Bred for Success

Through all his triumphs in life, Joe O’Donnell has never forgotten his roots

By Gary Trask

Joe O’Donnell? Profiled in a golf magazine? Oh boy, the gang from his old neighborhood in Everett is going to have a field day with this one.

You see, the game of golf wasn’t exactly a central part of growing up in O’Donnell’s neck of the woods back in the 1950s.
“No, there wasn’t an Everett Country Club in Everett,” O’Donnell says with a laugh. “The closest thing to golf I experienced back then was when my buddies and I used to go to the driving range in Wellington Circle and pretend we were playing baseball by hitting balls off the mat. That’s about it.”

So why is O’Donnell, 60, gracing the pages of North Shore Golf? Well, first of all, he’s been an out-and-out success ever since he graduated from Malden Catholic High School, where he was an All State football and baseball player. He went on to attend Harvard University on scholarship, once again garnering all-star status as an athlete, and after attending Harvard Business School he accepted a job at a small food service company in 1976. One year later, O’Donnell bought the company and today he is the chairman of Boston Concessions Group, Inc., a multimillion dollar firm that owns food service operations in the leisure and recreation industry in more than 30 states across the country.

O’Donnell is also the founder of The Joey Fund, which is near and dear to his heart since it is named after his son, who died of Cystic Fibrosis at the age of 12 in 1986. Since its inception, the Joey Fund has raised a whopping $25 million and has helped bring the life expectancy for a kid with CF from 5-years-old to 35. O’Donnell is a Trustee of the National Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and a three-time winner of its Outstanding Service Award. He also won the Foundation’s highest honor, The Breath of Life Award, in 1994 and is currently chairing its nationwide $200 million capital campaign.

But the one thing O’Donnell may be most known for in these parts is what he didn’t do. When the Boston Red Sox went up for sale back in 2002, O’Donnell and his partner, mega-mall developer Steve Karp, were considered serious contenders. Their bid fell short (more on that later), but O’Donnell’s thirst for owning the Olde Town Team hasn’t quite gone away.

So here he is, Joe O’Donnell, answering 18 Questions in a golf magazine. Hopefully his cronies from “The Stadium” neighborhood in Everett will take it easy on him.

1. NSG: You said that you really didn’t have much exposure to the game of golf growing up. When did you actually start playing seriously?
J.O.: Once I had the time to do it, which wasn’t until I was about 46. Golf would be a spectacular game if it were just nine or 12 holes. Don’t get me wrong, I like nothing more than a day out there with three guys playing a competitive match and having some laughs. And to enjoy it to the fullest you want to go out after and get some lunch and have a few beers. That’s the perfect day. The bad news is that it sometimes takes all day.

2. NSG: How much have you improved over the years?
J.O.: Well, I’m about a 14 [handicap]. I’m just a recreational golfer. But I can hold my own in a tournament. I can par any hole. But chances are I won’t (Laughs).

3. NSG: Where do you play most of your golf these days?
J.O.: I’m a member at Belmont Country Club and Oyster Harbors on the Cape. I get out almost religiously every Saturday and Sunday during the golf season.

4. NSG: Are you a member anywhere else?
J.O.: I’m also a member at The Floridian in Miami, Wayne Huizenga’s club, and Diamond Creek in North Carolina. And I’m about to become a member at Old Sandwich, Steve Karp’s new course down on the Cape that is going to be the best course in New England when it opens later this summer.

5. NSG: What are some of the better courses you’ve played, other than your member courses?
J.O.: I’ve played a lot of great ones. The best time I’ve ever had on the course came last year when I went with a group of friends to Scotland. You want to talk about a perfect day that was like a 12 on a scale of 1 to 10. Kingsbarn was my favorite course. I liked it more than St. Andrews.

6. NSG: What’s the most frustrating thing about the game?
J.O.: I don’t understand how that little white ball, when it’s hit by that big club, doesn’t go two miles, dead straight, every time. I love listening to these people who say golf isn’t a sport. I might have been one of them until I started trying to crack 90. Really, the game is all about risk and reward. You need to have self-control and discipline. If you take a big risk, with very little chance for reward, you’re not going to be happy at the end of the day. The same goes for business and life in general.

