Inducted in 2017
Attorney
Major League Baseball Executive
Member, Prep Board of Trustees (2000-2006)
Father of a Prep Graduate

Timothy Brosnan was born in 1958 in New York City and grew up on the Lower East Side with his brothers and sister, Kevin, Stacey, and Michael. His mother, Ann Condron Brosnan was a switchboard operator, and his father Kevin Sr., was a manager with the Kerry Rand Corporation. Both Tim’s parents were first generation Irish-Americans. They were also baseball fans. Among Brosnan’s earliest memories are family outings uptown to Yankee Stadium.

Down in Lower Manhattan, Tim attended The Epiphany School on East 22nd Street, heading uptown to the experimental Monsignor William R. Kelley Middle School on West 83rd Steet for junior high. It was during these years that a ten-year-old Tim would meet a ten-year-old future entertainment executive George Jackson, and a friendship was born that lasted straight through their Prep years and beyond. With Timothy’s induction to the Fordham Prep Hall of Honor, the names of Brosnan and Jackson are forever joined on yet another roster.

Tim and his buddy, George, entered the Prep in the fall of 1972 as members of the Class of 1976. Straightaway, Brosnan began to make a name for himself at the Prep, both in the classroom and on the Prep playing fields. Tim played two years of football during his Shea Hall years, but not surprisingly, he was a four-year player with the baseball team, captaining the hardball squad in his senior year. A hardworking student with a knack for writing clean, concise prose, Tim also served as the sports editor for the yearbook, and was an occasional contributor to the Rampart. 

Graduating in 1976, Brosnan headed to Georgetown University, where he continued to play baseball, and then returned to Fordham for law school, earning his JD in 1984. It was at the Lincoln Center Campus that he met fellow Fordham law student, Claire O’Brien, a Boston College alum who would go on to have a career with the firm of Davidson, Dawson & Clark. Tim and Claire would wed in October of 1987 and would raise three children: Kevin, Helen, and Charlotte. Following in his parents’ footsteps, Kevin would earn his own Maroon credentials as a member of the Prep Class of 2012. 

After law school, Tim would spend a few years with the firms of Kelley, Dyre & Warren and Hawking, Delafield & Wood before he was appointed to the New York State Commission on Government Integrity by Gov. Mario Cuomo. As Tim has told the story, sometime after his appointment, he attended a dinner with other attorneys where he commented that for all his success in law and government, he still dreamed of a career in baseball.

“They all laughed,” he has been quoted as saying, going on to recount that one person at the table realized he was not kidding and set up a meeting with a contact at the league.

That meeting paid off.  A new career was launched.

In 1991, Timothy Brosnan joined the business team of Major League Baseball, only to be named as president and CEO of MLB enterprises two years later. His tenure has been described as nothing short of brilliant. He has been credited with bringing major league baseball not only to a new generation, but to a worldwide audience. Among his accomplishments have been the conception and launch of the MLB Network, the intuition of the World Baseball Classic, and a six-fold increase in international MLB revenues. His secret to success?  Actually, there are two. The first: hard work. He demands as much of his staff as he does of himself. The second: his sheer love of the game. For Brosnan, it has never been simply about hawking a product. It has been about preserving and creating access to something he very much believes in. 

By the time of his 2017 Hall of Honor induction, Tim Brosnan was considered an icon in the world of sports business. He currently serves as the executive chair and CEO of Primesports, a leader in the hospitality industry specializing in worldwide sporting fan travel and experience. 

Along the way, Timothy Brosnan has been generous with his time and talent, lending his support to many institutions that he believes in and to which he has a special connection. He has served on the boards of the Sports Development Corporation of New York City, the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation, DeLaSalle Academy, and the George Jackson Academy, named, of course, for his late friend and classmate. He has also remained close to Fordham, notably with the Law School Alumni Association, and of course, with Fordham Prep, as both a former trustee, and a two-time commencement speaker.

With a legacy of alumni who have left their mark on the baseball world since nearly the birth of baseball itself — Esteban Bellán, Carlos de Zaldo, “Fordham” Johnny Murphy, Frankie Frisch, George “Snuffy” Stirnweiss, William O’Donell, and Vin Scully — Fordham Prep is proud to inscribe among their ranks and honor Timothy Brosnan, Class of 1976.