RANDY BURKERT

 

 

RANDY BURKETT

 

He was the ECC Rookie of the Year as a freshman.

Randall Burkert was a four-year letterwinner on the basketball team. Burkert was the recipient of the Thomas Greene Award as Drexel’s Outstanding Graduating Athlete in 1982. Thomas Greene was a World War II veteran (16^th Division) who later served as Drexel Athletics Director from 1952 until 1961. His own son become a lieutenant colonel in the US army and would be killed in the Korean War. Burkert,as a senior, led the team in scoring with 374 points and helped guide the Dragons to (at the time) a school-record 19 victories. He was also named a Second Team All-East Conference Coast pick and a Region II Academic All-American, also he became just the sixth Dragon to score more than 1,000 career points.

 

Burkert is still in Drexel's record books in many categories. He is 14th on the all-time scoring list with 1,265 points, 13th in rebounding with 655 and eighth in assists with 341. Burkert was named to Drexel's All-Millennium Team in 2000 and became a Drexel Hall of Fame member in 1989.

He earned his Bachelor's degree from Drexel University in 1982.

PRO CAREER

Selected by the Philadelphia Sixers in the tenth round of the 1982 nba draft with the 224^th pick.

 

Club Pacifico Bahia Blanca LNA 1982-1985

Burkert arrives in Argentina at a time where the actual LNB (National Basketball League) doesn’t even exist and basketball is not well organized. He signs with Club Pacifico Bahia Blanca, a franchise which a few years later (April,26^th 1985) would have the honor of playing the first ever game of the actual LNB defeating Atenas Cordoba with Neal Robinson scoring 33 points.

 

Burkert will play  three years in Argentina (1982-85) averaging 12 points and 5 boards winning the affections of the home crowd but something was missing.

  

LIFE AFTER BASKETBALL

 

On his return to the United States in 1985 he retires from basketball and moves onto get his MBA from Business School which he received in 1989 (Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania).

He joined the Equities Division of Goldman Sachs in 1989. He spent two decades at Goldman Sachs as a Managing Director in the Securities Division. He was one of the original members of the Goldman Sachs Trust Co. and served on its institutional sales team. From 1999 to 2009, Mr. Burkert co-founded and managed/headed global institutional group. He began his financial career in public accounting. He is a Member of the Board of Trustees of the Drexel University and serves on the Dean's Advisory Board at the LeBow College of Business.

 

 

Extracted from The Triangle

Many things have changed in the game of basketball over the past 20 years, but the legends of the game are still the ones who dominated their sport and succeeded off the court.

Randy Burkert was named Drexel's 2004 Colonial Athletic Association Legend March 6 at a breakfast held by the league at the Richmond Marriott Hotel. Burkert spoke on behalf of all of the legends selected from each school.

"I tried to find a common theme of all of the legends up here," Burkert said. "The only thing I could find is that we're all old."

Burkert received many laughs in his speech but also got his point across in a serious manner that the game of basketball changes and people change after playing basketball.

"Any time you can revisit some of your accomplishments, it's great," Burkert noted. "The point of today, though, was seeing the transition these people have made to become excellent and passionate in their next phase of life."

After his time at Drexel, Burkert was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers and later went on to play professional basketball in Argentina.

"No one really knows the beauty of South America," Burkert said. "I did it for a few years and really enjoyed myself. It was a fabulous experience for me."

When asked about his time at Drexel, he only had great things to say of his alma mater.

"People from Drexel are hard working and definitely have an edge coming out of college," Burkert said. "I received a great education at Drexel, and basketball was all a part of that."

On the topic of change, Burkert also noticed that the school has changed greatly since his time as a student.

"Drexel has gained a lot more national recognition, and it keeps expanding its influence," Burkert said. "Many positive things are happening."

Burkert joins Bob Buckley and Dan Promislo as the only CAA Men's Basketball Legends.

"Basketball is a game of evolution," Burkert said. "We take things we learned on the court and use them in what we are doing now."

 

 

 

In September of 2009 would moved to Hirtle, Callaghan & Co to take control over their office in New York spending two and a half years as the Head of New York Office at Hirtle, Callaghan & Co., LLC, which he helped establish.

Mr. Randall S. Burkert has been Managing Director of Development for the Northeast Region of Northern Trust Corporation since September 25, 2012.

Still lives in Manhattan.