Doug Flutie remembers BC’s Monan as a ‘warm, affectionate person’

From left: The Rev. J. Donald Monan, President Reagan, and Doug Flutie in an undated photo.Boston College

During his Heisman Trophy-winning season at Boston College in 1984, Doug Flutie found the Rev. J. Donald Monan was often at his side.

“It seems like every important moment along the way, he was there,” Flutie said in a phone interview Saturday evening. “When I won the Heisman, I have pictures of him there. I have a picture of myself and him and Ronald Reagan together. He was always there for me.”

Father Monan, whom Flutie described as a “warm, affectionate person,” died Saturday in Weston at the age of 92. He was the Jesuit college’s president from 1972 to 1996, and its chancellor until his death.

Flutie, who spent 12 seasons in the National Football League and several others in the Canadian Football League, said Father Monan was a familiar face in the locker room after Boston College football games.

“For a guy that’s a president of a university, he was always around and always interacting with the players and the students,” Flutie said.

One of his fondest memories is of the Jesuit priest having dinner with the team, before the Eagles flew to Dallas to play in the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 1, 1985.

After dinner, Father Monan got up from the table and sang “White Christmas.”

“He was just so approachable,” Flutie said. “Being a student at that time, you didn’t realize what he brought to the university and how responsible he really was for all that was going on there at that time.”

Father Monan was a soft-spoken man of remarkable intellect, Flutie said.

“He [was] a cerebral guy. To that point [where] it’s almost intimidating . . . but he didn’t make you feel that way. He could have, very easily,” Flutie said.

Father Monan remained a friend for years after Flutie graduated from BC in 1985. He looked forward to visiting with him when he returned to the Chestnut Hill campus.

“He was basically the icon of Boston College, especially through our year and through the ’80s,” Flutie said. “He made that school what it became, there’s no doubt about that.”