Buzzards Bay, Mass. --  Bob Corradi, who served for 26 years as Director of Athletics at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy before retiring from that position this past June, will receive the President’s Award from the Eastern College Athletic Conference at its annual fall convention next Monday, September 28^th in Danbury, Conn. 

A native of Bourne, Mass. and a current resident of Sandwich, Mass., Corradi was a fixture on the Massachusetts Maritime campus for 43 years, as he became the only head baseball coach that the Academy has known at the NCAA level in 1973.  Corradi served in a number of different administrative capacities at Massachusetts Maritime prior to assuming the role of Director of Athletics in September 1989, as he oversaw the growth and development of a program that has doubled from eight sports when he assumed his duties to its current 15 varsity sport offering.  “Coach C” also oversaw the construction of a new turf athletic stadium (Clean Harbors Stadium) while helping to implement new construction and upgrades to existing athletics facilities both on and off campus, including the Clean Harbors Athletic Center, Commodore Hendy Field (baseball), Alison Rollins Field (softball) and the Keith Hartford Sailing Center on Herring Pond.  During Bob’s tenure as Athletics Director, the amount of student-athletes participating in intercollegiate athletics at the Academy tripled, and nearly 45 percent of all student-athletes participating in at least one sport achieved a minimum 3.00 GPA over his last seven years as athletic director, another example of his commitment to the mission of Massachusetts Maritime and NCAA Division III.

This past June, Corradi became just the second MASCAC athletic director to be honored as Under Armour Division III Athletic Director of the Year by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA), joining his longtime friend John Harper of Bridgewater State, who won the award in 2004.  In addition to the many honors he has received from Massachusetts Maritime, including Academy Employee of the Year in 2007, Bob has been recognized with other numerous accolades, including the two highest awards bestowed by the New England Intercollegiate Baseball Association:  the Jack Butterfield Award for integrity and dedication to the game of college baseball in 2010 and the Andy Baylock Award for significant contributions to the betterment of New England college baseball in 2012.  He received the Cape Cod Baseball League’s Fred Ebbett Lifetime Achievement Award for his many contributions to the league and to its Hall of Fame in 2012, and in 2013, he was feted during the American Legion District 10 All-Star Game in Hyannis for his years of coaching and dedication to American Legion baseball, specifically the Clark-Haddad Post 188 team in Sandwich.  Two months later, Corradi was honored as the 2013 Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Male Administrator of the Year, and the week before his retirement, he received an honorary doctorate from Massachusetts Maritime at the Academy's 2015 Commencement ceremonies on June 20^th.

Corradi concluded his final campaign on the baseball diamond this past spring, and the Buccaneers sent him out in style with his first Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference championship in 33 years while collecting 17 overall wins in 2015 en route to the program’s ninth post-season appearance.  “Coach C” amassed 579 victories in his 43 seasons and was named as the MASCAC Coach of the Year on four occasions, including this spring as Massachusetts Maritime posted a 10-4 conference slate.  He was also tabbed as the ECAC Division III Co-Coach of the Year after guiding his squad to a berth in the New England semifinals in May.  Bob guided the Buccaneers to both the MASCAC and ECAC titles during a 1982 campaign that saw Massachusetts Maritime win a school record 28 games, and in the fall Corradi served as Assistant Football Coach for 38 seasons under Head Coaches Don Ruggeri, Joe Domingos and Jeremy Cameron, helping lead the Buccaneers to a pair of New England Football Conference championships in 1977 and again in 1983.

Bob and his wife, Kathy, are the parents of two grown children:  Alison and Steven.  They also have four grandchildren.

The ECAC President’s Award is presented for meritorious service to the ECAC or an ECAC member institution.  The recipient must have demonstrated significant accomplishment in his or her chosen professional field or on the athletic field.  All six of this year’s honorees recently retired after distinguished careers at their respective institutions, as Corradi will be feted alongside longtime colleagues Tim Shea of Salem State, Scott Nichols of MCLA, John Clark of Plymouth State, Cathie Schweitzer of Springfield and Charlie Robert of Nichols.