Who is Robert Mulcahy?
Robert Mulcahy, a longtime New Jersey official who served as athletics director for the state’s flagship university and held several high-ranking government positions over his career, has died.
What is the cause of Robert Mulcahy’s death?
Mulcahy’s death was confirmed Tuesday by his family, who said he died Monday after a long illness. He was 85 years old at the time. Robert Mulcahy, who brought in Greg Schiano for his first term as head football coach at Rutgers University during his 11-year tenure as athletics director, died Monday, according to school authorities.
Robert E. Mulcahy, a longtime athletic director at Rutgers who also held many high-ranking government posts during his decades of service in New Jersey, has died. He was 85. https://t.co/GyV1GiTI5T
— AP Top 25 (@AP_Top25) February 8, 2022
From 1998 through 2009, Mulcahy was the athletic director. In 2005, after his hire to Schiano, the football team ended an almost 30-year postseason drought by advancing to the Insight Bowl, the first of five consecutive bowl appearances. Schiano left for an NFL coaching job before returning to Rutgers in 2020.
“In Bob’s passing, Rutgers and New Jersey lost one of its truly faithful servants,” Schiano said in a statement. “Personally, I lost a mentor, a role model, and a true friend. The partnership we had at Rutgers was uncommon and something we both valued greatly.”
Mulcahy’s help in increasing scholarship opportunities proved pivotal for a program that has consistently ranked in the Top 25 nationally in recent years.
However, as Mulcahy used his success to secure financing from the state government for a massive renovation of the University’s athletic facilities, critics zeroed in on the athletics program, accusing it of reckless spending. Mulcahy was fired from his job in 2009.
Nonetheless, Mulcahy’s actions laid the foundation for Rutgers’ ultimate entry to the Big Ten Conference.
“Robert Mulcahy was a visionary, and while we will miss him dearly, his legacy is very much alive at Rutgers,” women’s basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer said in a statement. “He saw the importance of having a successful athletic department as the front porch of our University, and he put his full love and support into that belief. He believed in us as people, as professionals, and as coaches to continue building this athletic department to the standards he knew we could uphold.”
“A lot was made that my tenure as athletic director will be determined by my football hire,” Mulcahy said in a 2000 interview, after ending a month of speculation from the search for a football coach by introducing former University of Miami defensive coordinator Schiano as fired coach Terry Shea’s successor.
He won praise as Schiano for leading the Scarlet Knights to a Top 10 rating in the polls, a Texas Bowl trophy, and an 11-2 overall record in 2006, which featured a victory over then-third-ranked Louisville.
Mulcahy also hired wrestling coach Scott Goodale in 2007, which was a game-changer for the programme. Goodale had a long and fruitful coaching career at Jackson Memorial High School. In 2006 and 2007, Goodale led his high school alma mater to consecutive NJSIAA Group 4 championships and the state’s consensus No. 1 ranking.
Many people were skeptical of Goodale’s appointment because he was a high school coach.
“I am forever grateful he gave the opportunity, but more importantly, he believed in Rutgers wrestling and that it would become what it is today,” said aid Goodale, the program’s all-time winningest coach with 196 victories.
“He changed his way of thinking about wrestling at Rutgers. He allowed us to do some things early on to get this program going on.”
– Media personality and actress Kuli Roberts has passed away
