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Robert L. Scalise was introduced as Harvard’s Nichols Family Director of Athletics in July 2001 after five years as associate dean and senior executive officer of the Harvard Business School.
Scalise, the seventh person to hold the director of athletics post at Harvard, oversees the nation’s largest Division I athletics program with 41 varsity sports, two dozen junior varsity teams, more than 1,500 intercollegiate athletes, and a broad array of wellness and recreation programs and facilities.
In just five years as director of athletics, Scalise has seen Harvard win nine national team championships and 38 Ivy League titles. The 2005-06 season saw Harvard win its first NCAA fencing championship as well as six Ivy League crowns.
In his former position, Scalise oversaw an annual operating budget of approximately $200 million and managed 15 direct reports, including the chief officer or executive director of all major administrative units.
Along with his business background, Scalise has extensive ties to Ivy League athletics as an All-America lacrosse player at Brown and later as head coach of the Harvard men’s lacrosse and women’s soccer programs.
A 1971 graduate of Brown, Scalise was selected three times to the All-Ivy League lacrosse team and twice named All-America and All-New England. He led the nation in scoring (47 goals) as a junior, then co-captained the squad in 1971 when he set a New England record by scoring 11 times against Connecticut while helping the Bears advance to the inaugural NCAA men’s lacrosse tournament.
As a senior, Scalise was also the recipient of the Brown University Sportsmanship Award and the Sports Illustrated Award of Merit, and was inducted into the Brown Hall of Fame in 1991. He entered the coaching ranks at his alma mater in the fall of 1971 as an assistant for the men’s soccer and lacrosse teams.
Scalise was just 24 years old when he was named head coach of Harvard’s men’s lacrosse team in 1974. He led the Crimson to the 1980 Ivy League championship — the program’s first league title in nearly two decades — and an accompanying NCAA tournament bid. He coached 17 All-Americas and completed his tenure in 1987 with a 98-79 overall record.
Scalise was also the first coach of Harvard’s women’s soccer program, which began varsity play in 1977. He led that team to Ivy League crowns in 1978, 1979, and 1981, and NCAA tournament berths in 1982 and 1984. In 1985, Scalise became the nation’s first women’s collegiate soccer coach to amass 100 victories. He finished with a 113-38-11 overall record.
Scalise left coaching in 1987 to enroll in the Harvard Business School, where in 1989 he was awarded a Master in Business Administration. Later that year, he became director of MBA placement services, managing processes and products serving the Business School community. He held that post until 1992, when he accepted a position at Bain & Company to become director of recruiting, career development, and alumni relations. While there, he developed strategic and operational initiatives to build people assets for the firm, and prepared and managed an operating budget of approximately $4 million. Scalise returned to the Business School in 1995 as its executive director of MBA program administration before assuming his current post in the department of athletics.
The 55-year-old Scalise was born in New York City and graduated from Uniondale (N.Y.) High School in 1967. He is married to Maura Costin Scalise ’80, an All-Ivy swimmer at Harvard who coached the Crimson women’s swimming and diving team to Ivy League and national prominence during her tenure.
The Scalise family resides in Nahant, Mass., and includes four children: Michael (age 18), Mark (16), Matthew (13) and Rosemary (9).
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