mission driven
Return to Table of Contents
spring 2026
Greg and Marci Scott with their son, Cole, a four-year member of the men’s ice hockey team. Photograph by Michael J. Clarke
Greg Scott, P ’26, has been coaching one sport or another since he was 19 years old—ice hockey, lacrosse, baseball, tennis, you name it—much of it while working as a financial advisor in the Philadelphia suburbs.
He’s coached on playgrounds and in big sports arenas. He’s coached kids—including his son, Cole, now a senior at Suffolk and a four-year member of the men’s ice hockey team—and elite athletes. For the past 16 years, he’s coached para-athletes, working first with the Philadelphia Flyers Sled Hockey team and more recently with wheelchair-tennis players who compete in regional and national tournaments. The latter just earned him an “Adult Volunteer of the Year” award from the United States Tennis Association.
But here’s the irony. No matter what sport he’s coaching, it’s not really about the sport. Coaching, Greg says firmly, “is about the people. It’s about helping them achieve their goals and seeing them have success.” For him, nothing beats that feeling. It’s what winning looks like.
Not long after Cole enrolled at Suffolk, Greg and his wife, Marci, began to notice something interesting—namely, that the University shared a similar people-first philosophy.
Watching Cole on the ice, listening to him describe his experiences as an advertising major in the College of Arts & Sciences, “we’ve gotten to experience the school’s culture firsthand,” says Marci. What struck them, she says, is “how helpful the professors are. They believe in their students and want them to succeed. They want them to love what they’re learning.”
Greg noticed other connections. A graduate of Philadelphia’s Temple University, he recalls that many of his classmates came from blue-collar families and were working their way through school. “They had skin in the game,” he says, “and they were investing in their education.”
At Suffolk, he saw those same kinds of students, that same determination. And that’s why the Scotts—who are Summa Society members—have chosen to invest in the University.
In 2023, they created a fund to support the ice hockey program which helped upgrade the facilities at Porrazzo Skating Rink in East Boston, benefiting both the men’s and women’s programs. (In addition, a portion of the Scotts’ gift created an endowed fund that will benefit the University in perpetuity.)
Later, says Marci, “we became aware of more needs, and we wanted to support them.” That included underwriting a pair of events: a daylong program on mental health and well-being for all of Suffolk’s 350 student-athletes, plus a separate career guidance and networking session with Suffolk alumni and corporate professionals.
Parents, Greg readily acknowledges, are already significant investors in Suffolk, in the form of tuition and room and board fees. Yet parents are also in a unique position to see just how committed Suffolk is to their children’s success. That success is a team effort, Greg says, and finding ways to contribute to that effort is a win all around.
By Beth Brosnan
The power of teamwork
Cole Scott thinks a lot about teamwork—it’s one of the fundamental lessons hockey has taught him.
“Hockey,” says Cole, “has molded me into the person I am today. There’s really no other sport like it.” It remains very true to its blue-collar roots, he says: “You show up, you do the work, and you are always working for the betterment of the team.”
Hockey runs deep in the Scott family. Greg’s late father, Joe Scott, ran a successful beer distributorship and became one of the founding partners of the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers. The scrappy expansion team joined the NHL in 1967 and within just seven years won their first Stanley Cup title, besting the mighty Boston Bruins and the legendary Bobby Orr.
Greg was there “for nearly every game,” marveling at the on-ice wizardry of Hall of Famers Bobby Clarke, the Flyers’ unstoppable center and team captain, and goalie Bernie Parent. (“Only God saves more than Bernie Parent” was gospel among Flyers fans.) Later, Greg and Marci met when they were both working for the Flyers’ marketing department. Today, Greg continues to work as a scout for the NHL.
That work exposed them to competition at the highest level; over time, it also gave them insights into the pressures that athletes, especially young ones, can face. Greg compares student-athletes to a three-legged stool: One leg is athletics, another is academics, and the third is social and emotional. “All three of those things are important to young people,” he says, “and if one of those legs starts to wobble, the stool can’t stand.”
Helping student-athletes manage the pressures—both external and internal—that come with competitive sports is why the Scotts wanted to support the University’s mental-health programming. “We think Suffolk does an exceptional job on this front,” says Greg, pointing to guidance that leadership and resiliency coach Jamey Mroz gave to Suffolk student-athletes on how to reframe stress as a motivator that helps them focus, rather than a millstone that weighs them down.
Between classes and homework, practice sessions and games, “the daily routine of a student-athlete can be immensely stressful,” Cole says. “And hockey players can put a lot of pressure on themselves to be the best they can for their team. Learning how to deal with that is really valuable.”
When former Suffolk ice hockey coach Chris Glionna, BS ’98, JD ’01, first recruited Cole Scott to play for the Rams, one of his selling points had nothing to do with hockey and everything to do with the power of Suffolk culture and community.
“As a double Ram, he talked with Cole about how proud alumni are of having attended Suffolk, and that they form a loyal network for its graduates,” Greg recalls. To enroll at Suffolk, Glionna said, is to join a team whose members continue to work together for each other’s success.
For Greg and Marci Scott, the real victories aren’t limited to the scoreboard. They’re also found in the goals the Suffolk community helps students reach every day. And by investing in Suffolk, the Scotts are ensuring that future Rams have the support they need to keep scoring big—on the ice and far beyond it.