In 2010, Butler University's men's basketball team made a stunning run to the national championship game, becoming the smallest school to make the final in the modern history of the NCAA tournament. In 2011, they did it again. With back-to-back turns as America's favorite underdog, Butler basketball provided its university back home in Indianapolis with an unprecedented opportunity.

The Cinderella Strategy details how Butler started its move toward the Final Fours as far back as 1989, forged a synergy between a big-time athletic program and a serious academic institution in the process, and then leveraged the Cinderella story for all it was worth. The authors analyze how the university's decision-makers took full advantage of this opportunity, delving into the brilliant marketing of Butler's live mascot program, the authentic branding of "The Butler Way," and the critical move into the Big East. Through these and other tactics, Butler transformed its academic reputation, enrollment, fundraising, and campus infrastructure, all in an era when many other small, private universities have struggled to survive. The resulting story interweaves basketball luminaries like Boston Celtics Coach Brad Stevens, Villanova Coach Jay Wright, and San Antonio Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich with the tireless efforts of so many lesser known but equally talented individuals within the Butler community.

The Cinderella Strategy reveals how Butler has shattered the odds time and time again, both on and off the court. In the process, it offers a heartening case study of how a complex organization can find, manage, and multiply success, without having to trade its soul in the process.

Why are we talking about Butler basketball and this new book entitled The Cinderella Strategy you may ask? Gordon College Men's Basketball alum Jerry Logan '07 along with co-author Graham Honaker, teamed up to dive deeper into the magic that is Butler basketball. Logan, a four-year letter winner for GCMB, took home a pair of major awards during his senior season, capturing the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Defensive Player of the Year award as well as being named the CCC Senior Scholar-Athlete (2006-07). Collectively during his time as a Scot, Gordon Men's Basketball went an impressive 71-36. 

Get to know Jerry and his journey to becoming an author below!

Q. Describe your current job and career path.
A. I work as the Director of Academic Operations at Gordon and also teach some classes in the Recreation, Sport and Wellness major. After graduating, I coached for a year and then went to grad school in higher education at the College of William and Mary. My wife and I came back to the North Shore in 2010, and I started working at Gordon in the Provost's Office that fall. 

Q. What was your major(s) at Gordon and how has that helped you in your career?
A. I majored in History. The Gordon History faculty changed the way I see the world. When I run into a problem or get curious about something or just want to learn about another human being, my first instinct is to look backward and try to understand the context. Dr. David Wick helped me learn to search for the narrative in things, and Dr. Steve Alter made me a much better writer with his quiet, but unrelenting attention to detail.  

Q. Who had the biggest influence on you during your career as a student-athlete at Gordon?
A. Former men's basketball head coach Mike Schauer, who now coaches at Wheaton (IL). Coach Schauer showed us what integrity looks like on a day-to-day basis, and made sure we took seriously our intellectual and moral development alongside our athletic development. He also lied and said that he was checking on our chapel attendance regularly and that we had to attend 32 chapels instead of the standard 30. I only learned after I graduated that he wasn't really paying attention to how many chapels we got to.

Q. What are one or two of your proudest professional or personal accomplishments that occurred after graduating from Gordon in which your education really played a role?
A. Personal accomplishments are easy: they all revolve around my wife and our three kids. I'll bore you with endless details and photos if you ask me in person, but I won't do that here. My greatest professional accomplishments are earning my Ph.D. from Boston College and co-authoring a book. The book is actually based in part on my dissertation at BC. Also, more importantly, THE BOOK IS DUE OUT THIS MONTH! It's about how Butler University leveraged two Cinderella runs to the men's basketball Final Four in 2010 and 2011 to benefit the entire university community. We've gotten some really cool testimonials from folks in the basketball world and higher education. You can check them out on our website (www.thecinderellastrategy.com) or on Twitter (@thecinderellas1). We've been dropping one testimonial per day in the lead-up to the book's release on March 12. 

Q. Who is your co-author, Graham Honaker, and what have you learned from working with him?
A. My co-author is named Graham Honaker, and he works in development at Butler. He's a unicorn: a born sales person who is one of the most genuine, sincere, and respectable people you could ever meet. I've learned A TON from him about sales as we've tried to pitch our book and then, once we found a publisher, to actually sell copies of the book. I've seen how much you have to grind if you want to sell something you believe in deeply but not many people either know about it or know you. Graham's been going door-to-door with his daughters in their Indianapolis neighborhood (which is right next to Butler's campus). One day I got an email from him talking about some other book-related topics, but at the end he wrote, kind of off-handedly "Had a dog bite me while delivering fliers tonight!" Sure enough, though, he sold seven books from his walks that weekend. (He also got chased by another dog, but managed to avoid a bite the second time around. Gotta keep that head on a swivel when you're doing the dangerous work of book sales.) 

Q. What was the most meaningful conversation you had with a coach or administrator while writing this book? 
A. I got to talk to so many lovely people throughout this project. Butler University is loaded with gems. (It's probably worth noting that I did not know a soul at Butler when I decided I wanted to study the university, but I was welcomed with open arms by everyone I met there.) But, one of the most important conversations I had was before I ever got to Butler. I was trying to network my way to Butler's AD, so I sent a cold email to BC's AD at the time, Brad Bates, and asked if he'd meet with me. He did. I explained my project to Brad and how I didn't know anyone at Butler. I asked if he knew Butler's AD (he didn't) and whether he'd be willing to reach out on my behalf (he did). Brad helped me get a foot in the door at Butler, but even more importantly, he helped me to walk through that door with some much-needed self-confidence. He must have sensed how nervous I was about the whole thing, because toward the end of our conversation he told me something to the effect of, "You're fine. You come across fine. Your passion for this project is sincere, and you come across authentically. So don't waste your time worrying about others' perceptions of you. You'll be fine." For my dissertation, I ended up conducting 22 interviews with 18 different people. Meeting new people is really draining for me, so before each interview, I reminded myself of Brad's encouragement. "You're fine. You'll be fine." And I was!

Q. What challenges did you face during the publishing process? How did this process relate to lessons you learned as a student-athlete at Gordon?
A. So much of life feels like re-learning the things we forgot somewhere along the way. I forgot how important it is to have a teammate. When I finished my dissertation in 2018, I desperately wanted to find a publisher for it. I had no idea where to start and, two years later, was dead in the water with that dream until Graham called and basically said, "Let's do this." He's been one of the best teammates I've ever had. I was going at the publishing process alone because, when you imagine writing a book, you only ever see your name on the cover and not someone else's, too. Writing is supposed to be a solitary thing, right? The experience of working alongside someone in an activity that we often view as a lonely one has been deeply rewarding. I was boxing myself in when I didn't need to.

Q. What has been a quote, person or experience who has been influential in accomplishing your goals? 
A. I think about something my high school coach Leigh Block told me all the time. It was in a letter he wrote to me when I graduated college. He told me that when you face a big life transition, "you're always ready, and you're never ready." I've taken a lot of comfort in that phrase ever since. 
 
If you would like to nominate a former teammate, friend, family member, or even yourself, we want to hear from you! All you need to do is fill out a brief questionnaire below. You can find the Alumni Spotlight: Athlete Edition Questionnaire HERE.