Siena Athletics Hall of Fame
An extremely well-regarded figure among Siena students & staff alike, Callahan served as one of the backbones for the Siena Athletics department for the better part of three decades. Working his way up from a graduate manager, he served as the head golf coach and intramural director from 1947-72, and also led the freshman basketball team during the late 1940’s and 50’s. He was selected by the National Association of Intercollegiate Basketball (NAIB) to serve as the chairman of the NY-NJ committee in December of 1948. Callahan evolved the college’s intramural program into one of the most popular extracurriculars on campus during the mid-20th century, and blossomed the Siena linksmen into one of the east’s premier programs during the 1960’s.
Callahan recorded nearly 250 dual victories, while sending two teams and eight individuals to NCAA national competitions. The Indians won the MECAA Championship four times, while taking home eight individual medalist finishes and sending eight qualifiers to ECAC Championship rounds. Callahan coached five future Siena Hall of Fame members on his golf teams, including his own son, Jack Callahan ’72, HOF ’87. To this day, the pair make up the only father-son and one of four relative combinations of any kind enshrined in the Siena Hall. He died on May 14, 1995 at the age of 81.
