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Football star, Marine and steward of the alumni body. After four decades of service, Pat McCarthy ’63 steps down as director of alumni relations.
By Michael Reardon
A former offensive tackle on the Holy Cross football team and Marine Corps veteran, Dennis C. Golden ’63, is a tough guy.
But when he talks about his dear friend Patrick McCarthy ’63, Golden can’t help but become emotional. On the phone from his office as president of Fontbonne University in St. Louis, Golden’s voice catches as he describes a man he believes is the shining example of what it means to be a Crusader.
“Very few guys put on the uniform and conduct themselves on the field with royalty and that’s what he did,” Golden explains. “Pat is a winner. He’s courageous. He was very smart on the field and a terrific leader.”
Golden recalls that McCarthy, who was inducted into the Holy Cross Hall of Fame in 1971, proved himself a leader the minute he stepped onto the football field as a sophomore quarterback. During intense games against rivals such as Boston College, he notes, McCarthy would come into the huddle and demand his team grind out whatever yardage it needed for a first down.
“You can tell by looking into the eyes of the quarterback whether he’s the real thing,” Golden says. “Pat proved his mettle time and time again as a quarterback. On the field, his preparedness and competitiveness stood out.”
Golden believes that McCarthy, had he chosen to do so, could have been a professional football player. Instead, he joined the Marines and, later, went on to become the director of alumni relations at Holy Cross. After 39 years of leading the Alumni Office, McCarthy retired this past June. Golden feels his friend made the right career choice.
“He has done so much good for hundreds of thousands of people,” he says. “How many people get the opportunity to touch the lives of alumni, their families and friends in such as transforming way for four decades? It was an absolute perfect match for Holy Cross and Pat. I’m in awe.”
When McCarthy graduated from Central Catholic High School in Lawrence, Mass., he didn’t intend to come to Holy Cross. His first choice was the United States Naval Academy. But the Academy administrators suggested that, because he was 17 years old when he graduated from high school, he should go to preparatory school for a year and then enter college. McCarthy was not keen on waiting a year, and Holy Cross was one of a number of schools to offer him an athletic scholarship to play football.
“My parents liked the fact Holy Cross was a Catholic school,” McCarthy says. “They liked the preponderance of Jesuit teaching. The size of the school played a role in their decision, as well as the comfort factor they experienced.”
So, McCarthy enrolled at Holy Cross and majored in sociology. He also joined the ROTC program with the intention of making the Marines his career after college.
McCarthy’s football prowess is still legend at Holy Cross. Back in the early 1960s, the Crusaders played such teams as Penn State, Syracuse, the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, Harvard and Boston College.
“At the time, you could only make one substitution at a time during the game,” McCarthy recalls. “Because of this, we were able to compete with all the bigger schools that had more cumulative talent.”
As a sophomore quarterback, McCarthy led the Crusaders past the Eagles—and was named the game’s most valuable player. Under McCarthy’s on-field leadership, Holy Cross defeated Boston College two out of three times they met.
“One of the colloquialisms at the time was that Pat was a ‘riverboat gambler,’” Golden says. “In tight situations, he would roll out and take the risk time after time. The defensive back would not know if he was going to throw or run. To beat B.C. was quite an accomplishment. We were sophomores, and they were loaded with seniors. Pat got banged around, but he showed incredible fortitude and resilience on the field.”
"Mr. Holy Cross" , continued >>>
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