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Dylan Feltovich

Meet Bill Jankowski ‘87, a Blue Streak in the NFL with a Fascinating Story

| By: Joe Ginley '16, SID
Bill Jankowski ‘87 climbed the NFL ladder from an internship with the Browns to become the VP of IT for the Ravens. 
UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS – For all of the coverage of the pipeline between John Carroll University and the National Football League, one self-proclaimed "nerd" has not been mentioned much.

The recently retired alum at the center of this feature spent a lifetime working in the NFL behind the scenes, with plenty of fascinating stories to tell from a career in football.

Bill Jankowski '87 is the focus of this story following a memorable 35-year career in the NFL, best described by Bill as an "adventure" that led him all the way to Vice President of Information Technology with the Baltimore Ravens. 

Jesuit roots

Jankowski grew up in Cleveland. As many young men from Northeast Ohio do, Bill found a home at Saint Ignatius High School. And that's exactly where he first encountered his future career.

During his sophomore year, Jankowski's typing skills learned in Mrs. Reardon's class got put to good use. The Cleveland Indians were looking for a student who knew how to type well, as the team's college student in the role would not be back until May. And so, Jankowski's career in sports began.

The role was not overly complicated, as Jankowski typed balls and strikes, outs, etc. 

"I worked every Indians game all because I knew how to type," recalled Jankowski. "The Indians weren't great then, but what an experience. Thank you, Mrs. Reardon! What a great lady."

One opportunity soon led to another. Jankowski's work with the Tribe led him to the other team based in Municipal Stadium, the Cleveland Browns. Soon, he was working part-time for the team. Jankowski still recalls bringing some of the typed stats back to school to show the Saint Ignatius coaches, including Chuck "Chico" Kyle '73, then just starting his legendary career as an English teacher and high school football coach. 

A Fun Time at Carroll 

After graduating from Saint Ignatius, Jankowski traveled a typical path from Ohio City to University Heights. He enrolled at John Carroll as a Computer Science major. 

The native West Sider enjoyed his time on the East Side greatly. Jankowski remembers many happy moments at John Carroll. 

In the classroom, Jankowski enjoyed getting to know his professors and the small class sizes. And as he found, his professors truly cared about him. One story he recalls occurred during his days working for the Browns as a college student. The team gave him a challenge: Learn QuickBASIC, a programming language that was released in 1985. Running into hurdles, Jankowski approached one of his professors, Dr. Carl Spitznagel, who read the book alongside Jankowski. The two figured it out together and the young IT nerd passed the test.

"Get to know your teachers, that's the key," said Jankowski. "I can't tell you how helpful Dr. Spitznagel was. I remember him to this day and am grateful for the help he gave me."

Outside of the classroom, Jankowski had plenty of fun, too. He remembers Thursday nights at the Rathskeller, aka the "Rat Bar," a previously popular on-campus bar in the student center that's long since closed. As a leader of the University Club, Jankowski helped to schedule bands to play for the students. Southside Johnny and the Jukes was one well-known band to perform during his time there, and Cyndi Lauper nearly did, too. Additionally, Jankowski was involved in Greek Life and later became his fraternity's president.

Before his senior year, the Browns made a deal with Jankowski. If he graduated, the club had a job lined up for him. And so, Jankowski took his senior year classes in the mornings, then drove to the stadium to work for the team the rest of the day.

Thanks to some summer classes, Jankowski got his diploma in 1987 and started working for the Browns full-time.

A Modest Start

The field of information technology (IT) was a small industry when Jankowski began in earnest as a full-timer in 1987. The field was very different, of course, as computers were just starting to become more popular.  

For the Browns, the gig included gameday work on the scoreboard, maintenance, and aiding coaches and staffers.

"The job involved a lot of maintenance, such as changing tapes and working with terminals," said Jankowski. "I wrote little programs and worked a lot with stats. I had to make stats presentable and understandable to old-time scouts and coaches. I started to code and was actually learning. It was more simplistic back then."

And it was a great time to be working for the Browns. The organization was winning with a Bernie Kosar-led team lighting up the city and firing up the fanbase.

"I loved the atmosphere of sports while working for the Indians and Browns," said Jankowski. "It was fun and exciting, because while the Indians didn't win, the Browns made 3 championship games. To be part of that, I just can't describe that experience."

In 1992, the Browns switched gears and hired Bill Belichick to lead the club. 

"I got to spend several years with Belichick. As people are learning now, he is very into football and intense, but he has a good sense of humor." 

Baltimore Bound

Any Cleveland fan of a certain age can tell you about the saga of the Browns moving to Baltimore.

The much-maligned Art Modell opted to move out of an aging Municipal Stadium and uproot the Browns, bound for Baltimore. Jankowski unknowingly played a role in the move.

"I was working on Excel spreadsheets for the Browns to show Cleveland how much stadium deals were in different cities," Jankowski explained. "At the time, some teams were moving to make more money. I created all these spreadsheets with all these graphs. I had no idea they were planning to use the data to consider a move."

