June 16, 2009
Santa Clara University is proud to announce it has hired former Bronco baseball player and football coach Rusty Weekes '71 as the Bronco Bench Foundation Director. He will also serve as an Assistant Athletic Director in his roll with the Bench. Founded in 1962, in recent years the BFF has focused solely on scholarship funding for student-athletes.
Weekes has owned his own sales management consulting firm for the past three years. Prior to that, he held a number of high level management positions in sales and marketing in the communications industry with Comcast, AT & T Broadband, RCN Communications (now RNC Metro) and Viacom.
Besides Weekes expansive experience in sales and marketing, working behind the scenes as a producer as well as on air with the San Francisco Giants, and with pre-event programs for the boxing industry and college and professional soccer.
"We are thrilled to be bringing Rusty back to Santa Clara where he belongs," Santa Clara Athletic Director Dan Coonan. "He emerged from an incredible field of over 125 applicants for this position not only by proving his considerable sales skills and experience but by emphasizing how this will be for him a true labor of love. While so many of our Bronco Bench membership already know him well, but those who don't will relish getting to know this Bronco and helping him take this Foundation to new heights. This is a very good day for Santa Clara Athletics."
"Dan Coonan has made a great choice in selecting Rusty Weekes for this position," said Jim Purcell, Santa Clara Vice President of University Relations. "Both as a Bronco Bench Trustee and as the university's chief fund raising officer, I look forward to working with Rusty to raise significant resources for our student-athletes."
"You very rarely have a second chance at a love affair and I am getting that right now by coming back to Santa Clara," said Weekes, a 1967 graduate of Bellarmine College Prep in San Jose. "Some of my fondest memories were spent on the field at Buck Shaw Stadium as both a baseball player and a football coach. I am thrilled and honored to take over the reigns as the BBF Director. I am anxious and excited to rejoin the Bronco team and share my passion for winning."
The Bronco Bench Foundation was established in 1962 to raise funds for the construction of Buck Shaw Stadium, and since that time the BBF has contributed in excess of $30 million to the Athletic Department. contributing roughly $1.5 million per year in endowment income, annual donations and event revenue.
Weekes graduated from Santa Clara in 1971 with a degree in English. He played baseball at Santa Clara (1967-71) and one year of football (1967). As the captain of the Bronco baseball team, he garnered WCC All-Conference honors in 1971; and the Broncos won the WCC each year of his college career, advancing to the NCAA Tournament. The Broncos were one game away from the College World Series in 1969, 70 and 71.
Upon graduation, Weekes coached football for six of the next seven years at SCU, when the Broncos reached the Division II National Semi-Final game (1980), beating before Northern Michigan at Buck Shaw Stadium to advance to the national semi-finals. During that time, he also taught religious education at Moreau High School in Hayward for three years before moving on to coach at University of the Pacific for two years.
