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Ronald J. Daniels
President
I was running late. This never happens.
OK. It happens on occasion. This time I was in danger of missing my costume change. I was set to dedicate the new weight room in the O'Connor Recreation Center at Homewood, and my presentation required me to do a quick change at the gym into more site-appropriate workout gear.
Racing out of my office, I realized I would have to defy the laws of physics to make it to the gym in time for the event. That's when the golf cart flew by, driven by one of our staff members. I flagged her down, told her my predicament, and without batting an eye she said, hop in. We sped off—inasmuch as any golf cart can speed—confessing to each other along the way that this was not how our days typically unfolded.
With her at the wheel, I made it just under the wire. And my performance was all the more convincing for the sweat expended in getting there.
This was a celebration that drew a cross section of Johns Hopkins: Our new Athletics director, Alanna Shanahan, coaches, athletes, and Hopkins community members who, like me, subject themselves to torture in the name of health. As I looked across the room, I was reminded of a Blue Jay icon, former Athletics director and seven-time national champion lacrosse coach Bob Scott, who had recently passed away. Bob was the kind of leader who would line up to shake each player's hand before the team left for an away game. The kind of coach who made everyone—from the highest scorers on the field, to the managers, to the last player on the bench—feel essential. The kind of colleague who would remember details about your family. The kind of Athletics director who understood that athletics was about the way you played the game—to win, of course, but also to build your strengths in partnership with others and to go above and beyond, for yourself and your team, regardless of outcome.
I know that Bob would see this ethos reflected in our student athletes as they take the field, in our faculty as they bring an uncommon collaborative spirit to their research and service, and in our staff, certainly in one who went out of her way just to get me where I needed to be in record time.
To me, that is simply the Hopkins way.
Ronald J. Daniels
President
