Bill Hogan

Episode 31

2 SEP 2019

Currently at St. Joseph’s College in Indiana, his alma mater, he previously was the Director of Athletics for ten years at Seattle University after having held the same position for 15 years at the University of San Francisco, both of which are Jesuit schools.  Before all that he was the Athletic Director (and was even the basketball coach) at St. Joseph’s, where he had played basketball during his college days.  Active with the Knights of Columbus, he also served on the Executive Board in Seattle for the Special Olympics and was part of the decision to host the 2018 Special Olympics USA Games there.

Notable guest quotes:

“We have probably the most beautiful grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes on our campus as you’ve ever seen.  It was done by the seminarians back in the, I think, late 1800s or early 1900s, and is still stunning, and it’s a great place for reflection and spiritual awakening and just a wonderful, beautiful, spot.”

“I try to exercise every day by walking – a 35, 40-minute walk – and I always stop by the grotto to say a quick prayer, almost every day.”

“I went to Catholic grade school, Catholic high school, Catholic college, and I’ve worked the last 35 years at Catholic universities.  There’s something special about being devoted and… I enjoy that a lot, it just fits me.”

“I feel very privileged to have had this long experience in Catholic higher education.”

“You would get chills listening to his homilies.”

“In Seattle they had a chapel on campus that’s world-renowned.  It’s one of the top 25 – I saw it in a book – it’s one of the top 25 religious houses in the world, because of the architecture.”

“We were fortunate enough to make it to the national championship in 1974… But… I don’t remember even hearing anything about a steroid or anything like that, enhancement-type things… You didn’t have the type of things that are going wrong now back then.  It was a much more pure existence, it seemed like.”

“I always seem to end up where I can do the most good.  And it’s not always my choice.  I think the Virgin Mary, when I was five years old, I was the guy in charge of the ceremony, the May Day, at St. Ann parish in Hamilton, Ohio, and she has always been there with me… So, it was, trying to do the Will of God and doing the best you can.”

(This episode contains a prayer seen in Play Like A Champion Today’s prayerbook for sports, God, Be In My Sport)