Lehigh has won or shared seven national championships, the last being in 1959. When Lehigh hired Kevin Cassese to coach lacrosse, Bob Colonna ’62, a member of the 1959 team, saw that Lehigh was serious about lacrosse.
A cornerstone of national championship teams is alumni support. He realized if Lehigh was going to compete at the national level, it needed support from its alumni. To that end, he established a gift-matching program for Lehigh men’s lacrosse in 2017.
“In my experience, matching gifts are a great driver of donations,” says Colonna, who has worked as a fundraiser for both politics and nonprofits. “I decided to match gifts to the lacrosse team for any young alumni who give in their first 10 years out from graduation. It incentivizes them to get in the habit of giving and gives them a vested interest in the program.”
Since the matching gift program started, donations have almost quadrupled, and under the leadership of coach Will Scudder, the team was the number two seed in the Patriot League tournament this year.
The Value of Education
Colonna was raised near Baltimore by successful parents who had not gone to school past the seventh grade yet still understood the value of a good education. Learning that the local high school failed to produce any college-bound graduates, Colonna’s parents made a point of sending him as a first grader to a private school that would support and encourage further education.
While at Lehigh, he sought the advice of the guidance counselor on selecting a major. When asked by the counselor about his preferences, he said he was thinking of engineering mechanics and then going on to graduate school. The guidance counselor told him he wasn’t smart enough to major in mechanics and graduate school was out of the question.
“So … I got two bachelor’s degrees at Lehigh in engineering mechanics and mathematics and then went to Penn for an MBA!” Colonna laughs.
"I wouldn’t be where I am today without that strong foundation I got at Lehigh.”
Great Lacrosse Memories
Colonna came to Lehigh thanks to an alumnus who took him to visit the school. He found the atmosphere friendlier than the other schools he visited and made Lehigh his first choice.
Freshman in his years played on freshman only teams. He was on both the freshman wrestling and lacrosse teams. He gave up wrestling to focus on academics, but played lacrosse for four years. He played three positions: fourth attackman, the third midfield, and backup goalie. “When I played, we supplied our own equipment, but Lehigh furnished football helmets with masks attached. It was a unique look — I think we were the only team not wearing lacrosse helmets," Colonna recalls. "We didn’t have dedicated lacrosse coaches back then, just soccer and football coaches.”
Colonna's favorite memory from Lehigh lacrosse occurred in 1959, the year they won the Class C national title. Coach [Jim] Shreve ran us hard with wind sprints and made us believe in winning."
“We played Lafayette and beat them 26-0. Coach Shreve was angry that Lafayette beat Lehigh in the Rivalry and just let the score run up. I don’t think a lacrosse team has ever won by that much,” Colonna laughs.
Colonna is proud that today, Lehigh's lacrosse program "has equipment, recruits, professional coaches, weight rooms, practice fields, a stadium, and nice locker rooms."
A Successful Career
After graduation, Colonna earned his graduate degree and then spent two years in the Army where he had the good fortune to attend German and French language schools. Afterward, he worked for a Pittsburgh startup. Encouraged by classmates, he started his own company, Innovative Systems, just 16 months later. He is still CEO of the firm, leaning on his training in languages, his firm specializes in computational linguistic solutions for data quality, data management, and anti-money laundering compliance solutions. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, the company has offices in São Paolo, Mexico City, Dubai, and London, with clients in 66 countries.
Colonna credits Lehigh with preparing him for the success he’s achieved in his career. “If I hadn’t learned all the quantitative skills as an undergraduate, I probably never would have developed our core technology. That’s why I give back — I wouldn’t be where I am today without that strong foundation I got at Lehigh.”
If you are interested in taking advantage of Bob Colonna's matching gift program to benefit men's lacrosse at Lehigh, visit give.lu/lax.