With the move to Baltimore soon a done deal, plans began to relocate the organization's employees. Jankowski's boss was not invited to stay with the club, so it was a "no brainer" to move to Baltimore. Jankowski was one of 28 employees to form the foundation of a new organization in Maryland. 

As the only member of the IT Department (the Director of IT), Jankowski learned plenty on the fly. As a 2016 Ravens feature of 20-year employees noted, the "computer room" was in an old tile-floor kitchen. As the story goes, "Baltimore had one network modem and two computers – total. One computer was used to scan and print hand-drawn plays from the coaching staff and the other was the toy of then Outside Linebackers Coach Jim Schwartz, who took a liking to stats." 

Not exactly what you might find in an IT Department today!
 
"It was nuts," Jankowski chuckled. "I was in meetings with bankers, my mind was exploding. I had no idea business worked that way. We also had no money due to the lawsuits, and it was a lot of long hours. It was nuts."

Schwartz, now the Defensive Coordinator for the Browns, forged a great friendship with Jankowski in those days.

"We were two nerds in the early days. We loved stats that everyone else thought was stupid," Jankowski laughed. "No one listened to us. But look where stats are now!"

Super Bowl Rings

The arrival of Brian Billick in 1999 led to a new focus for the Ravens. For Jankowski, that meant "a new technological wave centered around PowerPoint presentations."

In the fourth year in Baltimore, Jankowski received the opportunity to hire someone. Bill chose wisely, hiring Nick Fusee in February 2000. The two would later retire around the same time in 2021. 

Nine months later, the Ravens reigned as the World Champions, winning the first Super Bowl in the organization's history. It was a whirlwind for Jankowski, who was in his 14th year in the league. The NFL provided plenty of help, which was needed in the early days of the Internet. There were no cell phones and nowhere near as much Internet access as today. As Jankowski recalls, they had to run cables upstairs to a hotel room for then-head coach Brian Billick to answer emails. But the entire experience was memorable.

"One of my favorite memories was that first touchdown in Tampa Bay, it happened right in front of us," said Jankowski. "I thought, 'all of this work, and it's finally happening.'"

The Ravens won Super Bowl XXXV handily over the New York Giants, 34-7, delivering a ring for the original IT guy. 

Twelve years later, Jankowski got his second ring with the Ravens. As he remembers, it was a much easier experience with the Internet and cell phones, though "coaches like to be up at 6 am, so there were some early mornings to make sure the video operation worked."

The Ravens snuck past the 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII, 34-31, securing a second Super Bowl ring for Jankowski, by then the Vice President of IT.

Fond Memories

As the big business of football expanded, Jankowski's role evolved from a football-centric one to a job revolving around the business of the sport. 

But football projects still continued, such as Jankowski working with John Harbaugh in 2011 to transfer the playbook and other team communication to iPads.
 
In 2021, Jankowski retired from his job as Vice President of IT. But the stories from his 35+ year career with the organization are still fresh. 

Top of mind are the people. Marvin Lewis, Greg Roman '94, Kirk Ferentz, Matt Cavanaugh, Mike MacDonald, so many different coaches. Plenty of smart front office folks, too. Most especially, Ozzie Newsome. 

"I owe my career to him," said Jankowski of Newsome, a Hall of Famer and the first Black General Manager. "He got me out of trouble a couple times, as I worked with him forever. He used to say, 'You work for me, and this is all about winning the game.'" 

Other memorable front office people Jankowski worked with include Joe Douglas, now the GM of the New York Jets, and Joe Hortiz, the new GM of the LA Chargers. Jankowski gave Hortiz his first laptop. Pat Moriarty '93G and Jankowski often worked on the salary cap together on Excel spreadsheets, and became good friends who stay in touch. 

The memories are many for Jankowski. They include trying to teach old scouts how to type on laptops, managing a rotisserie baseball team with Rex Ryan, and teaching coaches how to draw on computers. Over the years, Jankowski enjoyed great times with his coworkers and working at an organization that does things the right way. 

Full Circle

For the first time since 1989, Jankowski recently toured campus. The reason for the visit? His nephew, Chris DePasquale, will be attending John Carroll in the fall. A Medina High School grad, Chris is set to play on the football team and hopes to perhaps become an NFL GM one day. 

During his campus tour, Jankowski was struck by the changes and improvements to the campus since his time. But he was also impressed by the Sports Leadership program and how JCU preps its grads for the real world.

"I've lived it, and I can say that JCU is telling kids the right things to expect in the sports world," said Jankowski. "There are long hours to work. You need to be adaptable because to work in sports, you may have to work in a different environment or area than you were expecting. It's easier to learn how to be organized and how to take care of your responsibilities at a small school."

Jankowski is proud to be a member of JCU's legacy in the NFL. 

"It's so cool that a small Division III school has so many people working in the NFL, many with multiple Super Bowl rings," said Jankowski. "There is something very special about John Carroll."
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