Inducted in 2013
Prep Coach (1915-1920)
Olympic Medalist, Rowing
Board of Alderman, New York City
Steel Industry Salesman
Founder of Fordham Crew

Induction Video

John "Jack" Joseph Francis Mulcahy, a pioneer of American rowing, was born in New York City on July 20, 1876. His father was Mortimer Mulcahy Sr., a sales agent out of New York for the Worth Brothers Steel Company, and his mother was Hannah-Cecilia Sullivan Mulcahy, a homemaker. The Mulcahys had three sons: John, Mortimer, Jr. and Thomas. There was also a little girl, Mary, who died in infancy. 

Jack attended the Second Division of St. John’s College, or in other words, Fordham Prep, and graduated in 1891, the year of Fordham’s fiftieth anniversary. The occasion was marked by the dedication of the statue of fellow Hall of Honor member, Archbishop John Hughes, the school’s founder. That very statue still stands outside the Administration Building  of the University today.

Jack's brother, Mortimer,  finished his Second Division studies the year after, making him a member of the Prep Class of 1892.  Both Mulcahy boys would remain at Rose Hill to continue their studies on the college level. Jack would complete his time in Fordham’s First Division in 1893 or early 1894. 
 
Mulcahy had rowed throughout his Prep years with the Atalanta Boat Club on the Harlem River. In those days, New York City and its rivers were the very capital of the American rowing scene. The same year he graduated from the Prep, John won his first national title in double sculls. 

On Creve Couer Lake at the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis, John Mulcahy and his partner, Michael Varley, took the gold in the double scull event, as well as a silver medal in coxless pairs. He would become Fordham’s first Olympian. Remaining an amateur, he went on to score several national and international titles, becoming one of the most prominent figures in the rowing world.

At those Olympic Games, a young heiress, Katherine “Katie” Vilsack, became enamored with Mulcahy’s “magnificent physique” and “manly beauty”— as she would later recount to a reporter. Interestingly enough, Miss Vilsack had not even seen Mulcahy in person yet when she was smitten. The sturdily built rower had been asked to pose for New York sculptress Melva Beatrice Wilson, the creator of some of the thousands of pieces that were used to ornament the Olympic site. Two of the statues in particular, Power and Might had caught Miss Vilsack’s eye — the very two for which John had modeled. Noticing how taken the young woman had been with her work, the artist arranged for Katherine to meet her man of marble in flesh and blood. 

John and Katie were married in 1909 and had four children: John Jr., Edward, Kathleen and Mary.

After Jack's championship years, the Mulcahys settled in New York, where the internationally renowned oarsman returned to Fordham with the intention of forming the first Rose Hill rowing team in 1915. From the very beginning, Prep boys would be involved. As The New York Times reports “Mulcahy has advised the Fordham Prep youngsters to organize, too.” A man of formidable will, Coach Mulcahy fought hard to bring rowing and its culture to Rose Hill. His spirit endures today in the thriving rowing programs of both the Prep and University. 

In addition to his time with Fordham’s Athletic Department, John Mulcahy served a term on the New York City Board of Aldermen, was president of Atalanta Boat Club and, like his father, put in time as a sales agent with the steel industry. 

Even at the time of his 2013 induction into the Prep Hall of Honor, Mulcahy was still regarded as one of the finest rowers to ever come from New York City and one of the finest athletes to ever come from Fordham. He rowed nearly all his days. Even long after his retirement, Jack would be out on the Harlem as often as he could. 

John J. F. Mulcahy Sr. died in New York City on November 19, 1942. He is a member of the Fordham University Athletic Hall of Fame.