For Brandeis, big football game is truly 'Super'

Released on January 28, 2005
Contact: David Nathan 781-736-4203

President Jehuda Reinharz and jerseys of the super rivals

Brandeis University already has a winner in Super Bowl XXXIX. Not bad for a school that hasn't fielded a football team in nearly a half-century.

The owners of both the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles, who will clash in the NFL championship game on Feb. 6 in Jacksonville, Fla., graduated from the school.

Myra Kraft, who owns the Pats with her husband, Bob, graduated from Brandeis in 1964 and has been a longtime benefactor of the university. She serves as vice chairman of the Board of Trustees, and she and her husband have funded the Myra '64 and Robert Kraft Chair in Arab Politics, the Myra '64 and Robert Kraft Endowed Scholarship, and the Kraft-Hiatt Chair in Christian Studies. Myra is also a member of the National Board of the Brandeis UniversityB Women's Studies Research Center and Scholars Program.B Her father, Jacob Hiatt, served as chairman of the Brandeis Board of Trustees.

Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie earned his doctorate from Brandeis's Heller School for Social Policy and Management in 1987. His mother, Nancy Lurie Marks, funded the Nancy Lurie Marks Chair in Neuroscience at Brandeis and sponsored a conference on autism at the school in 2004.

Both the Patriots and Eagles hosted Brandeis alumni events in their respective stadiums this season.

"This is so exciting for Brandeis," Brandeis President Jehuda Reinharz said. "Regardless of the result of the game, Brandeis will be a winner. I'll be watching and cheering for a good game."

Plans are under way for a big Super Bowl viewing party on campus. Commemorative T-shirts marking the historic nature of the game will be distributed.

Before the game even begins, Brandeis supporters might have something else to celebrate.

Former Brandeis football coach and athletic director Benny Friedman, the father of the forward pass, is on the ballot for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The voting will take place on Feb. 5, the day before Super Bowl XXXIX.

Friedman, a two-time All-American as a collegian at the University of Michigan, played for the Cleveland Bulldogs, Detroit Wolverines, New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers in a National Football League career that stretched from 1927-34. He was so popular that the Giants purchased the entire Detroit team to acquire Friedman in 1929, and then signed him to a league-high $10,000 contract.

Friedman, who died in 1982 at the age of 77, twice passed for more than 1,500 yards in a season - an unheard of total for that era. In 1928, he was truly Michael Vickian, leading the NFL in both rushing touchdowns and passing TDs.

At Brandeis, Friedman served as football coach from 1950 until the program was disbanded after the 1959 season. He doubled as athletic director. Friedman was inducted into the inaugural class of the Brandeis Athletic Hall of Fame in 1993.

Links

The Boston Globe
"Feature on Brandeis graduate Jeffrey Lurie, the owner of the Philadelphia Eagles"
submitted by David Nathan

Boston Herald

submitted by David Nathan

The Boston Globe
"Feature on Brandeis owning the Super Bowl B at least by proxy"
submitted by David Nathan