In a few weeks, the Northeastern University athletics department will honor its legendary sports information director,
John P. “Jack” Grinold, for his nearly half-century of dedicated service.
Northeastern will hold a gala celebration on Saturday, Sept. 10, at the school’s historic Matthews Arena. Additional information, along with event registration, is now available on the athletics department’s website at
www.goNU.com/GrinoldTribute.
Grinold, now the associate athletics director for communications, first joined the university in 1962
and is widely regarded as the dean of New England sports information directors. Over his nearly five decades on Huntington Avenue, he has developed a wide-ranging, innovative athletic communications office. Often called “the innovator of innovators,” he shaped the careers of countless sports information professionals—including many who benefited from an internship program he established within the department.
Among his numerous honors, Grinold was inducted to the CoSIDA Hall of Fame in 1994. In 1999 received the organization’s Community Service Award. He has been awarded more than 25 CoSIDA Citations of Excellence for various university publications.
At various points during his tenure with the university, Grinold has managed sports information, sports marketing, ticketing, and radio and television packaging. In 1985, he was elected to the Northeastern University Athletics Hall of Fame, becoming the first non-athlete or coach to receive the honor. And, in 1998, as part of Northeastern’s centennial celebration, he was chosen as one of the 100 individuals responsible for the institution’s growth and success.
See online: Jack Grinold is synonymous with Northeastern sports.
by Bob Ryan, Boston Globe columnist
How many Jack Grinolds are there?
There's the Jack Grinold who has been honored by so many sports-related organizations that we would be here until Labor Day annotating them all.
There's the Jack Grinold who is a life member of the Boston Athenaeum, not to mention the Massachusetts Historical Society and the Colonial Society of Massachusetts.
There's the Jack Grinold who was chosen by Northeastern University in 1998 as "one of the top 100 individuals responsible for the institution's growth and success.''
There's Jack Grinold the philanthropist who donated a staggering $1 million to Northeastern that same year, saying that he had been there for 47 years and felt it was time to "give back.''
There's the Jack Grinold who for more than a quarter-century has been the Secretary of the Beanpot and editor of the tournament program.
There's the Jack Grinold who may be the greatest repository of crew/rowing information in Greater Boston.
There's the Jack Grinold who was in (working) attendance at 478 consecutive Northeastern football games before the demise of the program in 2009, a circumstance he may never get over.
There's the Jack Grinold who has mentored countless young people in an intern program he established.
There's the Jack Grinold whose laughter, good cheer, and genuine concern for the media's interests has made him, with all due respect to some fine people (including a onetime roommate of mine), the most beloved sports information director in the history of Boston collegiate sports.
And there's Jack Grinold, the all-around Boston sports fan, who once observed that a schedule having too many early-season Red Sox-Yankee games is the equivalent of "too much ice cream before dinner.''
In what can only be described as an overwhelming attack of common sense, Northeastern will be honoring all of these Jack Grinolds - and several others, we can be sure - on the evening of Sept. 10. For the truth is, he is the public face of Northeastern as much as any administrator has ever been.
By the way, he's a Bowdoin man himself.
Now, Jack Grinold can't tell you much about what will transpire at Matthews Arena on that September evening. "I've been kept a little in the dark,'' he explains. "I just know that I've got to show up properly dressed.''
Talk about tentacles, Jack Grinold was a charter employee of the Boston Patriots, working for them from their inception in 1959 until taking a job at Northeastern in 1962, when he went to work in the sports information office for a department that didn't even have anyone with the formal title of athletic director.
"I've served under every Northeastern AD, and six of the school's seven presidents,'' he points out.
When he got there, the athletic department was under the direction of one Joseph Spear, who was a Dean of Students.
"At football games, he would acknowledge good plays by the opponents by yelling out, 'Nice play, kid!' and it would drive me crazy,'' Grinold says. "Forty years later, I would do the same thing, and I said to myself, 'Oh my God, I've morphed into Joe Spear!' ''
The mention of football is somewhat touchy. Jack Grinold had to accept the university's decision to drop the sport, but that doesn't mean he had to like it. He cited how close Boston College came to dropping football in the late 1950s, and how the late Bill Flynn made moves to save it.
"I still think something could have been done,'' he says through gritted teeth.
Thus the beginning and end of his complaints about Northeastern.
He has seen both the school itself and the athletic department grow to unimaginable heights. It was the commuter school with the co-op program when he arrived in 1962. Now it is a sprawling campus whose student body is both national and international. There were eight sports when he started. Now there are 19.
"One of the great things I've seen since I've been here is the growth of women's sports,'' he says. "I've really enjoyed that.''
He reminisced about sitting with a certain Globe reporter watching a national women's basketball tournament in NU's Bouve Gymnasium, marveling at how far women's basketball, in particular, has come.
While hardly unmindful of the local sports scene, his heart has been, and always will be, with college sports.
"The coverage is different now,'' he says. "I understand that. But when I started, the Celtics, though champions, weren't that big. The Patriots were just getting on their feet. The Red Sox were drawing 10,000 or 12,000 a game. The Bruins were in the basement. College sports were much bigger.
"And some of the best friends I've ever made in the business were writers: Joe Concannon, Bob Monahan, Jocko Connolly, and, of course Ernie Roberts. I will never forget that when Bill Veeck ran Suffolk Downs that year [1970], how Ernie and I would go have lunch with him every two weeks or so. That was fascinating.''
Jack Grinold began as a sports information director. He was made associate athletics director in 1984. Now his health isn't the greatest, so he's winding down.
"I work two or three days a week for three hours,'' he says. "And I love every second of it.''
If you're interested in paying tribute to this Boston treasure, go on line to www.goNU.com/GrinoldTribute. You can honor any of the countless Jack Grinolds you wish.
Bob Ryan is a Globe columnist and host of Globe 10.0 on
Boston.com. He can be reached at
ryan@globe.com.