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.
