Last night I was fortunate enough to attend the New York Athletic Club Winged Foot awards dinner. This is something they've been doing for years, celebrating the Men's and Women's NCAA champion coaches, both Jay and Geno Auriemma were honored.
This was my first time attending so I wasn't exactly sure what to expect but it was really a great event, I think there were about 750 people that attended. The dinner was emceed by Billy Packer and he did a great job (from what I understand he's been doing this for awhile now). They started off by honoring three veterans that had won the congressional medal of honor which was pretty amazing and got some huge ovations.
Each honoree gets to choose someone to introduce them, Jay had Tom Pecora and Geno had NBA commissioner Adam Silver. Having someone close the honoree introduce them was pretty cool as the intros had a real personal feel and at times even bordered on a roast. Pecora was especially great, had the room rolling with some great shots at Jay. Silver had a hilarious story how he recently got married and his father in law lives in Stamford, CT. His wife had obviously told her dad how Adam knew all these NBA greats, etc . When he meets his father in law, the guy is like...... hey, do you know Geno Auriemma? Classic.
Both Geno and Jay spoke for about 20 minutes each and actually spent a lot of time speaking about each other. Geno had some great lines, one was how he gets asked how it feels to have won 10 national championships and that each one is so special that he doesn't know how to react, so he usually kind of shrugs .... and then says, you know kind of how Jay reacted when Villanova won at the buzzer. Sometimes you just don't know what the right reaction is. He also said that he knew how thrilled the Villanova fans were for winning the championship and wondered if they were more thrilled about actually winning the game or more excited about the five St Joes fans throwing themselves into the Schuykill River when we won.
Jay spoke about how great New York was when he started at Hofstra, how welcoming people were and how much Pecora helped him with all his connections in the city. He told a great story about a kid they signed early on (sorry can't remember his name but he was in attendance) and how he signed his LOI on the hood of a car. Didn't talk a ton about our players but focused on the importance of the families and how instrumental they are in the program. Told a funny story how after we beat Oklahoma he basically sequestered our kids until the championship game and how his wife told Jay he was nuts and to let the kids go out and enjoy themselves a bit. She ended up apologizing to the families saying Jay was crazy and the reaction from the families was basically, hey we're here to win a championship so we're on board with whatever Jay wants to do! Showed the one shining moment clip as well which was great and got a huge cheer when Jenkins shot dropped (this will NEVER get old).
Like I said I wasn't really sure how the night would go but I ended up getting to meet Jay. I know many on the board have met him and some are close to Jay but this was a first for me. Only spent a few minutes but enjoyed speaking with him immensely, told him how amazing it was to be in Houston and how much it meant to me to be there for the game. This team and program has brought me so much joy over the years that I appreciated getting the chance to speak with him for a few minutes and thank him.
Also got to speak with Geno for a bit, my dad has met him a few times and had really positive things to say about him which kind of surprised me because I've felt he can be difficult in many interviews I've seen. Personally I thought he was awesome. Really engaging and personable. I grew up in CT so I know how much the program means to many people in the state and just found him a pleasure to speak with. Really changed my perception of him quite a bit.
Few other people I got to speak with for a few minutes..... Bill Raf, what can I say? Exactly as advertised, he was awesome. ONIONS! Jon Rothstein from CBS sports, I enjoy his work and we live close to each other so spoke about some places we like to eat, etc. Nice guy. Anthony Mason Jr., hung out with him for the last 20 minutes or so. What a nice kid, has a foundation working with kids and a production company. I asked him if he's close with any of the guys that played with his dad and he's like, oh yeah man.... Pat, Oak, they're like uncles to me. Really good guy, enjoyed speaking with him,
Those were some personal highlights, I'm sure some other people could add more but wanted to share a few things that stuck in my mind. My dad loves hoops, he didn't go to Villanova but he loves that I did and following our team. He was thrilled to get these tickets for us (been talking about it for a month, haha) and the whole night was a blast.
This was my first time attending so I wasn't exactly sure what to expect but it was really a great event, I think there were about 750 people that attended. The dinner was emceed by Billy Packer and he did a great job (from what I understand he's been doing this for awhile now). They started off by honoring three veterans that had won the congressional medal of honor which was pretty amazing and got some huge ovations.
Each honoree gets to choose someone to introduce them, Jay had Tom Pecora and Geno had NBA commissioner Adam Silver. Having someone close the honoree introduce them was pretty cool as the intros had a real personal feel and at times even bordered on a roast. Pecora was especially great, had the room rolling with some great shots at Jay. Silver had a hilarious story how he recently got married and his father in law lives in Stamford, CT. His wife had obviously told her dad how Adam knew all these NBA greats, etc . When he meets his father in law, the guy is like...... hey, do you know Geno Auriemma? Classic.
Both Geno and Jay spoke for about 20 minutes each and actually spent a lot of time speaking about each other. Geno had some great lines, one was how he gets asked how it feels to have won 10 national championships and that each one is so special that he doesn't know how to react, so he usually kind of shrugs .... and then says, you know kind of how Jay reacted when Villanova won at the buzzer. Sometimes you just don't know what the right reaction is. He also said that he knew how thrilled the Villanova fans were for winning the championship and wondered if they were more thrilled about actually winning the game or more excited about the five St Joes fans throwing themselves into the Schuykill River when we won.
Jay spoke about how great New York was when he started at Hofstra, how welcoming people were and how much Pecora helped him with all his connections in the city. He told a great story about a kid they signed early on (sorry can't remember his name but he was in attendance) and how he signed his LOI on the hood of a car. Didn't talk a ton about our players but focused on the importance of the families and how instrumental they are in the program. Told a funny story how after we beat Oklahoma he basically sequestered our kids until the championship game and how his wife told Jay he was nuts and to let the kids go out and enjoy themselves a bit. She ended up apologizing to the families saying Jay was crazy and the reaction from the families was basically, hey we're here to win a championship so we're on board with whatever Jay wants to do! Showed the one shining moment clip as well which was great and got a huge cheer when Jenkins shot dropped (this will NEVER get old).
Like I said I wasn't really sure how the night would go but I ended up getting to meet Jay. I know many on the board have met him and some are close to Jay but this was a first for me. Only spent a few minutes but enjoyed speaking with him immensely, told him how amazing it was to be in Houston and how much it meant to me to be there for the game. This team and program has brought me so much joy over the years that I appreciated getting the chance to speak with him for a few minutes and thank him.
Also got to speak with Geno for a bit, my dad has met him a few times and had really positive things to say about him which kind of surprised me because I've felt he can be difficult in many interviews I've seen. Personally I thought he was awesome. Really engaging and personable. I grew up in CT so I know how much the program means to many people in the state and just found him a pleasure to speak with. Really changed my perception of him quite a bit.
Few other people I got to speak with for a few minutes..... Bill Raf, what can I say? Exactly as advertised, he was awesome. ONIONS! Jon Rothstein from CBS sports, I enjoy his work and we live close to each other so spoke about some places we like to eat, etc. Nice guy. Anthony Mason Jr., hung out with him for the last 20 minutes or so. What a nice kid, has a foundation working with kids and a production company. I asked him if he's close with any of the guys that played with his dad and he's like, oh yeah man.... Pat, Oak, they're like uncles to me. Really good guy, enjoyed speaking with him,
Those were some personal highlights, I'm sure some other people could add more but wanted to share a few things that stuck in my mind. My dad loves hoops, he didn't go to Villanova but he loves that I did and following our team. He was thrilled to get these tickets for us (been talking about it for a month, haha) and the whole night was a blast.
