Our Founder
ROBERT J. GEOGHAN
President & CEO
Bob Geoghan is President and CEO of Sports America, Inc., a sports event and marketing firm that he founded in 1974. Geoghan turned his passion for sports, creating events and developing mutually beneficial corporate sponsor relationships into a 35-year career that is still going strong today.
Geoghan’s idea of The Capitol Classic, matching Washington, D.C. area high school basketball stars against the rest of the country’s best players, is the signature event that began his sports marketing career. The Capitol Classic has continued to showcase the top Washington, D.C. area basketball talent and paved the way for the McDonald’s All American High School Basketball Games.
In 1977, Magic Johnson, Albert King, Gene Banks, Jeff Ruland, and Jeff Lamp were among the elite group of senior prep players selected to the East and West McDonald’s teams. These players and others performed in the 1977 Capital Classic in Landover, MD. The following year, the McDonald’s All American Team was showcased in the inaugural McDonald’s All American High School Basketball Game. In 1978, that first game was played to a sold out crowd in Philadelphia’s Spectrum and also raised money for Ronald McDonald House that had been founded in Philadelphia in 1974. The Games and its continued dedication to charity fundraising has become the gold standard by which many other amateur all-star sporting events are compared to.
Geoghan created an advisory board and selection committee to make sure the Game was properly managed and adhered to the strictest ethical standards. He secured legendary UCLA coach John Wooden to serve as the Chairman of the McDonald's All American Games and Coach Morgan Wootten of the famed DeMatha High School in Hyattsville, MD to serve as the Chairman of the Selection Committee. It’s the only “all-star” event that Coach Wooden has ever lent his name to because its main purpose is to raise awareness and funds for Ronald McDonald House Charities and its programs such as Ronald McDonald House, Ronald McDonald Family Room and Ronald McDonald Care Mobile.
Geoghan’s relationship with McDonald’s continued to develop into the 80’s when he began working more closely to expand its sports marketing division. His events included the McDonald’s Capitol Gymnastics Invitational in 1980 and the McDonald’s Diving Classic, featuring male and female members of the United States Diving Olympic Team, in 1981. He managed the McDonald’s Gymnastics Medalist Tour through five US cities featuring the men’s and women’s gold and silver medalists from the 1984 Olympic Team. Mr. Geoghan also consulted with McDonald's on the building of the Olympic Swimming Pool in Los Angeles which was used in the 1984 Olympic Games and on the inaugural McDonald’s Open played at the MECCA Arena in Milwaukee, WI in 1987 with the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks and three international teams.
Geoghan created a half-hour weekly television show “McDonald’s’ Teen Sportsmen” which aired on ESPN. The show produced features about different high school athletes and was the precursor to Scholastic Sports America, which the program was called until it went off the air in 2000.
In 2002, Geoghan and the team introduced the first ever Girls’ Game in conjunction with the 25th anniversary of the Boys’ Game in New York City. The addition of the Girls’ Game marked the beginning of a new era and added a very positive new dimension to the McDonald’s All American Games program.
In addition to his work with McDonald’s and the continuation of the McDonald’s All American Basketball Games, Mr. Geoghan also founded the Quarterback Clubs of Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Houston. The Quarterback Club is a non-profit social sports organization that hosts Player-of-the-Year awards dinners for the Washington Redskins, Baltimore Ravens and Houston Texans held annually in each city.
Geoghan also created the Morgan Wootten Invitational basketball tournament to raise dollars for the Mid Atlantic Coalition on Donation and build national awareness for organ donation. The Invitational was created after his good friend, hall of fame high school coach Morgan Wootten, received a life-saving liver transplant in 1996. Each year this event features top high school basketball teams from across the country.
He founded the Aflac All American High School Baseball Game and assisted in the development of the Army All American High School Football Game.
In his 35 years of work with Sports Americaand theQuarterback Club, Mr. Geoghan has helped raise more than $10 million from his various events and promotions for local and national charities. Past beneficiaries have included: Ronald McDonald House Charities, Ronald McDonald House, Children’s Miracle Network, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the Leukemia society, Children’s National Medical Center, Joe Gibbs Youth for Tomorrow and the Don Shula Foundation for Breast Cancer Research.
Today, Geoghan continues to guide the McDonald’s All American High School Basketball Games and create other exciting sporting events that allow players to showcase their talents and marketers to showcase their brands.