National Football Foundation

Bill Flynn, a graduate of Boston College, played end and captained the 1938 football team. He was also a high-scoring forward on the hockey team and an excellent left-handed outfielder on the Eagles’ baseball team. Flynn served in the FBI for four years after college before returning to his alma mater as a professor of mathematics. He taught until 1952, when he became executive secretary of the Alumni Association. He also served as assistant football coach under Denny Myers and Mike Holovak, working his way up to athletics director by 1957.

A past president of the NCAA Executive Council and the NCAA Television Committee, Flynn also served as secretary-treasurer of the NCAA in 1969 before ascending to president. He also served as president of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics and president of the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference. Flynn was selected as “The Man of the Year” by the Gridiron Club of Boston in 1978 and NACDA honored Flynn in 1982 as the winner of the James J. Corbett Award. Flynn passed away in 1997 at the age of 81.