Northern Kentucky Baseball Named 2018 Bobby Fong Award Winner
Rachel White
INDIANAPOLIS – Northern Kentucky University’s baseball program has been named this year’s recipient of the Horizon League’s Bobby Fong Award. The award is named after the late Bobby Fong who served as the President of Butler University from 2001-11. The Bobby Fong Award is given to the student-athlete or team that best represents the Horizon League and its core values of integrity, respect and stewardship.
"As an avid baseball fan and scholar, Bobby would be delighted by the Norse team's service to the most vulnerable in their community. Bobby loved the stories of baseball; especially the ones which told of players embracing their youngest fans through kind gestures, large and small. Those gestures created lifelong fans, but, more importantly, they strengthened the teams that made them. Congratulations to the Norse team, their coaches, and their staff, for for the big hearts which earned them the Bobby Fong award," said Bobby's widow Suzanne Fong.
NKU Baseball has been a leader for the Norse in areas that go well beyond the playing field. The program has established a goal of making life-changing impact on the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky communities and on their own student-athletes. There are numerous examples of this commitment, including the team’s relationship with Ryan Mavriplis, participation in the Team Impact initiative, a partnership with the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, and many more.
Ryan Mavriplis has been involved with the NKU baseball team for the last eight years. Ryan has Down Syndrome, however the baseball coaches and student-athletes treat Ryan the same way they would treat anyone else who is a part of their team. While Ryan’s involvement with NKU Baseball has provided him responsibility and a sense of purpose, as well as a socialization opportunity with our student-athletes, it has also been a huge benefit for NKU’s baseball student-athletes. For the last eight years, the coaches and student-athletes have also volunteered at the annual Buddy Walk to support Ryan. He is a part of the NKU baseball family and has been a huge inspiration to the coaches and student-athletes.
Ryan’s mother, Ellen Mavriplis, commended the NKU baseball program for its positive impact on her son: “I have received countless messages from players and their parents over the past eight years telling us that their relationship with Ryan has been one of the most meaningful experiences of their college career. If only they knew…. The friendships created have been genuine and reciprocal - something I could never have created as an ‘advocate’ but always hoped and dreamed would happen for my son.”
Team IMPACT has created relationships that have enhanced the lives of thousands of courageous children and touched the lives of tens of thousands of student-athletes across the country. The organization, which has a conference-wide partnership with the Horizon League, pairs children with illnesses with college teams in the area. In 2014, the NKU baseball team adopted Alex Murray as one of its team members. The team held a press conference and presented Alex his very own jersey and gave him a locker in in the team locker room. NKU’s student-athletes play a huge role in the interaction and communication with Alex. Alex attended practices and games, and got to sit in the dugout as a part of the team. The student-athletes continue to stay in touch with Alex via email, text messages and phone calls. They also spend time with him playing catch, hitting, etc. whenever he and his family attend games.
The relationship with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital is the baseball team’s longest standing community service partnership. The baseball coaches and student-athletes have been making visits and volunteering their time for at least ten years. They have served many roles during this time: “celebrity bingo callers”, hosts for holiday parties such as Halloween and Christmas each year and they have held a baseball camp in order to raise funds for the hospital. The baseball program has also collected donations from the athletics department and taken them to the hospital’s annual Christmas toy drive. The overall goal of NKU’s coaches and student-athletes is to give their time to these children and their families so at least for a short period of time, they forget about what they are going through.
This is the third year of the Bobby Fong Award with Oakland’s Elena Popkey winning the inaugural award, and Northern Kentucky’s Sami Rutowski earning the honor in 2017. As Butler’s President, Dr. Fong served on the Horizon League Board of Directors from 2001-2011, including a term as its chairman. Dr. Fong’s decade as the President of Butler University was marked by a new core curriculum and improved campus-community relationships. Under his watch, Butler sustained an athletic program distinguished by its balance between academic achievement and competitive excellence.
Bobby Fong Award Winners
2016- Elena Popkey, Women’s Basketball, Oakland
2017- Sami Rutowski, Women’s Soccer, Northern Kentucky
2018- Northern Kentucky Baseball