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Richard Lipe '77

 

There are reports of a football game that occurred against MIT when what was then the Bentley School of Accounting and Finance was only a couple of years old. And there’s a picture of a basketball team from the early 1930s. But for most of the first half-century in Bentley’s history, the only organized sport at the school was candlepin bowling on Wednesday afternoons

Things began to change in the early 1960s when Al Shields was hired to serve as Bentley’s first athletics director and basketball coach.

Things began to change in the early 1960s when Al Shields was hired to serve as Bentley’s first athletics director and basketball coach. More than 50 years later, only two people have served as the university’s athletic director: Shields and Bob DeFelice, who succeeded him in 1991 and has since taken Falcon athletics to another level. New fields have been constructed, the Dana Athletic Center has been expanded, and in early 2018, a multipurpose arena — the future home of Bentley’s Division I hockey team — will be completed.

“I was the sports information director at Northeastern, and I was sitting in the office with [Northeastern] coach Dick Dukeshire one day in 1962,” Shields told The Boston Globe in a 1965 interview. “Professor Frank Porter came in and asked ‘Duke’ if he knew of anyone who might be interested in supervising an intramural program at Bentley two afternoons a week. Duke looked at me and said, ‘There’s your man,’ and there I was, involved in coaching.”

After competing on an informal basis for a year, the basketball team — men only at that point — became one of Bentley’s first five varsity sports, joining cross country, tennis, golf and skiing. The Falcons finished their first official season, 1963-1964, with 16 wins in 21 games.

As Bentley was still located on Boylston Street, the Falcons were nomads for the first decade, playing home games at the YMCA, Brandeis University and Waltham High School.

Hockey debuted in the late 1960s, and more club sports were added in the next few years, including track and field, soccer and football.

That changed in 1973 when the Dana Athletic Center was constructed; the first game was a victory of 105-63 over Lowell Tech on December 1 of that year. Four months later, the new building was the focal point of Division II basketball in the region, as the Falcons hosted the NCAA New England regional tournament.

The Dana Center was Bentley’s second on-campus facility, the first coming three years earlier when a baseball field was built at what is now the location of Fenway Hall.

Hockey debuted in the late 1960s, and more club sports were added in the next few years, including track and field, soccer and football.

Football, which became a varsity program in 1988 after succeeding at the club level, has made its mark over the years. There was a New England record 30-game winning streak from 1993-1995 and NCAA Division II playoff games at home in both 2003 and 2004. Offensive lineman Mackenzy Bernadeau ’08 became the first Falcon to play a regular professional season in one of the four major sports, spending four years with the Carolina Panthers and another four with the Dallas Cowboys.

WELCOMING WOMEN’S SPORTS

Coinciding with the addition of the Dana Center, women’s sports came to Bentley during the 1973-1974 academic year and made their varsity debut a year later. Basketball, field hockey and softball were the first three, with Daryl Leonard serving as head coach of each.

A little more than a dozen years later, in March 2014, legendary women’s basketball coach Barbara Stevens guided her team to not only the national championship, but also to a perfect 35-0 record.

Leonard’s work with those early teams helped laid the groundwork for what has been a very successful women’s program at Bentley, one that has included the only two NCAA Division II national championships in the university’s history. The field hockey team won theirs at home in November 2001, dispatching East Stroudsburg by the count of 4-2.

A little more than a dozen years later, in March 2014, legendary women’s basketball coach Barbara Stevens guided her team to not only the national championship, but also to a perfect 35-0 record. The Falcons, who captured the title with an incredible comeback against West Texas A&M down the stretch, became only the second undefeated women’s basketball champion in Division II history.

The national championship, earned under the leadership of one of the winningest coaches in NCAA women’s basketball history, was the pinnacle moment in what has been an amazing run for Falcon hoops. The men’s and women’s basketball teams have combined for 17 regional titles since 1989 and made a dozen Division II Final Four appearances during that span.

Highlights include a remarkable stretch for the men’s team that over four years featured three Elite Eight trips (2007, 2008, 2010). Coach Jay Lawson’s team won a Division II record 55 consecutive regular season games from 2006 to 2008, breaking a standard that had stood since the 1940s, and reached the Final Four in both 2008 and 2010.

CONFERENCE CHAMPS

For most of the first 20 years, Bentley athletics competed as an independent with no conference title to shoot for. That all changed in 1980, when Shields and other Division II athletics directors created what was then the Northeast-7 Conference. Now, a 15-team conference known as the Northeast-10, no NE-10 institution has won more league championships than the Falcons. There have been a total of 143, including 110 in the DeFelice era.

Eight times since 1996, Bentley has won the prestigious President’s Cup, given annually to the best overall program in the Northeast-10.

Eight times since 1996, Bentley has won the prestigious President’s Cup, given annually to the best overall program in the Northeast-10. Taking that further, the Falcons have finished in second place 17 times since 1987-1988. Their 25 top-two finishes during that time is unparalleled; no other institution had more than seven.

Ice hockey became Bentley’s first Division I sport in 1999. The team competes in the Atlantic Hockey Division, along with such institutions as Air Force, Army West Point and Holy Cross. Last year’s team swept Northeastern home and away, and the Falcons have beaten a Hockey East opponent in six of the past eight seasons.

EXCELLING IN CLASSROOMS AND FIELDS

Bentley student athletes have a history of excelling in the classroom as well as on the playing fields.

Over the years, 72 have earned Academic All-America recognition from the College Sports Information Directors of America, one of the most prestigious honors in collegiate athletics. Included on that list is former Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Division II National Player of the Year Lauren Battista ’14, who was named the Division II Academic All-America of the Year for all sports in 2014, months after leading the Falcons to the national championship.

During the 2015-2016 academic year, all of Bentley’s 21 athletic teams posted a grade point average exceeding 3.0. More than half of the university’s 500-plus student athletes earned President’s or Dean’s List recognition.

In a 2001 Boston Globe article, DeFelice commented, “The school grew and made a major commitment to athletics and hasn’t done anything to compromise its academic integrity, and so we really are a great product. Right now, Bentley is very attractive for a kid who still wants to continue in athletics and get a great education.” Those words are still true some 15 years later.

Dick Lipe ’77 is director of sports information.