Jack Armstrong, a Devoted and Beloved Columbian, Passes Away at 75
12/27/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football, Wrestling
Read those words. Can you think of anything better to say about a coach? Or a teacher? A boss? Perhaps a father, or grandfather?
Bob Mulholland said them in Low Library Rotunda last Saturday, said them about his longtime friend and business associate, John B. “Jack” Armstrong. He said them just a couple of hours after the funeral mass for Jack Armstrong, who passed away Wednesday, December 19, at the age of 75.
And as soon as you heard those words, you knew they were perfect. For Jack Armstrong was all of those things ? coach, teacher, boss, father, grandfather. Oh, and two more ? mentor, and friend.
Hundreds of people gathered Saturday morning, at Holy Trinity R.C. Church in Manhattan, and then in Low Library, taking time on a holiday weekend, to pay their respects to the man with the booming voice and the physique to go with it, “a great storyteller,” as his children noted in the notice they wrote for The New York Times, “always quick with a joke, a piece of advice or wisdom”. He was, they said, “larger than life”.
Born during the Depression, on December 8, 1932, Jack Armstrong graduated from Xavier High School and Columbia College, Class of 1955. He played football for the Lions, a tackle under the great Lou Little, and was on the wrestling team.
“Jack was one of the leaders of our class,” said Gerald Sherwin ?55CC. “He was a devoted classmate, devoted to Columbia and to Columbia Football.”
For most college students, athletic involvement ceases with their last college game or match. For Jack Armstrong, it was just beginning.
Lightweight football had just come to Columbia, and Little asked Armstrong, who was attending graduate school, to coach the team. At the same time, to supplement his income, he became the line coach at Teaneck (N.J.) High School. He fell in love, as he once said, “in love with coaching.”
Within a couple of years, he had become Director of Recreation in Teaneck, was coaching football and wrestling at the high school, and teaching there as well. But he hadn't forgotten Columbia; he obtained his master's at Teachers College and continued to recruit for the Lions, especially for the wrestling team, many from his own Teaneck squads.
In 1959, he was named head coach of wrestling, football and golf at Tenafly High, then returned to Columbia in 1961 as head freshman coach. He was one of only three full-time assistants on the Columbia staff under head coach Buff Donelli ? the others were Al Paul and John Toner.
Three years earlier, as one of only three varsity coaches at Teaneck, he had helped lead the Highwaymen to a 9-0 record, their only unbeaten and untied season. Now that booming voice was heard sweeping across Baker Field, teaching, advising, guiding, as Columbia Football won its only Ivy League championship.
He made two major life moves during those years. One was to marry Nancy Kelly, the daughter of New York Times sports editor Raymond Kelly, and the other, in 1964, was to leave coaching and join Merrill Lynch.
Jack continued to coach, teach, recruit and mentor, but now it was for the famed financial concern. “Jack was a mentor to many young people, both as a coach and at Merrill Lynch,” former Columbia football and baseball star Mike Brown ?80CC said. “He hired me for Merrill Lynch Morristown. I owe him my career on Wall Street, and a lot of Merrill Lynch people can say that.”
In nearly 30 years with Merrill Lynch, Armstrong probably influenced or mentored thousands of people before he retired as a senior vice president. He once was credited with placing more than 60 Columbia student-athletes in positions, both in and out of the securities field.
Despite his move into the financial field, Jack retained his ties to Columbia Athletics. If anything, he became even more involved.
He was the first chairman of the Football Alumni Advisory Committee, and with former football star Jim Mooney ?56CC, founded football's Century Club, a pioneering athletics support group. The Century Club led the season-long observance of Columbia Football's 100th anniversary, in 1970, and Jack chaired the black-tie banquet in Low Rotunda that marked it.
He also remained active in Columbia alumni affairs through the Bergen County (N.J.) Alumni Association, which he served as president. During all that time, he was generous in his support of Columbia Athletics and instrumental in the recruitment of student-athletes for the Lions.
He was a great source of support for Al Paul, Columbia's athletics director from 1974 to 1991, and Paul, who came up from his home near Baltimore for the funeral with his wife, Anita, considered it a special moment in his career to present Jack with Columbia's Alumni Athletic Award at the 1991 Varsity C Club Awards Dinner. It was the final Alumni Athletic Award presentation for Paul, who retired a few months later.
Asked prior to the awards dinner for his greatest thrill at Columbia, Armstrong answered immediately. “It was when two of my kids ? Eliza ?89CC and Annie ?89P&S ? graduated on the same day.”
Jack is survived by them, four other daughters ? Molly, Jane, Sara and Kate ? a son, John, and 19 grandchildren. And the hundreds of people who will always cherish their association with him.
As Molly Armstrong noted at the funeral mass, “He spent his whole career helping people making dreams come true.”
