DeFelice leaves legacy at Bentley
WALTHAM >> Bob DeFelice doesn’t fancy himself as “much of an academic” despite spending over half a century in the ivory tower.
DeFelice, 80, is more of a lunchpail baseball guy from Winthrop (where he still resides) who dedicated the last 54 years to betterment of athletics at Bentley University.
“This place has been so good to me from Day 1 and there was never a thought of looking anywhere else,” said DeFelice. “I just got totally involved here and the school trusted me and gave me a lot of responsibilities and I was able to get some things done.”
The place was known as Bentley College when DeFelice became its first baseball coach in 1969. He signed on after a Hall of Fame career as a catcher at Boston College and three seasons in the Red Sox organization. He is one of those guys in the regional baseball community who knows everybody — and everybody knows him.
DeFelice managed his last game on Sunday at Stonehill and exited the program he founded with 848 victories, which is 14th among active NCAA Division II coaches.
DeFelice also served as athletic director from 1991 to 2020 overseeing projects that bear his name while making Bentley a mecca for student athletes. DeFelice was at home working with architects and engineers as he was coaching third base and questioning umpires. He also had the good sense to extend women’s basketball coach Barbara Stevens with a raise at the end of every contract.
“I am still fascinated by this game but I looked at my birth certificate and it’s gotten rough coaching third at 80 years old,” said DeFelice prior to a doubleheader against Stonehill on Friday at DeFelice Field.
“I have been intrigued with this game and I’m still fascinated by it because with this game, so much is involved. Sure, you have to have ability. But the guys that stood out in this game no matter what level, they all knew how to play this game.
“There is so much to it and here I am at this point still seeing things that I have not seen before. “
DeFelice was a three-sport athlete at Winthrop High School, a family tradition started by his older brother Frank, both of whom are in the school’s Hall of Fame.
DeFelice was scouted by the Boston Red Sox and wanted to sign out of high school. DeFelice bowed to parental pressure and followed Frank to Boston College
to play football and baseball. A football injury his freshman year limited DeFelice’s BC career to baseball.
“I was not a typical BC student,” said DeFelice. “I wanted to sign out of high school and there was no draft then. It was different world back then but my father wouldn’t let me.”
DeFelice started in the Carolina League before gravitating to the Eastern League at the Red Sox affiliate in Pittsfield, Mass. He attended one spring training when Billy Herman was the manager of the ninth place “Boston
Dead Sox” in the season prior to the Impossible Dream of 1967.
DeFelice moved on and in 1969 he was hired to coach at Bentley for the princely sum of $1,500 a season. He chose to wear No. 9 in honor of his childhood hero, Red Sox slugger Ted Williams.
The rest, as they say, is history.
DeFelice is a member of nine hall of fames and a two-time Northeast 10 Coach of the Year. There is a statue of coach DeFelice in DeFelice Plaza while the baseball diamond and the hockey rink in Bentley Arena bear his name. The Falcons’ hockey team went Division 1 on his watch.
DeFelice earned the privilege of choosing his successor, long-time assistant Mike Hill, the most decorated player in program history.
“I’m so excited to have this opportunity,” said Hill. “He’s really the only coach I have ever known and he has obviously been good to me. But it’s never been about just coaching baseball. It’s about coaching here.”
Even as the age gap widened over the decades, DeFelice never a had a problem relating to his players. He was generous with his knowledge of the game and what he passed along inspired his guys to succeed in sports and academics.
Catcher Charlie Auditore of Walpole and shortstop Kyle Halloran of Hopkinton elected to come back for a fifth season after losing two-thirds of 2020 and the front end of 2021 due to the pandemic.
“Coach had our backs from the very beginning,” said Halloran. “He can get on us pretty hard at times but you realize why he does it. What he really values and what he expects from us is much more than a performance on the field.”
Auditore arrived at Bentley as an infielder and DeFelice put the arm on him to become a catcher.
“He kind of morphed me into one and he completely revitalized my career in college,” said Auditore. “I was fighting for a position and he said ‘go into the bullpen and catch’ and everything kind of came to fruition these past few years.”