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Editor’s note: The following story was written by Matt Choquette for Scarlet-Knights.com, a publication of the University of Rutgers.
Brian Crockett, a former football player and associate athletic director for the University of Rutgers who later became the chief executive officer for the Virginia Military Institute Foundation, received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Athletic Development Directors last month.
Although he insists he is much too young to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award, the 64-year-young Crockett was celebrated in June when the National Association of Athletic Development Directors (NAADD) honored a standout career in serving student-athletes and collegiate athletic communities. Instead of “Lifetime” being linked to age or a temporal construct, Crockett instead is proud the prestigious award commemorates how he lives his entire life – with respect for people and with an emphasis on building relationships.
Many of his achievements started right here “on the banks” as a Rutgers football letter winner, and eventually as a development director for the Scarlet Knights and as vice president of the Rutgers University Foundation. From 1993 to 2002, Crockett spearheaded fundraising initiatives for the Scarlet Knights’ athletic programs, including monumental gains in annual giving, the establishment and growth of scholarships, and the expansion of SHI Stadium and the surrounding football complex. The Rutgers graduate took that growth mindset to the heart of the university, where he implemented a comprehensive strategic plan for fundraising, alumni relations, regional programs and athletic development; coordinated fundraising efforts directed at Rutgers’ 480,000 alumni.
Through it all, Crockett stayed true to his guiding principle, which is best summed up by his thoughts after winning Fundraiser of the Year from NAADD while working at Rutgers.
“When I received that award, I told people it was not because we raised the most money, but because we were so positive in building our relationships and how we shared our genuine excitement about our achievements going forward,” Crockett said. “We were successful because of building strong relationships based on trust, based on respect, based on integrity, and getting people to fall in love with our student- athletes and what they achieve on and off the field.”
Crockett took that mentality across the region, expanding his impactful philosophy and making history along the way. In November of 2007, he became the first non-alumni and first African American to serve at West Point’s Association of Graduates. In June of 2009, Crockett was named CEO of the Virginia Military Institute Foundation. In this position, he again was the first non-alumni and first African American, and was responsible for raising and managing funds to boost the nation’s oldest state-supported military college. At VMI, he launched a campaign with a $180 million goal, and significantly surpassed that by raising $335 million.
The will to achieve was refined on the gridiron in Piscataway. As a tight end, he scored in some memorable games for Rutgers football in the late 1970s and early ‘80s, reaching the end zone against Bear Bryant and Alabama, as well as in the Princeton rivalry game. It was his relationship with Rutgers coaching great Frank Burns that helped him land his first job at Xerox in sales and marketing. The common thread from the career shift into fundraising was cultivating meaningful connections with the people who drive these businesses.
He developed his own three rules to fundraising, again based on the human element rather than just monetary: 1. Show your ties to the organization. 2. Stress the importance of the impact fundraising has on people. 3. Love the institution you’re serving.
The third one came naturally for Crockett at Rutgers. He loved his alma mater throughout his college career and his time as a distinguished alumnus. That love continues today. He sets the example with a plan to fully fund the endowed Brian Scott Crockett scholarship, which was set up in his honor with a starting value of $83,000, a nod to his jersey number with the Scarlet Knights. The scholarship has gone to Rutgers linemen over the years. He made meaningful connections to athletic director Fred Gruninger, basketball coach Freddy Hill, and his mentors at Rutgers, Mark Hershhorn, Ron Giaconia and Alan Goldberg. His rules are easy to follow when a genuine love exists for a community.
“The one thing I could do better than anyone was defend Rutgers,” Crockett said from a room in his house adorned wall to wall with Scarlet Knight memorabilia and imagery. “I watch everything from the perspective of a student-athlete and from a perspective of growth for the university. I always loved the people that made that happen here, and we have some tremendous people in those positions now with President Jonathan Holloway, Athletic Director Pat Hobbs and Deputy Athletic Director Shawn Tucker.”
It’s these kinds of people that kept Crockett going even when times were tough. He’ll be the first to admit that while people tend to focus on the positive when reflecting, Crockett will never forget the challenges he experienced and the growth opportunities that come from them. On the way back from a disheartening football loss at Penn State on national TV, Crockett’s bus got lost and its passengers didn’t get home until early the next morning. Yet, he was up-and-at-’em the next day for the athletic department’s Phonathon.
“I’ve come to terms that I just love people,” he said. “I wanted to be there and help people, and I was passionate about Rutgers through all the tribulations and triumphs and defeats. It’s not a role, it’s not a job, or even a career. It became a lifestyle. My life was dedicated to it, so I promised myself to see it through with genuine personal integrity.”
Was he born with that level of integrity? Perhaps. But it was certainly fostered at home.
The trailblazing career was an inherited trait from his Uncle Bucky Hatchett, a Rutgers football and basketball Hall of Famer and the first African American to be president of his class. The respect and love for people was handed down by his parents, a White woman and a Black man who were married in 1955 amid racial tension in the United States. His parents chose to live in a White neighborhood, and the day they closed on their mortgage, the neighbors put up a six-foot tall pigeon fence on the property line.
“My father didn’t yell and scream or knock on the door,” Crockett recalls about a dark day in his family’s history. “He gathered his kids and looked us in the eye. My father could have said a lot of things that day, but the only lesson was to respect other people’s property.”
Sixty days later, the neighbors took down the fence. Many years later, the neighbor left a diamond ring in her will to Crockett’s brother, Big Mike.
“The most important lesson is respect,” said Crockett. “Those are the standards and values that I got from both my mom and my dad.”
Those are the standards and values that translated beautifully into a career in fundraising. NAADD honored that career with the Lifetime Achievement Award in June, a lifetime not measured simply by dollar figures and years of service, but in impactful service to people with respect and integrity.
