Saint Joseph Parenting Center 

11th Annual Benefit Breakfast

Guest Speaker Bobby Valentine

April 22, 2020

Italian Center of Stamford

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bobby Valentine assumed the role of executive director of athletics at Sacred Heart University in June 2013. Valentine has helped to raise the visibility of Pioneer athletics over his tenure and under his watch, the Pioneers have seen success in the athletic realm. SHU completed the NEC Triple Crown in 2015-16 by winning the Brenda Weare Commissioner's Cup, the NEC Institutional Academic Award and the NEC Building Communities Award. 

Valentine is a Connecticut native, growing up in Stamford where he was the only three-time All-State football player in state history at Rippowam High School. One of the best athletes from Connecticut of the 20th century, as voted by Sports Illustrated, he planned on pursuing a college football career at USC, but was selected fifth in the first round of the 1968 amateur baseball draft by the Los Angeles Dodgers. Valentine made his MLB debut September 2, 1969, versus the New York Mets, a club he would go on to manage.

After his playing career, Valentine took over the Mets in 1996 and led the squad to back-to-back postseasons, including a 2000 World Series appearance. Including a season at the helm of the Boston Red Sox in 2012, Valentine has 1,186 major league managerial victories under his belt.

In 1994, Valentine became the first American to accept a management position in the Pacific League of Japan for the Chiba Lotte Marines. He returned to the states after a two-year stint, but went back to lead the Marines again from 2004-09, a tenure that included a 2005 Japan Series Championship..

Since 1980, he has owned and operated Bobby Valentine’s Sports Gallery Cafe, a sports bar that is located in his hometown of Stamford.

Valentine co-founded the Shin Taku Juko School in Japan. The University of Southern California Business School has created a curriculum for Shin Taku Juko, which teaches values to parents and their children. The school also offers a stay-abroad program for children who lost their parents in the tsunami that devastated Japan.

In 2011, Mayor Michael Pavia named Valentine director of Public Safety for the city of Stamford. Valentine was paid a token $10,000 salary for this position, which he pledged to donate to city charities. 

In addition to his easy smile and charismatic personality, Valentine is also known for his philanthropy. He first became involved in charity as student council president of Rippowam High School in Stamford, following in the footsteps of his parents, Joseph and Grace. Valentine helped to found the Mickey Lione, Jr., Scholarship Fund, which awards scholarships to Stamford sophomores who excel off the field and exemplify the values that Lione instilled in his athletes and students.

It would be impossible to enumerate the many examples of his generosity, but one that stands out is his response to 9/11, when he worked relentlessly commanding an emergency staging area at Shea Stadium. He also visited a Queens firehouse that lost 19 members during the tragedy and has reached out to numerous children who lost a parent that day. He won the 2002 Branch Rickey Award for his donations and personal work with survivors of the September 11 attacks and was awarded the key to the city by the mayor.

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• Branch Rickey Award, 2002

• Lifetime achievement Award, 2001, Bobby Bragan Youth Foundation

• Man of the Year, Grand Marshall, Columbus Day Parade, 2002

• Publisher Award, 2002 

• All American Football, 1967

• The Matsutaro Shoriki Award, 2006 (Valentine was the first-ever American to ever receive this award)

• International Sports Business Prize, 2009, Western New England College

• Humanitarian of the Year Award, 2001 

• Armenian-American Sports Hall of Fame

• Italian-American National Hall of Fame

• CT and Fairfield County Hall of Fame 

• Citizen of the Year, Stamford, CT, 2011

• MS (multiple sclerosis) National Man of the Year Award, 1997

• American Cancer Society, Man of the Year, 1999 

• Japanese Society Humanitarian Award, 2011

• Boy and Girl Scouts of America Man of the Year, 2007

• Lifetime Achievement Award, 2011, Hearts of the Community, Good Samaritan of Stamford

• March of Dimes, Man of the Year, 2002

• NY Chapter Arthritis Foundation, Man of the Year, 1999

• Connecticut Gold Key Award from Connecticut Sports Writers Association

• Dallas Sports Writers Association Award

• New Jersey Sports Writers Association Award

• New York Sports Writers Association Good Guy Award

• UPI Manager of the Year, 1986

• New Jersey Sports Writers Association Manager of the Year, 1997

• Thurman Munson Award, 2001

• Fairfield County Sports Hall of Fame, 2006

• 2014 American Legion Alumni of the Year Award

• 2014 – 2015 Honorary Chairman of the CT Challenge Cancer Center in Southport, CT benefitting cancer patients

• 2015 American Cancer Society of Fairfield County Man of the Year

• 2015 Recipient of the Tommy Lasorda Award and Latino Hall of Fame

• 2016 ECAC Administrator of the Year

• 2018 Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette recipient from the Emperor of Japan

 

Sponsorship Opportunities Available 

Annual Benefit Breakfast

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contact Barbara Russell