as the team’s assistant coach in 1947. West Point scooped him up the following year, thus setting the stage for a contentious Fordham-Army matchup.Before he left for West Point, however, Lombardi recruited Andy Lukac, FCRH ’51, for the Rams. Lukac rose to team captain and played the last game, in 1949, between the two teams before before Fordham discontinued its football program following the 1954 season (a hiatus that would last until 1964).

That 1949 game wasn’t pretty. It was cold and rainy, and the field was pure mud. The Black Knights shut out the Rams, 45-0, at West Point before a capacity crowd of 27,000 in Michie Stadium.

“They were tops in the country and we were just coming up out of the doldrums, but we were undefeated at the time,” said Lukac. “Lombardi was up there, and he knew all our weaknesses. Army did us in, but it was a day to remember, you can put it that way.”

Lukac said that he’s convinced that there were more penalties called in that Fordham-Army game than in any other game “in the history of football!”

“They’d hit us and we’d hit them back,” he said. “We had a lot of noses broken on that day, it was like a boxing match. At the end of the game everyone is OK, but during the game it’s another story.”

And 62 Years Later …

Lukac said the postgame civility among players made perfect sense for two institutions that prized good sportsmanship. It’s a tradition that Jack Keane, GABELLI ’66, a retired four-star general, witnessed firsthand when Fordham and West Point finally met again 62 years later, in 2011, amid a freak October snowstorm that dropped six inches on the field. As with the game six decades before, it wasn’t pretty. Fordham lost, 55-0.

By game’s end, the frigid stands were nearly empty. But a West Point tradition dictates that the home team appear before the corps of cadets and sing their alma mater, said Keane.

“When the West Point guys went over to the cadets, the Fordham guys saw what was happening and went over with them,” said Keane. “The superintendent, General Dave Huntoon, was standing next to me. He looked at me and said, ‘Wow, that’s something. You guys really understand. You get it.’ I said, ‘Yep. Yeah, we get it.’”

Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, has said on many occasions that Fordham and West Point share a common purpose. Keane agrees.

“Both institutions have a strong moral foundation,” said Keane. “It’s very sincere and very genuine.”

Sometimes a Win, Always a Ram

Despite having served nearly 40 years in the Army, Keane said he still identifies as a Ram. He reveled when, in 2015, more than a century after their first game, Fordham finally beat West Point, 37-35.

At the time, 84-year-old Lukac was also watching the game near the end zone.

“It was a moment of everything coming together,” he said. “We were just so happy, that the rest of the season didn’t seem that important really.”

Now 86 and a little less mobile, Lukac said he still plans to be in the stands on Sept. 1.

Moises Mura, a Fordham ROTC cadet who served 11 years in the Army as staff sergeant and is now a junior in the School of Professional and Continuing Studies, will also be there. Like Keane, Mura said his years in the Army haven’t diluted his loyalty to the Rams.

“I never called a university home, so I’m excited to do that,” he said. “I’m a student at Fordham and I intend to be a Fordham alumnus, so I’ll definitely be rooting for Fordham.”

 

The 36-minute film, which was shown on the video board at Yankee Stadium prior to the Rams’ 54–14 victory over Holy Cross last November, has recently been released on DVD by Fordham athletics.

Ross Greenburg, the founder of Ross Greenburg Productions, served as the film’s executive producer. A former president of HBO Sports, he has more than 50 Emmys to his credit, including one for Lombardi, his 2010 documentary on Fordham alumnus and football icon Vince Lombardi, FCRH ’37.

Not surprisingly, the story of Lombardi and his fellow linemen on the 1936 Rams—the Seven Blocks of Granite—is at the heart of Fordham Football: A Walk Through History.

“That was one of the most legendary teams in college football history,” said Christian Goewey, a Fordham senior and WFUV sports reporter who co-produced the film, with Benjamin Warhit, while interning at Ross Greenburg Productions last year.

Goewey said he and Warhit, the film’s director and editor, focused in particular on the decades before World War II—a golden era of Fordham football, when legendary coaches Frank “The Iron Major” Cavanaugh and “Sleepy” Jim Crowley led the Rams to national prominence, including a 1942 Sugar Bowl victory. But the film also recounts the team’s slip from prominence in the decade following the war, when college football was declining in popularity in New York City—trends that contributed to the University’s decision to discontinue the sport in 1954.

The final third of the documentary includes segments on the student-led resurrection of the sport with the club teams of the 1960s; the program’s subsequent return to varsity status; and the Rams’ recent resurgence as three-time Patriot League champions, most recently in 2014.

Several alumni are featured in the film, including veteran sportswriter Jack Clary, FCRH ’54; Andy Lukac, FCRH ’51, who was recruited to Fordham by Lombardi and served as captain of the 1950 team that went 8–1; and Bill Burke, FCRH ’65, LAW ’68, who was Fordham’s sports information director during the 1960s.

Also featured are Tim Cohane Jr., son of the Fordham publicist, Tim Cohane, FCRH ’35, who helped popularize the nickname Seven Blocks of Granite, and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Maraniss, author of When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi (Simon & Schuster, 1999).

