Every Day is Game Day

Our guest speaker, Providence College Athletic Director Bob Driscoll, opened his talk by sharing his personal motto: Every Day is Game Day. By this he means that you have to bring your best to everything you do each and every day. He put this on wrist bands and encourages all of his athletes to wear them.

As a young man, Bob loved sports and dreamed of playing professionally. He went on to play baseball and ice hockey at Ithaca College in NY. At the end of his college sports career he was surprised to learn that he was too small, too slow, and too smart to play professional hockey so he turned to coaching.

Rising to Athletic Director at Union College, he became the A.D. at an all women’s school, Mills College and eventually made his way to UC Berkeley where he was the Sr. Associate A.D.

Bob’s father became ill which prompted a desire to return to the East coast, so he applied for and won the A.D. job at PC. Upon arrival he found the infrastructure to be old and outdated. He quickly challenged his team to devise a plan to build the best athletic program in college sports. He believed this had three primary tenets:

1. Be the most respected program by educating young people.

2. Goal of 100% graduation rate. Currently stands at 91%.

3. Compete for national championships. PC won ice hockey championship in 2015, Cross Country and Basketball won 2014 Big East tourney and made past 2 NCAA tournaments.

This has been accomplished due to a strong vision, great people, and resources. 4,000 donors have raised $6 million to upgrade athletic programs at PC. The college has spent more than $40 million on athletic facilities and $160 million on academic upgrades. Bob believes they have arrived and will only continue to get stronger.