NFL Hall of Famer, Former Chief Joe Montana To Headline Rockhurst University Leadership Series

Four-time Super Bowl champion quarterback Joe Montana will discuss his model of personal and professional leadership as the guest of the seventh annual Rockhurst University Leadership Series luncheon Tuesday, March 26, 2019.

The luncheon, with presenting sponsor CommunityAmerica Credit Union, is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. at the Marriott Muehlebach Tower, 1213 Wyandotte St., in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. Montana is preceded as the featured guest of the series by former U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, astronaut Scott Kelly, and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, among others.

In “Leadership: On and Off the Field,” the legendary quarterback known as “Joe Cool” will talk about how, over the course of his 18-year career, he earned a reputation not only as a winner, but as a leader, and how that leadership played out in all aspects of his life.

“I think in all situations — whether it’s the football field or the boardroom — people look to leaders to set the tone,” Montana said. “I faced a lot of challenges over the course of my career, but no matter the situation, it was always very important to me to keep steady, because that was how I communicated to my teammates that everything was going to be OK.”

Montana is widely considered one of the best — if not the best — NFL quarterbacks of all time, personifying performance excellence and integrity in his professional life. He led the San Francisco 49ers to four Super Bowl championships and helped cement the squad’s status as the dominant force in football throughout the 1980s. Montana won more than 70 percent of the games he started throughout his 16-year career with the team and is the all-time NFL leader in quarterback ratings. In 1993, he joined the Kansas City Chiefs, where he played until his retirement in 1994 and led the team to its first AFC Championship game.

Montana’s calmness under pressure, agility and accuracy earned him several nicknames, including “Joe Cool” and “Comeback Kid,” recognizing his formidable talent in the clutch and poise under pressure. He was named the NFL’s Most Valuable Player twice, Super Bowl MVP three times, earned eight Pro Bowl selections and five All-Pro selections. In 2000, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Montana was born in 1956 in New Eagle, Pennsylvania. He was a multi-sport athlete during his high school career at Ringgold High School, and a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, where he received a bachelor's degree in marketing and, despite having the flu, was the starting quarterback in the team’s dramatic win in the 1979 Cotton Bowl. He was drafted in the third round of that year’s draft by San Francisco.

Montana currently lives with his family in California.

Rockhurst University will honor two deserving alums — Tom McCullough, ’64, and Tom McDonnell, ’66 — with its 2019 Rashford-Lyon Award for Leadership and Ethics at its annual Leadership Series luncheon. This award honors recipients who exemplify high ethical standards of business conduct with excellence in leadership as demonstrated by outstanding initiative, impact of work and inspiration to others. Together McCullough and McDonnell spent over 60 years at DST Systems. Following their respective retirements, both and have gone on to serve on corporate and nonprofit leadership boards, served as strong voices for business development in Kansas City and have given countless hours to charitable causes. The honor is named for two influential leaders in Rockhurst University’s Helzberg School of Management ­—­­ the late Tom Lyon, Ph.D., and the Rev. Nick Rashford, S.J. — and established in 2014 to recognize those who have made outstanding contributions to their professional field and communities.

Visit rockhurst.edu/leadershipseries for more information on the Rockhurst University Leadership Series.