R Big Ten Building Blocks is a ScarletKnights.com series telling the stories of the people behind the scenes writing the next great chapter of Rutgers Athletics. Unparalleled generosity, enduring support and contagious passion represent just a fraction of the motivating factors behind Rutgers' donors. Together, they are not just helping build physical structures to propel the Scarlet Knights to the top of the Big Ten; they are fostering the framework for a prosperous community of scholar-athletes and their mentors in relentless pursuit of excellence.
Forty-three years after his Rutgers graduation, one core principal of Phil Scalo's education has proven to be the root of success and the basis for continued involvement and investment "On the Banks."
Success starts somewhere. That realization, and the resources placed behind it, is a powerful weapon as students build an arsenal for life after school.
Scalo, a 1975 graduate from Rutgers College and proud alumnus of the lightweight football program, earned a law degree from Rutgers-Newark and launched a career that spanned courtrooms, boardrooms and rooms for assisted living and senior care as president and CEO of Bartley Healthcare. The room where it all started? A classroom in New Brunswick.
"I came from a small high school and wasn't challenged academically," Scalo recalls. "At Rutgers, I was surrounded by intelligence, and the vast ambition and experience around me helped me realize that if I work at something, I'll have opportunities that don't exist anywhere else. Looking back, my future took shape with that personal commitment."
Now, his commitment is to the Scarlet Knights' student-athletes in their relentless pursuit of excellence. Just as Scalo's success had a pinpoint start, so did his generosity. It began by becoming a member of the R Fund (formerly Scarlet R), season tickets to football and a modest annual donation. As his career took off, his giving grew proportionately and the focus of his support shifted to a cause near-and-dear.
Armed with care and capital, Scalo helped found the Rutgers Leadership Academy, known today as Rutgers Leadership Development and Strategic Partnerships. Regardless of the organization's name, the premise remained the same: cultivate life skills and prepare the Scarlet Knights for life after they hang up the armor.
"Rutgers student-athletes are lauded for their abilities in sport, but that only lasts four years except for the few-and-far-between that make it to the next level," said Scalo. "This program we started provides opportunities to use those skills they have learned as an athlete, use that competitive spirit, use that persistence, use that organization and translate it to a career."
It's a familiar notion for Scalo. A high school wrestler and football player, he was recruited in both sports before choosing Rutgers. The inherent prerequisites of competitiveness and discipline made an impact on the mat, the gridiron and in the classroom. While he did not join the Rutgers wrestling program officially, the sport never got far away from the Bergen County native.
When
Scott Goodale was hired as the Rutgers wrestling coach in 2007, Scalo's involvement with the Scarlet Knights' grapplers took shape in the form of an annual scholarship and a Wrestling Coach's Fund endowment. His latest gift is currently rising out of the ground inside the burgeoning RWJBarnabas Health Athletic Performance Center.
When the doors open this summer, Rutgers wrestling will have a new home in the Scalo Family Wrestling Lounge.
"Wrestling is the perfect sport-to-real world analogy," Scalo said. "You learn the value of accepting responsibility because there is no one else working for you on the mat. Like anything else in business, the harder you work, the luckier you will get. You are out there on your own, and how you prepare yourself, how you work on your strengths, how you work on your weaknesses; It is all going to be shown during those minutes on the mat."
Alongside personal accountability, wrestling teaches teamwork and partnerships. The program in its current state – producing national championship-caliber athletes, selling out The RAC, achieving unprecedented team success – is a testament to the people at the helm, namely Goodale, associate head coach
Donny Pritzlaff, and the culture they have created. This is why, amid a 295,000-square-foot facility, Scalo chose to attach his family name to a room where these relationships are born and blossom.
"These bonds will last a lifetime, and reaffirm just how important it is to support others and to receive support," Scalo said.
For a young Phil Scalo, the support from his family at an early age planted the seed that would be fostered years later at Rutgers and grow into a character defined by hard work, passion and morality. During a trip to Philadelphia to watch their son compete for Rutgers lightweight football at UPenn, the Scalo's tire sprung a leak and Phil watched from the team bus as his father crouched on the side of the road to attach the spare.
It was a fairly mundane task, but it served as a microcosm of his parents' dedication. Neither his mother or father went to college, so every aspect of the Scalo household was painstakingly earned, all the way to supporting Phil's foray to Rutgers. The word
family, which will permanently adorn the Athletic Performance Center's wrestling lounge, is an homage to where it truly all began.
"The importance of support is something I learned from them," Scalo said. "That taught me that if I'm going to be involved in something, do it with passion and do the right thing for the right reasons."
Just as Scalo sought to pay his experience at Rutgers forward, he does the same in family life. Scalo married his high school sweetheart, Marilyn, who went to Montclair State and swiftly became an adopted Scarlet Knight as she supported her husband's penchant for giving back. Their son, Tim, followed a familiar path. He skied collegiately at Colorado State before entering law school and building toward a career as a business litigator.
When the family convenes in Piscataway this summer to help cut the ribbon on the Scalo Family Wrestling Lounge, there will certainly be a sense of pride, but not for name recognition or bragging rights. Scalo wants his giving to be exponential and cyclical. He hopes the next generation sees the name on the room and realizes that Rutgers and its people were worth an investment, and then they will do the same.
"The satisfaction comes from helping people who are going to help people moving forward," Scalo said. "If we prepare these student-athletes for life and success Off the Banks, they will come back, give back, and feed into that same systemic success."
After all, success has to start somewhere. Why not here? Why not now?
Rutgers is committed to building championship contenders in the Big Ten. This commitment means the university must build premier training facilities for elite student-athletes from New Jersey, the nation, and around the globe.
To fulfill this objective, Rutgers Athletics is embarking on the R Big Ten Build, a comprehensive campaign to raise $100 million for new or upgraded athletic facilities. Since its launch in January of 2016, the campaign has brought in four of the largest gifts ever made in Rutgers Athletics history led by a strategic partnership with RWJBarnabas Health. Through this partnership, the first of three facilities will be the RWJBarnabas Health Athletic Performance Center, which broke ground on November 1, 2017. RWJBarnabas becomes the exclusive health care provider for Rutgers University and Rutgers Athletics.
R Fund is Rutgers Athletic's annual giving program. Its goal is to provide student-athletes with the support they need to reach their full potential; as students, as athletes, and as individuals. The financial contributions of our donors help R Fund advance the mission of Rutgers Athletics and give our student-athletes the resources they need to compete.
