BRONX, N.Y. (Sept. 11, 2023) – Fordham Athletic Director Ed Kull has announced the four outstanding alumni who will be recognized next month with the Victory Bell Award, which  honors individuals who have brought distinction and honor to Fordham University Athletics through achievements not related to competition, coaching and/or administration.
 
Don Almeida, GABELLI '73, Jim Buckman, FCRH '66, Darlene Luccio Jordan, FCRH '89, and the late John Toffolon, GABELLI '73, '77, will be recognized for their contributions in launching the New Era Fund in support of Fordham's men's and women's basketball programs.  Following recent gifts, the Fund has now raised over $5.2 million in pledges committed over a five-year period.
 
"Fordham Athletics will forever be indebted to these four outstanding individuals," said Kull.  "Their ability to recognize not only where resources needed to be directed in a changing landscape, but also giving wholeheartedly of themselves while championing others to do the same is exemplary.  They stepped up when others would not and are true embodiments of the Fordham mission.  Their generosity displays the significant impact that our donors can have on the lives of student-athletes both in and out of competition."  
 
The honorees, selected by the Fordham Athletics Hall of Fame Committee, embody a sense of leadership and passion for Fordham Athletics and serve as an inspiration to the Fordham Athletics Family.
 
All of these honorees boast a long and distinguish history of giving to their alma maters.  Almeida and Luccio Jordan are current members of the Board of Trustees, Buckman is a Trustee Fellow and Toffolon was a Trustee and Trustee Fellow before his passing in 2022.
 
Almeida is a retired Vice Chairman from PwC, whose 40 years of experience with multinational corporations took him around the world, including a three-year tour in Italy.  Almeida, who resides in Armonk, gives generously of his time and resources to several other organizations, including serving on the board of his high school alma mater, Cardinal Hayes. He also serves on the Gabelli School of Business Advisory Board and is a member of the Fordham President's Council. 
Buckman, a recipient of the Founder's Award in 2009, attended both Fordham Prep and Fordham University before going on to obtain his law degree from Yale and starting a decorated legal career.  The Riverdale native is no stranger to charitable causes, having sat on the boards of the New York Philharmonic, Marymount Manhattan College — from which he holds an honorary doctorate — the Museum of the City of New York, Fordham University and Fordham Prep.  In 2009, he and his wife, Nancy, gifted $2 million to endow the Buckman Chair in Christian Ethics in the Fordham Theology Department.
 
After graduating from Fordham in 1989, Luccio Jordan obtained her law degree from Suffolk University in her native Massachusetts before becoming a prosecutor and eventually rising to the position of assistant attorney general.  Since 2009, she has been the executive director of the Gerald R. Jordan Foundation, named for her husband, a two-time Harvard grad and founder of the investment firm Hellman, Jordan Management Company Inc.  A 2012 recipient of the Founder's Award, Jordan has been one of the University's most generous benefactors and currently serves as the co-chair of the Cura Personalis Campaign, a $350 million fundraising campaign to elevate the entirety of the student experience at Fordham.  For the first time in Fordham history, Athletics occupies its own dedicated pillar in the campaign.
 
Toffolon, who passed away in 2022 following a long and courageous battle with cancer, was a longtime supporter of Fordham Athletics, particularly the men's and women's basketball programs.  He enjoyed professional success in the field of investment banking, working at the Federal Reserve Bank of NY, The First Boston Corporation as Managing Director and CFO,  and Nomura Securities International as Executive Managing Director and Chief Financial and Administrative Officer. He served as Chairman of the Board of Directors at Cowen Group, Inc., Chairman of the Audit Committee of the Westway Group, Inc., and a member of the NY Stock Exchange Surveillance Committee.  Together with his wife, Joan, Toffolon gave extensively to the University over the course of his life.  In 1995, they created the Joan and John E. Toffolon Jr. Presidential Endowed Scholarship Fund for women attending the Gabelli School of Business: Cindy Vojtech, a Fordham Athletics Hall of Famer, was the first recipient.  Toffolon's name also dons the full-length hardwood court in Lombardi Fieldhouse, which he donated in an effort to obtain more suitable practice space for the Rams.
 
Tickets for the 2023 Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony are on sale now.  The event, which will be held on Thursday, Oct. 5, on Edwards Parade, will also honor the eight individuals to be enshired in the 2023 Hall of Fame Class: Samantha Clark FCRH '16 (Women's Basketball), Chase Edmonds FCRH '18 (Football), Titi Fagade Gabelli '15 (Women's Track and Field), Elise Fortier FCRH '14 (Softball), Jason Harris FCRH '01 (Men's Basketball), Nick Macarchuk (Former Men's Basketball Head Coach), Ifeatu Otue FCRH '73 (Men's Soccer), and Natali Sunara FCRH '96 (Women's Tennis).