Terry (Bo) Bocian served Aquinas College for 43 years as an athletic director and coach in an unprecedented and record-setting fashion.
As the Aquinas College baseball coach for 30 years he was the first collegiate coach in Michigan to reach 1,000 coaching wins in a single sport in a career, earned NAIA Michigan Coach of the Year honors 15 times and was NAIA Region Coach of the Year nationally three times. His final baseball coaching record was 1,079-443-13 and in his 30 years he had 30 winning seasons and 30 NAIA playoff appearances.
Meanwhile, he was also the athletic director at Aquinas for 38 years and expanded the program from nine sports to 26 sports while being selected nationally as the NAIA Region Athletic Director of the Year three times. He served as the region’s chairman for eight years as well.
He also coached basketball, including six years as a head coach and seven as an assistant coach.
Fundraising and planning were also roles he took on and he was instrumental in the development and construction of the Sturrus Sports & Fitness Center, the Alksnis Athletics & Recreation Building and the lighted, artificial turf Aquinas College Athletic Field.
The Sturrus Center basketball court is named in his honor (Coach Bo Court) , and in 2004 he became the first Aquinas athletic department member in school history to have his number retired (13).
In 2002 he was named Grand Rapids Catholic Central Distinguished Alumnus of the Year and in 2004 the March of Dimes honored him with its Warren Reynolds Lifetime Achievement Award.
He was inducted into the GR Sports Hall of Fame in 2004. It is one of four Hall of Fames that have honored him. The others are Grand Rapids Catholic Central in 1995, National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) in 2000 and Aquinas College in 2014 as a part of the celebrated 1974 baseball team he coached.
Terry and his wife Karen celebrated 50 years of marriage in 2019. They have four children, Therese, Chad, Scott and Matt, and 11 grandchildren.