Dual Threat– Football’s Latest Design Play

To help lead this charge, BC recently named Jeff Hafley as the Gregory P. Barber ’69 and Family Head Coach of the Boston College football program. A standout defensive backs coach, Coach Hafley spent 11 seasons coaching collegiate football before moving to the NFL, where he spent seven seasons with the San Francisco 49ers and other teams. In his only season with Ohio State, he helped lead a defense that went from 72nd in 2018 to first nationally in yards per play. In addition, Coach Hafley has established himself as one of the best recruiters in the country, ranked third in the nation by 247Sports for the Class of 2020.

Football is the highest visibility sport, so it’s the best platform to use to elevate the entire BC community.

As the Hafley era kicks off, one thing is certain: top-tier facilities will have an immediate impact on his team both in performance and in providing potential recruits with a visual that demonstrates BC’s commitment to football excellence. Hafley told his players upon meeting them for the first time what kind of team he sees coming into view. “We’re going to be tough. We’re going to walk tough…we’re going to look tough…we’re going to play tough. That’s who we’re going to be.”

After serving as assistant football coach at BC for six years, Bill Campbell famously mentored Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, and many other of tech’s brightest creators and innovators. To call him a “business” coach fails to capture the real essence of his teaching philosophy, which focused on celebrating and uplifting all he worked with, enriching their lives both in and outside the office. He understood that spreading joy gets results. 

Bill first put this theory into practice while coaching at BC, working together with athletic director William J. “Bill” Flynn, whom he credits as a major inspiration, to develop a winning culture on the football team. Tom Baenziger ’72, who roomed with one of Bill Campbell’s football recruits and is now CEO of the William V. Campbell Family Foundation, remembers the two men as charismatic leaders who shared a passionate and highly personal commitment to their athletes—concerned about their lives off the field as much as their accomplishments on it. “It was a privilege to know them both and see them work together,” recalls Baenziger. “They were both men whose expectations you wanted to live up to.”

Bill Campbell’s wife, Eileen Bocci Campbell, remembers him speaking fondly of his time at BC and highlights Bill Flynn’s lasting influence on his career. “Bill Flynn is who taught him about integrity,” she remarks, “they built a tremendous relationship.” To celebrate his time at BC, Bill committed $5 million to endow an athletic director’s fund to recognize the AD’s position as the “William V. Campbell Director of Athletics.” And in 2016, a gift of $5 million to the Fish Field House gave BC football the William V. Campbell Field. The Field is a suitably monumental space to celebrate Bill Campbell—a giant, both in Silicon Valley and at BC. It is a space that marks Bill’s passion for the game and his love of the Eagles.

When Michaela “Mikey” Hoag ’86, P’14, sees a problem, she resolves to fix it. That is why in 2012, after losing her father to early-onset Alzheimer’s, Mikey founded Part the Cloud, a movement to support and fundraise cutting-edge research on the disease. In 2013, Mikey and her husband, Jay, saw another problem: BC football’s practice facilities lagged well behind those of its competitors. “There’s no way you’re ever going to be able to excite a football player to come to BC,” Mikey said. “We are so far behind the colleges that we are competing against, our hands are tied behind our backs.”

Inspired to act, Mikey and Jay decided to support the Eagles with a series of gifts totaling $4 million. In celebration of their generosity, last fall BC dedicated the Hoag Strength and Conditioning Center, a training facility adjacent to the William V. Campbell Field in the Fish Field House that is utilized exclusively by the Boston College Eagles football team. The center’s cutting-edge technology and state-of-the-art equipment give student-athletes the best possible resources to compete in the Atlantic Coast Conference and pursue dreams of playing on the professional level. “There’s no film crew over in the weight room or exercise facility,” said Mikey Hoag, speaking about the less glamorous aspect of putting in the necessary work. “But where games are won and lost is in practice. As we celebrate together, it’s worth noting our job isn’t done. BC has so much to offer its student-athletes, and we need to continue to support them so they can compete at the highest level.”

As a former sports marketing executive, Mikey’s strategy for maximizing her impact on Boston College is nothing short of genius. “Football is the highest-visibility sport, so it’s the best platform to use to elevate the entire BC community. When Boston College beats Notre Dame, that positively exposes BC to a market that it could never buy into. When we beat Notre Dame, the number of applications definitely goes up the following year,” says Mikey. Adds Jay, “Collegiate sports have a major community-building aspect to them. They’re integral to the experience. Culturally, experientially, and financially, BC benefits from having the best sports teams possible.”