Mr. Kevin Mullan, the unsung hero of Jesuit Dallas. Unknown by many students, Mullan has one of the most important jobs at Jesuit, Alumni Director. While Mullan brought his talents of fostering relationships between a school and its community, he also brought along something else, his gift of announcing and broadcasting.
Mullan grew up in Toledo, Ohio, the son of a school teacher father and a stay-at-home mom. Growing up he loved sports, however was not the most gifted athlete, so he looked for a way to get involved in sports. So while attending St. John’s Jesuit High School & Academy in his hometown of Toledo, Mr. Mullan felt a hankering to announce a basketball game before he graduated.
Being in theater throughout his high school career, Mullan wanted to bring his talents to a sports atmosphere, so as the story goes, he approached the school’s announcer, who was also the principal, and explained to him that “before I graduate I want to announce one basketball game … [and] being the strong educator he was, he said absolutely not.” That was not exactly the answer Mullan was hoping for, but he pressed on with his life, hoping for better days. After graduating in 1999, he arrived on the campus of Miami University, in Oxford, Ohio.
It was in Miami where Mullan would be approached about his voice and offered the opportunity to do some public announcing for the university. Originally announcing woman’s field hockey games, Mullan was only speaking to an “attendance of about three people,” but it was those field hockey games that allowed the young Mullan to find his love for the profession. “It gave me the opportunity to combine two passions that I love … athletics and performance,” commented Mullan. After honing his craft, he worked his way through the ranks of announcing, working women’s softball, women’s soccer, and eventually men’s hockey, the holy grail of announcing at Miami University.
Thinking he could not sustain a comfortable life as an announcer, Mullan did not pursue it as career after graduating, but one fateful day would change that course. Hearing of Mullan’s work and knowing of his affiliation with Toledo, the Toledo Mud Hens, the triple – A minor league affiliate of the Detroit Tigers, contacted him and offered him the job as their PA announcer and he accepted. Mullan announced for the team for eight great years and then moved on to the University of Toledo where he announced for five years, doing football, basketball and hockey games. After completing these years, he decided to apply for a job at his alma mater St. John’s, joking that he finally had “a resume to call a game” there.
When he returned to his alma mater, Mullan took the job of Alumni director, as well as announcer, and started on the path he is on now. As Mullan was getting settled in his new life, he heard of an opening for the Chicago Cubs announcer position. On a whim he applied for the job and amazingly was named a finalist. Though he did not receive the position, the accomplishment of being in the top twenty out of two thousand applicants made him think of life outside of Toledo.
One year while attending a national Jesuit alumni director conference in Houston, Mullan had the pleasure of meeting faculty from Dallas Jesuit. Being captivated by what the Dallas Jesuit representatives had to say, he decide to see if the hype matched reality and visited the campus. He immediately “fell in love with Jesuit Dallas” and shared the same passion for the vision that President Mike Earsing and others had for the school.
Eager to join the Jesuit College Prep community, he applied for job of Director of Alumni Relations as soon as he could. During the interview process, Mullan frequently asked about the amount of money he needed to raise, that being the primary job of the average alumni director, but he quickly found that nothing about Jesuit is average. “When I was interviewing for the job, I asked about how much money I had to raise … and I wasn’t given a dollar figure.”
“I was told that the goal of the Alumni Association of Jesuit Dallas is to be a major player in community service and that I had five years to build the largest coordinated community service program in the country,” said Mullan. It was no easy task by any means, but he was up for the challenge. Receiving the job, he quickly uprooted and left his hometown of Toledo and alma mater to begin his work at Jesuit.
Director of Alumni Relations is probably one of the most important jobs at Jesuit. It is the duty of the Director of Alumni Relations to aid the alumni in maintaining the Jesuit character that was instilled in them during their time at the school. While it is important for the Director of Alumni to raise money, it is more important and more beneficial to “teach people to support their community” through service. At other schools alumni “become Men for Us” when they donated money “which is only a one way street,” Mullan commented. “I view myself as the gatekeeper that is in charge [of alumni continuing to learn] and [ensuring] that the Profile of a Student at Graduation is not just something we talk about for four years,” he added.
He views his job as more of approaching alumni and asking them the question, “How can I help you do more,” which could range from his aiding an alumni set up of a community service project for him and his son, to helping organize a get together for classmates to discuss what they could do in their community. As Mullan said, it is something that “you cannot help but get fired up about.”
While attempting to accomplish so much, Mullan still feels an itch for announcing, an itch he scratches at Southern Methodist University. “After getting settled [in Dallas], I sent an email to SMU, saying, if you need anybody, I’m here,” said Mullan. Coincidentally, SMU was holding auditions at the time, but unfortunately, Mullan finished second in the running, but SMU decide to keep him around as a backup announcer. As time went on, they recognized how much he brought to the table and created an on-field position for him. For Mullan it is hard to complain, “Any time you can get paid to be on the sidelines that’s a good day.”
When asked about his passion for announcing, Mullan stated that it is “a great way to [exercise his love of] performance,” as well as improve and bring new ideas to a team. “I enjoy working with teams that are not perfect … I always try to bring it a level up … it goes back to announcing women’s field hockey … I tried to announce every game like it was game seven of the NBA finals,” said Mullan. It is that same determined and excited spirit that manifests itself in his work at Jesuit and during his time at the University of Toledo: “We won … the WNIT in my last season with [the women’s basketball team] … and had 7,300 fans at a women’s basketball game screaming and shouting … and that was an atmosphere that took five years to build, but we did it.”
As one can tell, Mr. Mullan is a man of many traits. The most notable is his passion for sharing in the experience of life, whether that be by helping the Jesuit community become a substantial force in community service or by bringing an entire arena to its feet. Here is a man willing to leave everything that he has known his entire life to aid a noble cause. Kevin Mullan’s life and story is one worthy of announcement.
