Meet Joe

NOT YOUR AVERAGE JOE

The Dream

As a kid, Joe Moglia dreamed of becoming the head coach of a college football team, not a corporate titan.

But sometimes life gets in the way of our dreams.

Joe, the oldest of five siblings, grew up in a two-bedroom apartment with one bathroom in a rough neighborhood – the Dyckman Street section of Manhattan. Everyone in the family was expected to work at their father’s fruit store. Before they were even teenagers, Joe and his younger brother, John, were members of a gang, fighting, stealing and drinking.

In his sophomore year of high school, two of his close friends died. One overdosed. The other was killed while robbing a liquor store. Joe was lucky; he played football at Fordham Prep, and he was on the field that day instead of at the liquor store. If he had not been at practice, he would have likely died during the robbery alongside his friend.

Football changed Joe’s life.

Then, his first daughter was born when he was 19. His father suggested that college was not a good idea: there was no money for it, and he thought his son should work with him in the fruit store.

Joe disagreed. He took responsibility for every dime of his education, his wife Kathe and daughter, Kelly. In his Freshman year at Fordham University, Joe drove a yellow cab, a truck for the post office, and worked in the fruit store. In his sophomore year, he got a job coaching football at Fordham Prep. He coached during the season, and the rest of the year worked at the fruit store. Joe majored in economics and thought he wanted to work on Wall Street, but his love of coaching led him to Archmere Academy where, at just 22, he would become the youngest head coach in state history. It was in these early years coaching high school football that Joe would develop his leadership philosophy, “BAM,” which identifies the traits of a real leader. BAM would carry Joe through multiple careers across the next five decades.

More than anything, Joe wanted to be a head coach at a major university.Ten years later, Joe was was hired as the defensive coordinator at Dartmouth College. By then, he and Kathe had four children. It was a lot to balance. He was working 80-hour work weeks, and the job took its toll on their marriage. Joe and Kathe were eventually divorced.

Living separately, Joe couldn’t afford to support himself and his family; he got permission to move into a loft above the football office. Dartmouth is in Hanover, New Hampshire. The winter temperatures can drop below zero. The loft had no heat. Joe slept on a cot. It was so cold he could see his breath. He lived like that for two years. He persevered.

After Miami beat Nebraska in the Orange Bowl in 1984, Joe was offered a job on Miami’s staff. He was so close to attaining his dream, but it meant he would have to move to Florida, leaving his children behind.

Coaches then were not paid what they are today. He could not have afforded to fly them back and forth. He might go six months or longer without seeing his children.

So, Joe made one of the toughest decisions of his life: He turned down the job, believing he couldn’t do his job as a coach, if he couldn’t live up to his responsibility as a father.

It was the right thing to do, but it left him with few options.Times were tough, and he realized he needed to pursue a career where he could earn more money Wall Street was calling.

25 MBA’s One Football Coach

In 1984, he took shot at the training program with Merrill Lynch. There were 25 MBA’s and ONE 35-year-old football coach. Not many people thought the football guy was going to make it—but he did. What few people know is that as a lifelong stutterer, coaching on a field, cold calling leads, or making presentations in business, would require hours and hours of practice to overcome the anxiety of public speaking. Every small victory came after a huge battle for Joe.

Despite his lack of business experience, Joe quickly became the number one earner at Merrill, across divisions, worldwide.

After 17 years at Merrill, Joe then did the unthinkable. At what seemed like the pinnacle of his career, he astounded his colleagues and left Wall Street for Omaha, Nebraska to become the CEO of Ameritrade-—at the time a struggling online brokerage firm that had taken a down-turn after the dot com bubble burst. Everyone thought he would fail miserably.

Seven years later, Joe stepped down from TD AMERITRADE as CEO. Despite the 2008 financial crisis, the company had shown a 500% return, had outperformed every other publicly traded financial company in the world, and he became Chairman of the Board. When TD Ameritrade was acquired by Schwab. At close, the combined company was worth $100 BILLION with client assets of $7 TRILLION. When Joe arrived, these numbers were $700 million and $24 Billion.

The Dream Revisited

Joe could have retired, sat on boards, golfed or lazed a beach. Instead, he dreamed once more of football. He still wanted to be a head coach.. There was just one problem. In 138 years of college football, this had never happened. No one had ever hired a former assistant coach, turned business mogul, who hadn’t coached in over 20 years, to become a head coach. But he couldn’t shake the idea. After conversations with Nebraska’s revered former head football coach and congressman, Tom Osborne, as well as Joe’s loved ones, he decided. Yes.

His entrée back into the game began as executive advisor to Bo Pelini, with the Nebraska Cornhuskers. At 62, Joe was once again logging 80 grueling hours a week, this time for zero dollars, living in a hotel room, eating pizza 3-4 days a week. Gone were the glory days and perks of his Wall Street career. He was starting over from the bottom.

Joe was on a mission. He spent two years trying to get a D1 coaching job. Even with the odds against him, and multiple rejections, the word “quit,” wasn’t an option. He wasn’t sure what was next, but he still believed he could do it. The prospects were slim, but the call eventually came.

David DeCenzo, the president of Coastal Carolina University had been following Joe’s career. He said, “It is not going to be easy for the typical college president to hire you for a head coaching job, but someone will, and before someone else does, I want it to be me.”

The Coastal Carolina University football program was newly rebuilt on Joe’s leadership philosophy, known as “BAM.”

The Hail Mary

In his first five seasons he led his team to the National Playoffs all 5 years, and the team were Conference Champions 4 times- posting an overall record of 56-22 and a winning percentage of .718.

In his last 11 years of college coaching, Joe was a part of eight championship teams. He has also received multiple Coach of the Year honors, including the Eddie Robinson National Coach of the Year award, the Vince Lombardi Award, and he was inducted into the Lombardi Hall of Fame, and he was inducted into to the Conference All Decade Team.

He is now inducted into 12 halls of fame.

More than unbridled success or the pursuit of wealth, Joe’s passion lives in the thousands of lives he has impacted. As a leader in every sector of his life, an assistant coach, a Wall Street game changer, a head coach, executive advisor to the president at Coastal, a wealth advisor, entrepreneur, philanthropist, friend, father and grandfather, Joe has always lead with his unwavering commitment to his spiritual soundness, the self-knowledge that is the pillar of his success, and the love he has for creating possibility for himself and others.

Joe Moglia: A Brief History

Courtesy of the Irish Arts Center.
Narrated by Liam Neeson.

"Warren Buffet collects his chips after winning a hand during the Texas Hold'em Tournament Thursday at Borsheims, which is celebrating its grand reopening. Joe Moglia, chief executive officer of TD Ameritrade, is at right."

via REBECCA S. GRATZ / THE WORLD-HERALD