JERSEY CITY, N.J. (NJCUGothicKnights.com) | New Jersey City University's athletics department has announced the inaugural recipients of the Robert J. Delaney Service Above Self Award is all members of "The NJCU Athletics Community on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic". The announcement was made on a live conference call presentation on June 1 on day 20 of The 2020 Gothics during the Gothic Knights' virtual month-long awards series.
 
The inaugural award was presented by Bob Delaney `85 and Shawn Tucker, Associate Vice President and Director of Athletics, and is the culmination of a month-long awards series that opened on May 1.
 
The creation of the Robert J. Delaney Service Above Self Award was announced on April 29. The award will be presented annually to an individual or individuals who have demonstrated exemplary leadership in the community, campus, classroom, and sport and whose personal and professional pursuits have served the greater good and best personify the attributes for which Bob Delaney is known.
 
The accolade is one of the most prestigious awards NJCU bestows annually and is named in honor of NJCU Hall of Famer Bob Delaney  `85, the 2020 recipient of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's highest honor—The Theodore Roosevelt Award.
 
With the awards show moved to a virtual format due to the pandemic, the broad recognition the award represents was timely as NJCU athletics paid tribute to its athletic alumni in the medical, healthcare and first responder fields.
 
The announcement call on June 1 included a candid conversation from several alumni about their experiences contributing to the COVID-19 pandemic response before the recipients of the award were announced. The announcement included messages from former NJCU athletes who are state troopers, firefighters, paramedics and EMTs, including former NJCU baseball standout Michael Patterson `13, a New Jersey State Trooper whose older brother, Bedminster Police Sgt. AlTerek Patterson, passed away from COVID-19. Several women's soccer alumni who serve as nurses were to appear if not for being on duty at their hospitals. The alumni on the call represented the hundreds of NJCU athletic alumni who are serving on the front lines.
 
Delaney, a 2006 NJCU Hall of Fame inductee in the sport of men's basketball and baseball, is the epitome of service above self. Delaney was honored on January 22 in Anaheim, California with the NCAA's most prestigious lifetime award during the NCAA Honors Celebration during the 2020 NCAA Convention. His remarkable life story as a New Jersey state trooper turned legendary National Basketball Association (NBA) referee transcends sports. 
 
June is PTSD Awareness Month and Delaney, current the Special Advisor for Officiating Development and Performance with the Southeastern Conference (SEC), continues to be a long-time NBA Cares Ambassador, promoting the NBA's partnership with the United States military as part of the League's mission of addressing important global social issues. Delaney conducts programming and interacts with veterans and active duty service members. He has been embedded with U.S. troops and NATO forces in Iraq, Afghanistan, Korea, Europe, Canada, and at bases and posts across the United States.
 
His contributions to PTS awareness and support to military officials and their families have been recognized with honors and proclamations from many, including President Barack Obama and senior-ranking military leaders. Notably, in 2010, President Barack Obama conferred upon Delaney the President's Volunteer Service Award for his ongoing PTS education and awareness work with the military.
 
He was the 2014 recipient of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Mannie Jackson Human Spirit Award. In 2017, he was recognized by the Tragedy Assistance Programs for Survivors (TAPS) with the National Community Partnership Award for his work with military Gold Star families In 2011, in recognition of his assistance in the aftermath of the Fort Hood shootings and his work with troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, he received The Meritorious Public Service Medal, formerly known as the Outstanding Civilian Service Medal, from the U.S. Army. The citation is the third-highest public service award the Department of the Army can award to a private citizen.
 
He has published two books: Covert: My Years Infiltrating the Mob was released in 2008, and Surviving the Shadows: A Journey of Hope into Post-Traumatic Stress followed in 2011. 
 
Delaney and Dr. Joel Fish also recently released advice on coping with the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic: https://www.nba.com/article/2020/04/07/coping-uncertainty-coronavirus-pandemic.
 
While the first recipients were awarded virtually this year during the COVID-19 pandemic, beginning in 2021, the award will be presented on campus annually at The Gothics—NJCU's annual athletics awards banquet on campus.
 
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