Paul Glagola: Lost in the Right Direction
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April 10, 2007
Paul Glagola never felt so alone in his life.
Here he was – the 1991 first-ever East Regional National Football Foundation High School Scholar-Athlete to be brought to New York for the NFF Annual Awards Dinner – and his flight from Charlottesville, Va. was far too late for the designated hotel shuttle service.
“I found a pay phone,” he remembered, “and called my parents back in Middletown, Md., and asked them what I should do. We were supposed to attend a show with the College Scholar-Athletes and some of the dignitaries, and I had no idea how to get to the Waldorf-Astoria.”
“Whatever you do,” Glagola’s mother told him, “don’t catch one of those New York taxis!”
A possible “Guardian Angel” then appeared and beckoned the lost-looking Glagola, who was just completing his first semester as a freshman at UVA, as he wandered outside the LaGuardia Airport main terminal.”C’mon, kid,” he motioned to Glagola. “Are you going downtown? The Waldorf? I’m a block away, and I’ll make sure you get off right there.”
After a seemingly quick cab ride with the kind gentleman and two helpful bellmen guiding him to the designated theater a few blocks away, the Maryland youth was hooked on the NFF for a lifetime.
“The other high school scholars and college seniors got a big chuckle out of my escapade,” he said after meeting his cohorts. “We bonded in New York and still keep in touch occasionally.”
It was that initial experience that might have predetermined Paul Glagola’s current role as president of the Baltimore Chapter of the National Football Foundation. He still is finding ways to make the process work in spite of any obstacles. The Baltimore leader is getting encouragement from several corners.
“Coming out of the Maryland chapter’s awards dinner as the grand prize winner and then working in Baltimore,” he said, “I knew staying associated with the Foundation was what I wanted to do.
“We have made some great strides in the last year or so in Baltimore,” he continued. “We had kind of an old guard that was ready to turn things over to new leadership, and the whole chapter has been tremendously helpful. We had the 44th annual awards banquet this year at the Martins West facility and were fortunate to have an overflow turnout of 1,200. We almost have outgrown the auditorium.”
Besides his chapter presidency duties, Glagola has had the opportunity to reconnect with his football roots, which run deep after a storied high school career and an eight-year stint with the University of Virginia football program. At UVA, Glagola roles included player, student assistant and then as a graduate assistant to College Football Hall of Fame coach George Welsh.
“I injured my knee while I was playing at Virginia, and coach George Welsh made me a student assistant,” said Glagola. “We had five bowl teams from the 1992-96 seasons, and we were very pumped about winning the 1995 Atlantic Coast Conference championship. Florida State has been pretty dominant in the conference for years.
“Now I find myself working in 7-on-7 high school competition and really having a ball being on the field again,” Glagola added. “There is a fine level of high school and college football competition in the Baltimore area, and we have been able to associate with community leaders like Milton Kent of the Baltimore Sun – our master of ceremonies for the 2007 banquet. Our chapter just needed a little new life, and now we’re seeking ways to raise the level of scholarship donations. That’s a major goal for 2007-08.”
In “real” life, Glagola serves as director of venture capital for JPB Enterprises – a firm he joined in 2004 after working at Davis Inotek Instruments as director of marketing and technology. Mr. Glagola leads the Venture Capital effort at JPB. A savvy international businessman, he assisted Davis Inotek with numerous mergers and acquisitions in a 2000-04 growth phase. He also has been a financial services consultant with Unisys Corp. and worked with several Fortune 500 companies.
He kept that scholar-athlete tradition going as a B.S. graduate of Virginia with a degree in mechanical engineering and M.B.A. from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at Maryland.
Yes, he still has to take an occasional cab ride in the New York area, but this time the Greater Baltimore NFF chapter president knows right where he is going. One gets the feeling that he has a large support group with him, and those Marylanders will reach new heights within the National Football Foundation.
Story courtsey of the National Football Foundation