More than 114 million people in the United States watched the New England Patriots beat the Seattle Seahawks 28 ̶ 24 in Super Bowl XLIX on February 1, making it the most-watched broadcast in U.S. television history. Those who stayed for the post-game show saw Robert K. Kraft CC’63 proudly hoist the Vince Lombardi Trophy, presented annually to the National Football League champion, for the fourth time in 14 years.
“It’s about legacy,” said Kraft several days later, reflecting on the championship that drew an estimated one million people to a celebratory parade through the streets of Boston. “It brings community together, it makes people feel good, it lifts the spirits — it’s pretty special.”
Few team owners in professional sports have a legacy comparable to that of Kraft, who purchased the Patriots in 1994 after four years in which the team had the worst win-loss record and lowest revenue in the NFL. Kraft turned the Patriots into a model of success on and off the field, to the point where Forbes Magazine honored him in 2005 with a cover story entitled “The Best Team in Sports: How Robert Kraft Built the Patriots into a Football Dynasty.”
That same year, Kraft was the keynote speaker at Columbia College’s Class Day ceremony, where he urged the graduating seniors to “have some fun and dream big.” It’s a simple formula that certainly has paid off for Kraft, who went to work in 1965 for Rand-Whitney Container, a company owned by his late wife Myra’s father, Jacob Hiatt, and built it into part of what is now the Kraft Group, a holding company for the family’s interests in paper/packaging manufacturing and forest products distribution, sports and entertainment, real estate development, private equity investing and philanthropy.
While Kraft may be best-known to the public as the owner of the Super Bowl-winning Patriots and the man who built their home, Gillette Stadium, and the neighboring Patriot Place complex in Foxboro, Mass., Columbians know Kraft as someone who has never forgotten his roots and has gone out of his way to give back to his alma mater. The reason behind his devotion is simple: As Kraft told that group of graduating seniors, “Outside of my family, the greatest experience of my life was my four years at Columbia.”
He then offered four pieces of advice for the seniors to follow four steps as they leave campus:
- Identify your core values and write them down
- Identify what you most enjoy in life and pursue it with a passion
- Take risks and don't be afraid to fail
- Positively impact the lives of others
Kraft, who served for 12 years as a Columbia Trustee and is now a Trustee Emeritus, has positively impacted the lives of many Columbians through his leadership and his philanthropy. In 1967, as a young alumnus, Kraft made his first gift to Columbia: $100 to the Columbia College Annual Fund; since then, he has become one of the most generous and engaged donors in the University’s history. He has endowed scholarships through the Robert Kraft Family Scholarship Fund as well as the John Jay Scholarship Program, founded the Robert K. Kraft Family Center for Jewish Student Life and made a leadership gift to benefit the Athletics Campaign and Columbia football, following which the field at the Baker Athletics Complex on which the football team plays was named the Robert K. Kraft Field at Lawrence A. Wien Stadium. In addition, in 2012 and 2013, Kraft and a several of his close Columbia friends funded and endowed the Myra Kraft Prizes in Human Rights (named for his late beloved wife, Myra), which are presented each June to two outstanding College students, who have achieved distinction as Human Rights majors.
The legacy of Robert K. Kraft on and off the field is now etched into the mind of the American public and most certainly, here at Columbia, where we are proud to call him one of our own.
