 2003
“Penguin of the Year”
Gene DeFilippo
Everywhere Gene
DeFilippo has been involved with
collegiate athletics he has made a
lasting impression.
Now as the 2003 Penguin of the Year, DeFilippo, who is the
Director of Athletics at Boston
College, is being remembered for the
impact he had not only on the
Youngstown State football program
more than 20 years ago, but for the
hard-earned successes he has enjoyed
since leaving the program.
DeFilippo was an assistant football coach and offensive
coordinator for Bill Narduzzi from
1975-79 in what was his first
full-time job in collegiate
athletics. He made a major
contribution during his five-year
stint at YSU. The Penguins won
Mid-Continent Conference
Championships in 1978 and 1979,
advancing to the Division II
semifinals in 1978 and the
championship game in 1979.
Following his tenure at Youngstown State he went to
Vanderbilt as an assistant football
coach, and after three years with
the Commodores he began what has
been a very successful career as an
athletic administrator.
He has served as the Director of Athletics at three different
institutions since becoming an
administrator in 1983 at Vanderbilt.
Two years after working as the
Director of Administrative Services
at Vandy he was named the Athletics
Director at South
Carolina-Spartanburg in 1984. In
1987, he went to Kentucky as the
Assistant Director of
Athletics-External Affairs and later
became the Associate Director.
From 1993-97, DeFilippo made a splash as a Division I
Director of Athletics at Villanova.
While with the Wildcats, he was
named to the NCAA Division I
Management Council. His tenure
included the 1997 BIG EAST
regular-season men’s basketball
tournament title; 1994 NIT men’s
basketball championship; two NCAA
championships for women’s cross
country, and a Rhodes Scholar, among
other accolades before taking over
at BC in 1997.
Since DeFilippo was named Boston College’s Director of
Athletics on Sept. 16, 1997, the BC
athletics program has experienced a
dizzying and unprecedented period of
innovation, growth, fundraising,
athletic and academic success.
DeFilippo has made a significant
impact on the program internally, in
the Boston community, and from a
national standpoint while molding it
into one of the nation’s elite both
on and off the playing field.
In the March 18, 2002 issue of U.S. News and World Report,
Boston College was ranked as one of
the top 20 athletics departments in
the country based on four criteria:
Gender equity, graduation rates,
win-loss records and total number of
sports offered. Overall, the Eagles
have more than 800 student-athletes
and have 31 men’s and women’s
varsity sports. Boston College is
also a member of the BIG EAST
Conference and Hockey East.
During his five-year tenure, DeFilippo has initiated an
impressive overhaul of BC’s
athletics facilities that includes
new football practice facilities,
lighting, scoreboards and other
improvements at Shea Field,
renovations to Conte Forum,
including a new sound system, floor
and video boards, two new soccer
fields on the Newton campus, new
Astroturf for Alumni Stadium, and an
air-inflated bubble to cover the
stadium turf to provide an indoor
practice facility for all sports
during the winter months.
He renamed the Athletics Association’s fundraising arm in
honor of longtime Athletics Director
Bill Flynn. Under DeFilippo’s
leadership, cash gifts received
during the 2001-02 year reached a
record level of $6.9 million, a 120
percent increase from cash received
in 1998 and a 263 percent increase
from 1994.
During the 2001-02 academic year, 371 student-athletes
maintained a grade-point average of
3.0 or better and earned the
Athletic Director’s Award for
Academic Excellence. The total is
the highest in the six-year history
of the award. In the most recent
NCAA Graduation Rates report, issued
in late 2001, Boston College was
tied for fifth in the nation,
graduating 82 percent of
student-athletes within six years of
entering the school.
In athletics competition, DeFilippo has overseen some of the
most successful seasons in Boston
College Athletics history. The
Eagles football team appeared in the
2002 Motor City, marking the
school’s fourth straight bowl
appearance. Also last year, the
men’s and women’s basketball team
both received NCAA Tournament bids.
In 2000-01, BC won the NCAA Division
I men’s ice hockey championship as
well as winning the Hockey East
regular-season and tournament
titles.
In 2001, the men’s basketball team won the BIG EAST East
Division regular-season and
tournament titles and advanced to
the second round of NCAA play. The
women’s cross country and men’s
soccer teams both won the BIG EAST
championship titles and both teams
advanced to NCAA competition as the
women’s cross country squad finished
fourth in the country. Shannon Smith
won the NCAA title in the
3,000-meter indoor run while
individuals from the men’s and
women’s fencing and wrestling squads
also took part in NCAA play.
During DeFilippo’s tenure at BC, the women’s basketball team
has played in the NCAA Tournament
three times (1999, 2000, and 2001)
and once in field hockey (1998),
women’s soccer (2000, 2001), men’s
soccer (2000, 2001) and softball
(1998).
DeFilippo, the 2000-01 Division I-A Northeast Region
NACDA/Continental Airlines AD of the
Year, is extremely active on the
national scene. He is the former BIG
EAST representative to the NCAA
Division I Management Council, the
chair of the Executive Committee of
the BIG EAST basketball conference,
a member of the Executive Committee
and second vice-president of NACDA
(National Association of Collegiate
Directors of Athletics),
vice-president of the nation’s
Division I-A Athletics Directors
organization and is a member of the
Honors Court of the National
Football Foundation and College Hall
of Fame.
Gene and his wife, Anne, are the parents of three children –
Christine, 26, a guidance counselor
and women’s basketball coach at
Beaver Country Day School; John, 24,
a graduate assistant football coach
at the University of Notre Dame, and
Mary, a senior at Newton Country Day
of the Sacred Heart is planning to
attend Boston College this fall. |