7. NSG: Speaking of that, is the golf course a good place to do business?
J.O.: I don’t golf with business in mind, but, in my opinion, there isn’t a better way to get a read on someone than spending a day playing 18 holes with them. You see their temperament, how competitive they are and if you’d be compatible with them.

8. NSG: What did you learn from the entire process of attempting to purchase the Red Sox?
J.O.: The thing I learned most of all is that, like everything else in life, the people you are dealing with are the most important part of any transaction. When [John] Harrington (who was in charge of the trust that owned the team and was obligated to sell to the highest bidder) awarded ARAMARK a 10-year extension to have the concessions deal at Fenway Park just a couple of days before the decision on who was going to win the bid for the team, knowing full well what business I was in, I knew I never had a chance of owning the team.

9. NSG: There was a report at the time of the sale that you considered becoming part of the group that bought the team. Is that still a possibility?
J.O.: Probably not. But I’ll say this: John Henry (one of the current Red Sox owners) and I have become friends. He’s a very fine human being, the type of person I like to do business with. So nothing is ever dead.

10. NSG: What do you think about the changes the new owners have made since acquiring the team?
J.O.: I think the new owners are doing a great job. I really do. The only difference is that if Steve Karp and I were the owners, I believe in my heart that right now we would be getting ready to move into a new state-of-the-art ballpark on the waterfront. We had the support to do it. Unfortunately, I think that opportunity has passed.

11. NSG: Will we ever see a new Fenway Park?
J.O.: You’d have to ask Mr. Henry that question.

12. NSG.: Do you think it’s possible that you will ever own another professional franchise?
J.O.: No. Only the Red Sox. I have no interest in owning any other franchise.

13. NSG.: What have been some of the keys to your success in life?
J.O.: I think a lot of it has to do with my upbringing. The fact that I grew up in a place like Everett and had the type of parents that I had was a great combination.

14. NSG: What was it about Everett that taught you so much?
J.O.: In Everett there was a code of loyalty. I learned a lot about hard work and my parents (Joe Sr., a former Everett cop who passed away in 1987, and Theresa, who still lives in the same neighborhood in Everett) taught me to never forget where you come from.

15. NSG: The Joey Fund is obviously something that you’re very proud of. Tell us how it all got started.
J.O.: My son Joey was 12 years old when he died in my arms. As soon as he closed his eyes, my wife (Kathy) and I knew we had to do something. In the year after he died, I received checks from a bunch of friends that totaled almost $100,000 to go towards CF research. That’s when we got the idea to start the fund. But when you start something like the Joey Fund, it’s a lifetime commitment and we’re committed to it until there’s a cure. We had no idea at the time how powerful it would become.

16. NSG: It must be a great sense of self satisfaction to be part of something that is making so much progress in curing a disease like CF. What are some of the things that you’re most proud of?
J.O.: One of the best things for me is when I can tell a parent of a kid with CF that their child will live long enough to hopefully see a cure. Ten years ago, I would say to them to just hang in there and make sure the kid gets the therapy he or she needs; there wasn’t much hope. But thanks to the research that has been done over the years, I can now tell the parents that there’s no reason their kid can’t live a nearly normal life. They’ve got time now. It’s just like staying in a ballgame until the ninth inning, because anything can happen. And, in this case, I believe it will.

17. NSG: How important has the annual Hot Dog Safari been to the CF Foundation?
J.O.: The Hot Dog Safari is a one-of-a-kind event. It’s a credit to Eddie Andelman that this thing has gone from a small, kind of fun event to one of the biggest and best fundraisers in the country. It’s very important because it raises a lot of money and it creates awareness of the disease.

18. NSG: Will a cure ever be found for Cystic Fibrosis?
J.O.: If things keep progressing the way that they have, I have no doubt that we’ll find a cure. I can’t wait for that day to come. It will save a lot of families a lot of pain and suffering. And that’s what our main goal has been from the start.