1964 Team and Bill Burke Honored at Annual Fordham Gridiron Club Dinner

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Bronx, N.Y. (September 12, 2014) – Bill Burke, FCRH '65, LAW '68 and the 1964 Fordham University football team, the squad that brought football back to Rose Hill, were honored with the Walsh Award and the Mara Family Award, respectively, at the annual Fordham Gridiron Club Dinner held in O'Keefe Commons at O'Hare Hall.
 
The Mara Family and Walsh Awards honor members of the Fordham football family for their dedication and contributions to the program.  The Mara Family Award is named in honor of the family of the late Wellington Mara, a 1937 graduate of Fordham, while the Walsh Award in named in honor of William D. Walsh, Fordham College class of 1951 and namesake of the Walsh Athletic Training Center as well as the Walsh Family Library on the Rose Hill campus.
 
Before dinner, the three 2014 team captains, Stephen Hodge, Dan Light and Ian Williams were introduced and Light spoke on behalf of the team, relaying the teams' disappointment with results last week at Villanova and promising that the Rams would learn from the disappointment going forward.
 
University president, Fr. Joseph McShane, S.J., then spoke of how the perseverance of the members of the 1964 team paid off for the university.
 
"We honor you who brought football back to Fordham," said McShane to the 1964 team. "We thank you for your persistence then and your persistence through the years to keep Fordham football moving forward."
 
McShane also spoke of the 2014 version of the Rams. "We support this year's team with enthusiasm and we know that they are men of character who will bounce back."
 

Before the Mara Award was presented to the 1964 team, a short note from John Mara, LAW '79, who could not be in attendance due to travels, was read. The note highlighted how the Mara family was delighted to recognize the 1964 team, a team that sparked excellence. Mara closed his letter noting that Fordham and football were the two passions in his father's and his family's life.
 
John Collins, a senior captain and fullback on the 1964 team, accepted the award on behalf of the squad and regaled the crowd with stories of that first season, a season that almost wasn't as the student tried unsuccessfully to bring football back in previous years. When the idea of bringing back varsity football was turned down by the administration, the group decided to play club rugby, which gave them the idea to bring football back as a club team, a team that would be student coached, student funded and student run.
 
"Our belief was 'Why not us?'", Said Collins. "We saw that this was a moment to be seized and that we could start a change that would be our legacy."
 
The team commenced practice in the fall of 1964 with the goal to play NYU on November 14 at Fordham. As the days went on, the Rams felt they needed a test before playing the Violets so they ventured up to Maine to face Maine Maritime in October, a game that would turn out to be a learning experience for the greenhorns.
 
"We didn't know that Maine Maritime shot off a canon after each score," said Collins. "Our defense found out soon enough and some may still be suffering hearing loss from it. We lost by a big score to zero and we were lucky to get zero."
 
But the Rams didn't let the loss deter them from their main goal of the season, beat NYU, a team that was also a club team but one that had been playing for a couple of years.
 
When game day rolled around it was a glorious day for football and 15,000 fans packed the rented stands at Jack Coffey Field. The game went back and forth until Roger Dexter intercepted an NYU pass to thwart a last-minute scoring chance for the Violets and secure the Fordham victory. The team felt as if they were able to finally get revenge for the 1936 NYU victory over Fordham that denied the Rams a bowl bid and that Vince Lombardi called "the most devastating loss of my life."
 
"We saw a moment and seized it," said Collins. "It remains one of the greatest memories of our lives."
 

Burke, who served as the treasurer and sports information director for the 1964 team, was presented the Walsh Family Award. He currently serves as the managing director of investments and senior vice president at Wells Fargo Advisors. Burke was president of the Fordham alumni New Jersey chapter for 15 years and now is president of the alumni chapter for southwest Florida, where he and his wife Theresa have a second home.
 
Burke spoke of the big idea that Don Ross, John Connolly and David Langdon had to bring football back to Fordham. But it was going to take money to do so and that's where Burke excelled, going as far as eating live goldfish for a dollar to collect money to make the dream a reality.
 
"Fordham and the football program have always been a part of my life," said Burke. "Thank you for allowing me to be a part of the program, a program I still hold near and dear to my heart."  
 
Head coach Joe Moorhead, FCRH '96, was called upon to say a few words, which he used to first thank everyone for their support and then to congratulate the award winners.
 
"I'm a quote man and one of my favorites is 'we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us' which is so true of the 1964 team," said Moorhead. "We owe it all to you guys for if not for your passion and enthusiasm of Fordham football we wouldn't be here tonight."
 
He then turned to Burke and mentioned a quote from Burke that he found when Burke was presented with the annual Halligan-McGuire Irish-American Good Guy Award in 2011. "That night Bill Burke said 'If you're given something in life like I was, you have to give back. You want to do the right thing for Fordham.' And Bill continues to live by that belief to this day."
 
Moorhead closed by mentioning that the Rams learned a valuable lesson from last week's loss at Villanova but he was making no excuses. "I tell the players that 'excuses are the nails that build a house of failure.' This week at practice we returned to the building blocks that got us to where we are and that will help us move forward."
 
The Rams host the University of Rhode Island Rams on Saturday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. on Jack Coffey Field as part of Homecoming 2014.