BALTIMORE, MD – Johns Hopkins Associate Vice Provost for Student Affairs and Director of Athletics and Recreation Jennifer S. Baker announced an initiative - the Pride and Poise campaign - to support the Blue Jay football program today. The $2 million campaign will support three essential areas, each designed to enhance the experience of every member of the program while ensuring the program's long-term growth and success.
"The Pride and Poise campaign demonstrates our unwavering commitment to the Johns Hopkins football program," Baker stated. "We have been fortunate over the last 25 years to see the program elevate to one that is nationally competitive. Our goal is to ensure that we have positioned the program to continue to excel on the field while attracting high-achieving scholar-athletes who will enjoy the finest high-academic football experience available to any college football player in the nation."
The three key initiatives that the campaign will support are Capital Improvements, the Pride and Poise Endowment and the Annual Fund; each plays a pivotal role in the operation of a program that has, among other achievements, produced more Academic All-Americans than any college football program in the nation at any level since 2011.
Planned Capital initiatives include the renovation of the football locker room, conference room and coaches suite, while the Pride and Poise Endowment supports annual programmatic needs. The Annual Fund is designed to address immediate-impact areas, including technology, sport performance, team travel and other areas that are essential to providing a first-class experience to coaches and players.
"We are beyond excited to launch the Pride and Poise campaign, an essential step in providing our scholar-athletes with an elite experience that matches their commitment to excellence on and off the field," stated Dan Wodicka '14, the James F. Margraff head coach of football at Johns Hopkins. "We are thankful for the demonstrated commitment of our administration to the Blue Jay football program and look forward to continuing to build on the amazing foundation that was put in place by Jim Margraff."
Under Margraff, the Blue Jay football program quickly transformed into a presence at the national level during his tenure as the head coach from 1990-2018. Inheriting a team that had won just two games in the two seasons prior to his arrival, he would guide the team to the first 14 of its league-record 17 Centennial Conference titles and the first 10 of the program's 13 trips to the Playoffs. He passed away suddenly shortly after the 2018 season.
The success of the program, which now includes those 17 Centennial Conference titles and 13 trips to the NCAA Playoffs, extends to the classroom as well. With eight Academic All-Americans in 2021, the Blue Jay football team set a national record for the most Academic All-Americans by any team in any sport in any division in one year. Those eight selections are among the 44 Academic All-Americans the team has produced since 2011; those 44 selections are 13 more than any other football team in the nation has produced during that period and parallels a run of success on the field that has seen the Blue Jays post a remarkable 138-20 (.873) record.
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