Cat recalls the GU experience that keeps on giving
Published: February 23, 2021
Author: Carla Morris
Twenty years may have passed since Jim “Cat” Catanzaro '00 crossed the commencement stage to receive his degree, but that didn't end his Greenville University experience. Frequent conversations with classmates and others in GU’s extended community keep his alma mater’s influence alive.
The recent giveaway of a glass etched with GU’s iconic Hogue Hall gave him reason to
renew his memories and gratitude. Hogue Hall symbolized Jim’s first home away from home.
“When I left to go half-way across the country from New York to Greenville it didn’t make sense to anyone, including me. And yet, it is the greatest investment of time, resources, and relationship equity that I could have ever made-one that still pays more dividends than I could have ever imagined.”
Plenty Of College Talk
Jim coaches football at Lake Forest College (Illinois) and serves as the school’s assistant athletic director. The recruiting aspect of his job affords him plenty of opportunities to talk “college” with prospective players and their parents, colleagues, acquaintances . . . just about anyone.
“When I talk to co-workers, or friends from back home,” he says, “none of them have the relationships that I maintain from college.”
Jim connects with classmates and alums sometimes weekly and certainly monthly. These include 15 football Panthers of Jim’s era who still enjoy camaraderie playing fantasy football, and five friends who stood up with Jim at his wedding eight years after he graduated. They include the “guaranteed dinner dates” he enjoys “with folks in every major city that I recruit in for Lake Forest.”
More Than College Memories
GU alumni typically have no problem recalling influential professors or experiences that helped shape them, and Jim is no exception.
“I know that I was there at the tail end of a very special period,” he says, ticking off names: “Ish [Smith], Bob Briner, Jack Trager, Ed Blue, Diana Hoffman-among so many others. Their influence can never be understated . . . just how and why they did things.”
Jim still counts GU’s focus on building character and cultivating servant leadership as particularly impactful. Today, those values find a place in his current work with students and athletes.
“Though our entire school here doesn’t always emulate the character traits that were instilled at [GU], I hope that our football team can continue to shine through in that way.”
