42nd Hall of Fame Induction - Graber Associates

SCOTT GIESELMAN ’85FootballScott Gieselman thinks of himself as theleast-prepared player ever to be offered acollege football scholarship by a majorinstitution.That’s highly debatable, but coach JackBicknell did take a flyer on the basketballplayer and late-arriving tight end fromWeston via Belmont Hill School. Bick hadbeen on the Boston College scene a coupleof months, was still casting around for athletes,and had recently signed another basketball-playingkid named Flutie.Barry Gallup, who had known Gieselmanfrom summer basketball pickup games,took Scott down to Bick’s office at halftimeof a game in February of 1981. They chatteda while, talked of things like weightprograms and post-graduate years, but bythe end of an hour Bicknell was ready tooffer Gieselman a scholarship. That’s howScott Gieselman came to Boston College togive football a shot, instead of going tosome Ivy or NESCAC school to play basketball.Bicknell wasn’t totally ignorant ofGieselman’s potential. Scott’s high schoolfootball coach Chip Dewar had taken itupon himself to send the BC coaches a filmfrom Scott’s senior year. That was unbeknownstto Gieselman, who’d made the allprepschool team. But he still thought ofhimself as a basketball player, with footballjust an outside possibility.Gieselman developed into one of the besttight ends in Boston College history, but healso came this close to transferring out.He’d sat out as a freshman, bulked upunder the tutelage of strength coach WesEmmert, and worked on speed and agilityover the summer with track coach DanDuncan at Weston High. His goal was tomake the travel roster as a sophomore, andto leave if he didn’t.Bicknell and offensive coordinator TomCoughlin had told Gieselman that his bestshot to play at BC was to switch to theoffensive line, which he simply did notwant to do. Scott Nizolek was an establishedperformer at tight end, and thecoaches had moved linebacker AndyHemmer to the position in pre-season.When he was left off the travel team forfirst game of 1982, Gieselman contactedanother school and gathered his transcriptsand papers.The Sunday after the Eagles destroyed theAggies 38-16 in College Station, Scott washeading for Bick’s office. Gallup metGieselman first, however, and told himthat Hemmer had sustained an injury andwouldn’t be playing. Scott suited up afterall, and he caught his first pass for a touchdownat Navy two games later.That wasn’t the only fortunate coincidence.Bicknell and Coughlin knew theyhad an exceptional leader in Flutie, andthey revamped the entire offense to takeadvantage of his skills and football savvy.That meant an aggressive, pass-happyoffense modeled after teams like the SanDiego Chargers, and more pass routes atvaried distances for the tight end. Blockingfor runners like Troy Stradford and SteveStrachan was also a requirement, but therewould be a tilt toward more pass catchingby the tight end, playing right intoGieselman’s growing strengths.Gieselman caught only two passes as asophomore and was used sparingly. Heblossomed as a junior after Nizolek left,snaring 45 passes for 525 yards and fourtouchdowns. Nine of those catches came ina game against West Virginia. In that yearhe earned AP honorable mention All-America and All-East accolades.Scott was all-ECAC as a senior and fifthyearsenior and finished out his careerwith 120 catches for 1485 yards, an averageof 12.4 yards per catch, and ten touchdowns.He is the Eagles’ 11th all-time inreceptions, 15th in yardage with 1,485,and 18th in touchdowns with ten. Not badfor a kid from a small town who was head-2010 INDUCTEEed for a college career in basketball, a pathhe could easily have pursued.Encouraged by his father John, a Syracusenative who’d played college basketball atNiagara, Scott went to play at the Dan MarrBoys’ Club in Boston on weekends, facingthe likes of local high school hoop legendsTim O’Shea and Patrick Ewing.Scott was good enough to go to the 5 StarBasketball Camp in Pittsburgh, one of thesport’s hottest recruiting venues.Gieselman did well there; in a one-on-oneplayoff tournament he drew a kid fromNorth Carolina named Michael Jordan. Thepair battled into overtime, and Jordan prevailed13-11. Gieselman made one mistake.“I hit him in the nose. I think it wasan accident, but that made him mad, andthat was the end for me,” he says.Scott was drafted in the fourth round bythe Patriots, but neck injuries there andlater on at a Dolphins’ training camp curtailedhis playing days. After bidding arueful farewell to Don Shula and DanMarino, he returned to Boston College, finishedhis MBA, and caught on with themergers and acquisitions group at the WallStreet juggernaut, Goldman Sachs.Gieselman remarks that he was even lesswell prepared for varsity high finance thanhe was for varsity football. In his first yearat the firm, his only days off wereChristmas and Easter. That work paid offwhen he was offered a slot in Goldman’sEnergy Division. His work on several hugetransactions in the oil patch led to an offerto become a partner.Scott stayed there until 2007, when hebranched off with six other colleagues toform Natural Gas Partners, a private equityfirm that specializes in the energy sector.Scott operates out of Weston and coversthe Eastern United States and Europe.Gieselman did not forget his BostonCollege roots and especially Bicknell, theman who invested a precious footballscholarship on the kid with raw athleticability but much to learn. Along with SteveStrachan, he has made major gifts in honorof Jack, naming a room for him in YawkeyCenter and endowing a scholarship.Scott met his wife, the former Mia Jung,while working in Houston for GoldmanSachs. They were married about four yearsago and have an 18-month old son, ConorHenry “Hank” Gieselman.17