How Greg Schiano's golf outing became a Rutgers football tradition

BEDMINSTER – The demands and responsibilities of his job don’t allow Rutgers football coach Greg Schiano to spend much, or any, time on a golf course over the course of the year, but for one day each June Schiano sets aside some time to do just that.

The latest edition of the Greg Schiano Charity Golf Classic was held Monday, June 8 at Fiddler’s Elbow Country Club, and the event’s grown over the course of its existence to now include nearly 350 golfers and raise money for four different initiatives: Chop4Change, Athletes in Action, POVAT (Project One Vet @ A Time) and the Robert E. Mulcahy Scholarship Fund, which honors former Rutgers athletic director Bob Mulcahy, who was also a close friend of Schiano.

This year’s golf outing was its 20th anniversary and raised $200,000 for those causes.

<

&#8220;It’s a blessing,&#8221; Schiano said. “I think to be able to help some really, really good charities that are dear to me and to my family, it’s really special.”

Schiano praised the job that organizer Pat Morris does with the event.

“He’s an incredible guy,” Schiano said. “He’s been doing it for a long time and literally takes nothing for it. Just out of the goodness of his heart. So I can’t thank him enough.”

Rutgers football started the Chop4Change initiative, spearheaded by chief of staff Kevin MacConnell, back in 2020, and it’s grown in the time since with the players’ support.

It’s donated more than 2,000 new winter coats as part of a yearly coat drive, provided gift cards for Thanksgiving and Easter dinners, delivered school supplies to communities in need and more.

“I think it’s important, especially in the day and age now where it’s all NIL, or revenue share, and college football is becoming more professionalized,” Schiano said. “I think it’s really important that our guys don’t ever take for granted the blessings that they’ve had. Not many people get to do what they get to do, and to me, and we talk about it as a team, it’s literally your obligation to give back to those that are less fortunate, in my opinion, and that’s what I try to teach our guys.”

The opportunity to honor Mulcahy is also personally significant for Schiano, who considered Mulcahy, who was AD from 1998 to 2009, an integral partner who helped him grow the program during his first stint in Piscataway.

“Bob was as good a human being as I’ve ever been around,” Schiano said. “No matter how dire the circumstances, no matter how dark it might seem, he had a classic line that he would leave. Didn’t matter what meeting. He’d say, ‘Keep smiling.’ And when I think of Bob, that’s what I think about. He was just (a steady) leader.”

The Greg Schiano Golf Classic help keeps Mulcahy’s influence alive.

“He was my first AD as a head coach, and to have a memorial scholarship in his name is special,” Schiano said. “It’s a great, great opportunity.”

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Rutgers football: How Greg Schiano’s golf outing became tradition