Ethical representation

Former Santa Clara basketball star Bill Duffy ’82 is now one of the most successful and respected player agents in professional sports. He has represented more than 75 athletes during his career, including nine NBA first-round draft picks and number one picks Michael Olowokandi (1998) and Yao Ming (2001). He also represents All-Star guard and fellow SCU alumnus Steve Nash ’96 and 2004 Rookie of the Year runner-up Carmelo Anthony.

This year, Sports Illustrated named him one of the “101 Most Influential Minorities in Sports.”

Duffy, 44, runs BDA Sports Management from his Walnut Creek Home, where he lives with his wife, Jamese, and five children, ages 2 to 11. He has represented pro athletes around the world for more than 15 years.

The 6’-4” Duffy transferred to Santa Clara before the 1981 season after starting his career at the University of Minnesota.

“At Minnesota, I felt focused on athletics. At Santa Clara, academics were the priority,” says Duffy, who was Santa Clara’s 1982 Scholar Athlete of the Year. Despite playing with a broken wrist during his junior year, he led the team in steals. As a senior, he was the team’s leading scorer. After being named a District 8 Academic All-American, Duffy was the fourth pick of the Denver Nuggets in the 1982 NBA draft.

In April, he was inducted into SCU’s Athletic Hall of Fame. He is also a member of his high school’s hall of fame and in 1998 and 2002 was named Agent of the Year by the Black Sports Agents Association.

The former general humanities major credits SCU for its “ability to promote the development of a well-rounded individual.”

In a 2003 interview with espn.com, Duffy said his goal is to provide “competent representation…by focusing on the development of our clients as people and humanitarians and just making sure that they value and appreciate the situation they’re in.”

Carroll Williams, Duffy’s head coach at Santa Clara, applauds his former player’s ethical approach to player representation.

“It shows there’s a niche in his field for such a highly principled and successful person as Bill Duffy,” Williams says. Current SCU head basketball coach Dick Davey calls Duffy, “the highest-quality person I have ever known. Bill is one of my best friends.”

Duffy has advice for current Santa Clara students: “Take full advantage of the small student-teacher ratio by having discussions with your professors,” he says. “Take those lessons and relationships into the business world where they will benefit you greatly.”

– Dick Degnon was SCU’s athletic news director from 1962 to 1981.

The Lautze brothers share Bannan Award

Richard and Robert Lautze were awarded the 2004 Louis I. Bannan, S.J. award for their “distinguished and outstanding service” to the Alumni Association and Santa Clara University. Established in 2000, the award is presented at the annual meeting of the Alumni Association each spring.

Known to many simply as “The Lautze Brothers,” Richard and Robert graduated from Santa Clara in 1939. Both were members of the varsity basketball team from 1936–1939 and were active in student government and student clubs, such as Block SC (for varsity lettermen), Sodality (an organized Catholic society), and BAA, a business students’ organization.

In presenting the award to the brothers, Art Liebscher, S.J. commended the Lautze’s for dedicating “their time, energy, and talents to the University and the Alumni Association. They have fully engaged at all levels of alumni participation, including serving as chapter and national association leaders, offering career advisory services, participating in new student recruitment, and supporting the Alumni Family Scholarship program. They also help organize the Class of ’39 reunion, which has been held annually since 1964.

“Between them, The Lautze Brothers have provided over a century of service to our great institution and the people who make up the Santa Clara family,” Liebscher said.

Richard Lautze is the retired chairman of Lautze & Lautze Accounting Corporation, which he and his brother founded in 1945. Their company continues to honor achievements in the classroom by funding a scholarship for SCU accounting students.

Their firm gave young SCU graduate—and current University President—Paul Locatelli, S.J. ’60 his first job out of college.

Richard served as the National Alumni Association president in 1961 and has been a member of the SCU Board of Regents since 1976. He became the Board’s first life member in 1986 and also has served on the Athletic Advisory Council.

Robert Lautze is the retired vice president and director of the family firm. He began his term on the Board of Regents in 1989, has served on the Board of Trustees, and is a Bronco Bench Foundation trustee.

The younger Lautze was National Alumni Association president in 1972. During his term he helped initiate the Association’s New Student Recruitment Program and he helped establish the Alumni Family Scholarship.

The Lautze Brothers were both named “Santa Clarans of the Year” for the Peninsula Chapter in 1966 and were co-winners of the 1997 Ignatian Award, which recognizes SCU alumni for their outstanding service to humanity.

– Adam Breen