Buzzards Bay, Mass. --  Bob Corradi, who is in his 42^nd year of service to the Massachusetts Maritime Academy and his 25^th year as Director of Athletics, received the 2013 Eastern College Athletic Conference Josten’s Male Administrator of the Year Award on Sunday evening at the ECAC Honors Dinner that took place at the Sea Crest Beach Hotel in North Falmouth, Mass.

The ECAC Josten’s Male Administrator of the Year is presented annually to an administrator from an ECAC member institution or conference in recognition of outstanding or meritorious service to the ECAC.

“I am truly pleased to receive this great honor from the ECAC, and to be notified of the award from one of my former (American Legion) players in Geoff Lopes (who serves as the ECAC’s Coordinator of Sport Administration) made it even more special,” Corradi says.  “This award is a reflection of the commitment of the Massachusetts Maritime administration, our coaching staff and our athletic administration to the young men and women that truly makes the Academy the best Maritime college in the world.”

Corradi began his career at Massachusetts Maritime as the Academy’s first and only Head Baseball Coach in 1973, as he has amassed 547 victories in 41 seasons on the diamond while earning the nod as Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference Coach of the Year on three occasions, the last coming in 2008.  He guided the Buccaneers to both the MASCAC and ECAC titles during a 1982 season 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, as he helped lead the Buccaneers to a pair of New England Football Conference championships in 1977 and again in 1983. 

A Bourne native and a current resident of Sandwich, Corradi served in a number of different administrative capacities at Massachusetts Maritime prior to assuming his current role of Director of Athletics in September 1989.  He has overseen the growth and development of a program that has nearly doubled from eight sports when he assumed his duties to its current 15 varsity sport offering, and he 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 Corradi’s tenure as Athletics Director, the amount of student-athletes participating in intercollegiate athletics at the Academy has tripled, and nearly 45 percent of all student-athletes participating in at least one sport have achieved a minimum 3.00 GPA over the past five years, another example of his commitment to the mission of Massachusetts Maritime, Division III and the ECAC. 

A tireless advocate of the ECAC and its programs for over four decades, Corradi’s support for the conference’s program and administrators is legendary.  His daughter Alison, who later went on to become Associate Director of Athletics for Compliance at Boston College, served an Asa A. Bushnell Internship during the 1994-95 academic year, and this past spring he once again provided resources on the Academy’s behalf when the ECAC hosted the highly successful NCAA Division III Baseball Regional Championships at Whitehouse Field in Harwich, something he has done on many occasions over the years.

In addition to the many honors he has received from Massachusetts Maritime, including Academy Employee of the Year in 2007, Corradi 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.  Last November, 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, and last week 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.

“There’s no doubting the impact that Bob has made on the lives of countless young men and women over the years at the Academy, and I join the entire Massachusetts Maritime family in congratulating him on this great honor,” Admiral Rick Gurnon, Massachusetts Maritime’s President, said of his longtime friend and colleague Corradi.  “He truly embodies the Division III philosophy, and his vision and leadership will forever be a part of the Academy’s landscape.”

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