Special to The Fordham Ram
Fordham won 26 conference championships during McLaughlin’s tenure as athletic director. (Courtesy of Gil Talbot Photography)
On April 15, this past Friday night, there was a Bronx love-fest in Danbury, Connecticut. Treasured Fordham University Athletic Director-Emeritus Frank McLaughlin was enshrined into the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Hall of Fame, a crowning achievement in what has been an impressive professional career.
A Fordham legion of three dozen that spanned three generations — from Frank’s granddaughter, four-year-old Molly Simko, to an octogenarian, Rams golf coach Paul Dillon — was at the Matrix Conference & Banquet Center ceremonies to stand up and applaud, creating a different kind of “Bronx Cheer.”
Frank’s wife Susan, whom he called “the love of my life from Rockport, Texas,” daughter Heather Simko, a Fordham alumna, and her husband Chris headed the Fordham faithful, which included alumni, administrators, coaches and staff.
Gene Doris, the Fairfield University Director of Athletics and another Fordham alum, was also among the inductees, giving Fordham a pair of honorees in in the ECAC HOF Class of 2016. Doris had previously worked with McLaughlin at Rose Hill, and the two were assistants to Digger Phelps on the memorable 1971 Fordham men’s basketball team that was ranked ninth nationally.
Along with the aforementioned attendees, here is the group that gathered en masse to pay homage to a man who served Fordham admirably for 27 years and is now the university’s associate vice president of student affairs for athletic alumni relations and external affairs: Jeff Gray, Mike Boyd, Paul Soden, Mike Cosgrove, Julie and Joe Carrabino, John Cirillo, Julio Diaz, Marianne Reilly, Bridget Orchard, James Osborne. Charlie Elwood, Marc Canton, Joe DiBari, Bette-Ann Speliotis, Frank Aiello, Jim Shantz, Bill Genco, Mike Fitzgerald, Steve Fitzgerald, Steve Breen, Sanford Schwartz, Frank O’Keefe and John Rollins.
McLaughlin, who has become an unlikely yoga guru in recent years, said: “In yoga, we say ‘elevate your level.’ That’s what we do in college athletics… As a student, athlete, coach, administrator, and above all as a person get the most out of yourself.” As a student-athlete, player, coach and administrator, Frank McLaughlin has lived to that credo and beyond.
“It was an honor and privilege to recognize a special group that has had an immeasurable impact on the world of college athletics and specifically the ECAC,” said President and CEO Dr. Kevin T. McGinniss. “This event was an opportunity for these remarkable individuals to share their incredible achievements with family and friends and be forever recognized for the indelible mark that they have made on the ECAC.”
John Cirillo, Fordham alumnus and professor, contributed this special article to The Fordham Ram.