For Maraniss, the famous nickname transcends the 1936 team and has come to mean something more to Fordham football and its fans.

“Sometimes a name will become a symbol of something larger than what it’s about,” he says in the film, noting that the 1930s were “a time of impermanence,” when “you didn’t know if you would keep your job … [and] you could see danger on the horizon.” The name, then, was not simply about the Fordham line “being able to stop the Pittsburgh offense, but [about] something more permanent, something that wasn’t going to move. I think that resonated with the country.”

VIDEO: Watch the opening of Fordham Football: A Walk Through History. 

To purchase a DVD of the film, which is available for $50, call the Fordham athletics ticket office at 855-RAM-TIXS.

Mara passed away on Feb. 1 after complications from a fall. She was 85 years old.

“We have lost a great woman today, a woman of many talents, and a great soul,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham. “She was indeed the first lady of Fordham football, but she was so much more than that: a keen businesswoman; a devout Catholic; a loving mother; a generous philanthropist; and a warm colleague. I know the Fordham community joins me today in mourning her loss, and in keeping the Mara family in our thoughts and prayers.”

Mara was the widow of longtime Giants owner Wellington Mara, FCRH’ 37, whom she met at the church that both attended, St. Ignatius Loyola on Park Avenue. They married in 1954.

Though the couple would go on to co-own the NFL team founded in 1925 by Wellington’s father, Tim, Ann and her husband’s earliest shared experiences of football began at Fordham. Wellington, a diehard Ram and a classmate of Vince Lombardi, would frequently bring Ann to University sporting events.

“During our courtship, [Wellington] dragged me to every football game and every basketball game,” Mara said when she accepted Fordham’s 2012 Walsh Award, given each year to an individual who best exemplifies the support, loyalty, and passion for Fordham football. “That was his idea of a romantic night.”

Through the years, the couple remained well-connected to Fordham: their son John Mara, the Giants’ president and CEO, is a 1979 graduate of Fordham Law School and several of their grandchildren attended the University. Both Ann and Wellington received honorary degrees from Fordham and Wellington Mara received one of the University’s first Founder’s Awards in 2002. In 2012, Ann received Fordham’s Walsh Award, given each year to an individual who best exemplifies the support, loyalty, and passion for Fordham football.

In conferring an honorary doctorate of humane letters upon her in 2008, Fordham said of Mara, “She is the matriarch; literally as a mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, and figuratively, for the extended New York Giants family, a family that includes scores of players and hundreds of Giants alumni. Indeed, through it all: the defeats, the personal losses, and the memorable triumphs, Ann Mumm Mara has been there.”

Equal to Mara’s love of Fordham was her passion for the Giants. Called the “Grand Dame of the New York Giants,” Mara and her 11 children maintained their 50 percent ownership of the organization following Wellington’s death in 2005.

“Mrs. Mara was a tower of strength, dignity, and inspiration for her family and all of us in the NFL,” said NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, in a statement. “Her family and the Giants organization have always reflected Mrs. Mara’s competitive spirit, integrity, and wonderful sense of humor. Our thoughts and prayers are with John Mara and the entire Mara family.”

Mara is survived by 11 children, 43 grandchildren (among whom are well-known actresses Rooney Mara and Kate Mara), and 16 great-grandchildren.

An enthusiastic Homecoming crowd of nearly 7,000 fans filled the stands at Jack Coffey Field on Sept. 13 to watch Fordham beat Rhode Island, 54-7.

Running back Chase Edmonds set a freshman school record, carrying the ball 22 times for 231 yards and four touchdowns. Among the fans cheering on Edmonds were some former Rams who waxed nostalgic about cold games, tough games, historic games, and plain old grit.

Andy Lukac, FCRH ’51, captain of the 1950 Rams, said that although they rarely get much play in the press, his team was one of the finest Fordham ever had. The team had an 8-1 record. “In all the newspaper write-ups, they mention the Blocks of Granite and last year’s squad, which is great,” he said, “but they never mention 1950.”

Lukac said that none other than Vince Lombardi, FCRH ’37, recruited him and many of his teammates before leaving Fordham in 1949 to coach for West Point. The legacy of Fordham’s 1950 season got diluted after the football program ran into the red and disappeared from campus for 10 years. But three Rams—David Langdon, FCRH ’65, Don Ross, FCRH ’65, and Bill Burke, FCRH ’65, LAW ’68—took a thousand dollars out of their bank accounts to buy uniforms and equipment, transforming the former rugby team into a football team.

Tom Johnson, FCRH ’61, was a fan of the newly revived Fordham team. He said he’s been buying season tickets since they first made them available, and he’s seen the Rams through the good, the bad, and even some ugly seasons. “There were many years where you used to pray for rain so you could leave the stands early,” he said. As Johnson spoke, the skies let loose and the DJ under the Homecoming tent blasted Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Have You Ever Seen the Rain.”

Although the Rams’ playing was anything but ugly, fans started to leave. Except, of course, senior Ian Williams’ mother. Cheryl Williams flew up from West Palm Beach, Florida, for the game, and she wasn’t about to let a little rain deter her. “Go Ian! Go Fordham!” she cheered from beneath a red umbrella.