Robert E. Mulcahy III

Director of Intercollegiate Athletics

Mulcahy’s vision for Rutgers Athletics has led the division to unprecedented development and accomplishment. Wide-ranging improvements in facilities have allowed the division to function at greater efficiency, thus enabling opportunity for greater success for Rutgers student-athletes, both in the classroom and on the playing field.

Mulcahy’s leadership has brought reality to this vision. He has been responsible for raising the division’s endowment by $4 million, and was instrumental in developing and securing outside revenue totaling $24 million, resulting in the renovation, and construction, of a number of facilities.

Capital projects from this funding include the expansion and enhancement of the Hale Center, allowing it to become one of the finest of its kind nationally, with an expansive strength and conditioning facility, a state of the art training room and academic support facilities which include classrooms, study rooms and computer labs. Rutgers Stadium has enjoyed significant enhancements under Mulcahy’s watch, as well, and now features a state-of-the-art scoreboard and Field Turf playing surface, all helping to ensure the best possible experience for student-athletes and fans.

Other projects have resulted in a modern, state-of-the-art academic support laboratory in the Louis Brown Athletic Center (the “RAC”), as well as an expanded weight training complex, and a modern media headquarters and interview facility. Office space for coaches and administrators was a priority that has come to fruition, allowing the senior athletic administration to be centrally located in the RAC for the first time, while future plans call for the continued upgrading of the RAC.

Mulcahy has made significant upgrades in many areas of the academic support program, including computer labs and tutorial services, and those enhancements have been reflected by gains in the classroom by student-athletes. The division remains committed to its goal of exceeding the grade point average of the general student population. Programs such as the comprehensive RU Strong/LifeSkills have been bolstered to help ensure a positive and meaningful experience for the Rutgers student-athlete.

Under Mulcahy’s leadership, Rutgers student-athletes are committed to community involvement. Among the many projects they organize and participate in are the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee annual Holiday Toy Drive, Student-Athlete Blood Drives, the Read Across America program, and area hospital visits.

The Annual Report, which chronicles the division's achievements and goals and was produced for the first time ever following the 1998-99 academic year under Mulcahy’s direction, includes the cumulative grade point averages of each varsity team.

Mulcahy has also overseen the institution of a comprehensive marketing and promotional plan to further increase corporate revenue and enhance the overall image of the athletic program. Corporate sponsorship has risen each year during Mulcahy’s administration, and will continue to expand as Rutgers Athletics maintains its sponsorship with one of the nation’s leading firms, Nelligan Sports Marketing.

All the while, the Rutgers athletic program continues to grow and improve on the field of play.

In the 2005-06 academic year, the Scarlet Knights’ football team finished with a 7-4 regular season record, a third-place finish in the BIG EAST Conference, and made its first post-season appearance in 27 years with a berth in the Insight Bowl. The women’s basketball team completed the BIG EAST regular season schedule with a perfect 16-0 record and earned its second consecutive BIG EAST championship. Two Scarlet Knights, Cappie Pondexter (WNBA) and Quincy Douby (NBA), were first-round draft choices in their respective sports. Pondexter was a consensus first-team All-America selection while Douby led the BIG EAST in scoring and was named first-team All-Conference.

Other standouts from the 2005-06 season included Kelly Harrigan, who guided the Rutgers women’s swimming team to its highest finish ever in the BIG EAST Swimming and Diving Championships while earning All-America honors for a second straight year, and long jumper Shameka Marshall from the women’s track and field team, who earned All-America status after a runnerup finish in the NCAA championships.

Perhaps the grit and determination that personifies Rutgers athletics is no better exemplified than by gymnast Lauren Sisler. In June, 2006, Sisler was the recipient of the Wilma Rudolph Student-Athlete Achievement Award, presented by the National Association of Academic Advisors for Athletes (N4A), an award to honor student athletes who have overcome great personal, and/or emotional odds, to achieve academic success while participating in intercollegiate athletics. Sisler suffered through the personal tragedy of losing both her parents within hours of each other during her freshman year, yet persevered through such trying times to raise her GPA by almost a point and a half, and developing into one of the gymnastics’ teams top performers by the time she graduated from Rutgers.

Mulcahy has also been a leader in the strategic development of the reconfigured BIG EAST Conference. Following well-documented membership defections, the BIG EAST acted swiftly and with resolve to emerge as a powerful 16-team league, including eight institutions competing in Division I-A football as BCS members.

Mulcahy came to Rutgers on April 15, 1998, after an extraordinary 19-year tenure as President and CEO of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority. Under Mulcahy's leadership, the NJSEA developed into the nation's premier sports and entertainment venue. Among his noteworthy achievements at the Meadowlands included establishing New Jersey as the home of the finest college athletic competition in the country, including the creation of the Kickoff Classic Football Game, attracting the Army-Navy game to the facility on three occasions, and hosting eight NCAA Men's Basketball Eastern Regionals and the last Final Four ever to be held in an Arena, in 1996. Mulcahy led the negotiations that resulted in the NHL’s Devils, the NFL’s Jets, and Major League Soccer’s MetroStars calling the Meadowlands their home.

Mulcahy's leadership at the NJSEA helped develop legislation which led to it overseeing the reconstruction of Rutgers Stadium and building new soccer, lacrosse and track and field facilities in 1994. The Sports and Exposition Authority matured from primarily a horse racing and professional football business into a statewide engine for sports, entertainment and exposition development during Mulcahy's tenure. By the end of his tenure at the Meadowlands, the Sports Complex was hosting 600 events a year, drawing seven million visitors annually to such attractions as the Giants, Jets, Devils, Nets, and horse racing, as well as a broad variety of family shows and concerts.

Mulcahy's lifelong passion for scholastic and college athletics, and his undying commitment to public service, has not gone unnoticed. The New York Times described his tenure with the NJSEA as one of "quiet fervor and foresight, establishing the Meadowlands as one of the nation's leading sports and entertainment complexes." The Newark Star Ledger hailed the holding of the NCAA Final Four, an event that was co-hosted by Rutgers, in New Jersey as "the miracle of the Meadowlands."

Among his many professional affiliations, Mulcahy serves on the Board of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame, is Chair of its Awards Committee, is an honorary member of the American Football Coaches' Association, and serves or has served on the Boards of several business and charitable corporations.

Mulcahy, a graduate of Villanova University (AB in History, 1958), has received several awards from his alma mater, including the Medal of Excellence from the College of Arts and Sciences, the Alumni Medal, and the James "Jumbo" Elliot Achievement Award. Among other honors, his most prized awards include the Knight of St. Gregory medal, received from Pope John Paul II, and the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.

After 37 years in Mendham, Bob and his wife Terry relocated to Basking Ridge. They are the parents of seven children, and also have 11 grandchildren.