Jonathan Chang recently caught up with longtime Bentley University baseball coach and athletics director Bob DeFelice for this article that ran in the Aug. 9 edition of the Winthrop Transcript and online at www.winthroptranscript.com.

By Jonathan Chang

When NBA players say "Pop," they're not talking about their dads; they're talking about Gregg Popovich. When student-athletes at Bentley University say "Coach," they're all talking about the same person: Bob DeFelice. There's a good reason for that

A man whose name has become synonymous with Bentley University athletics, DeFelice has spent the last 50 years of his career as the Falcons' head baseball coach, and 27 as its athletics director. For context, Duke's Mike Kryzewski has spent 38 seasons with the Blue Devils, and college football's longest tenured head coach is Iowa's Kirk Ferentz, who was hired by the university in 1999 (20 seasons).

"I've never been more than that, to be honest with you," DeFelice said in his office last Monday. "Playing was the foundation, the heart and soul of how I got to where I was, and then once I started coaching, I became an extension of it."

In a world that is constantly changing, 50 years is longer than many of the establishments around. Now 76 years old, DeFelice never expected his career at Bentley to last as long as it has.

For the rest of the feature, please click here.