Mark Kossick scored a TD in his first game for the Ephs at Colby
freshman year and he scored in his last game, a 19-13 win over
previously undefeated Amherst, in a classic that featured a 98-yard
drive in the final minutes to win. The Kossick highlight in Amherst
was a second half fingertip grab of a TD pass that was seen by many
and believed by few.
In between there were not many games that Kossick was kept out of
the end zone, rushing for 32 TDs and catching 12 TD passes to
become the Eph modern day scoring leader with 268 points. The total
would have been over 300 if injuries did not prevent him from
placekicking.
None of these 44 TDs feature in his favorite football moment at
Williams. "My favorite football moment was scoring a 40-yard
touchdown on my first ever college play in a scrimmage my freshman
year," recalled Kossick.
"I remember it for two reasons: one, the coaches were talking
about moving me to defense because I missed some of the preseason
with an injury and I had one set of downs to stay on the offensive
side of the ball. And two because my dad passed away six weeks
before the season started and I wasn't sure I was even going to
college."
It was Mark's dad, Robert M. Kossick, who strongly encouraged him
to attend Williams.
"That touchdown meant the world to my mom, Sherry," noted Kossick.
"She definitely cried."
"Funny thing is that on that play, Mike Bajakian who played for
my high school nemesis, Bergen Catholic, threw me a five-yard out,"
said Kossick. "I caught the pass, turned my head to look up field
and there was one defender to beat. Out of nowhere (and this is no
coincidence), a purple flash came sweeping through my field of
vision (tight end Brian Rooney) and took that defender off his
feet. I broke to the outside and it became a foot race to the
pylon. I was never extremely fast, but I had a higher power with
me, and I dove at the five with the ball in one hand, smacked the
pylon. I looked up at the ref and saw his two arms go upright and I
knew the coaches would have to keep me on the offensive side of the
ball at least one more week."
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Mark Kossick '97
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"I'm not a religious man, but I had
God with me that play." said Kossick. "I know it, and it still
chills me to this day. Ever since that day, I told my dad I would
get in the end zone every chance I got and I prayed every time I
got there." Thereby explaining why Kossick would drop to his right
knee, pause for a moment and look up to the heavens after every
TD.
Kossick played for Hall of Fame Head Coach Dick Farley, long known
for his biting "Farleyisms." As a four-year member of the team,
Kossick heard a lot of Farleyisms over the years, but it was
something else that the legendary coach said to him that meant a
lot. "My favorite Farley moment was when he said to me that my dad
would be proud of the way I play," stated Kossick. "That showed me
he got it... the game of life."
The irony is if Mark Kossick had made
a film of his Williams football career he would have had a classic
on his hands.
"My interest in film can be traced to
a semester abroad I did in Madrid, Spain," said Kossick. "My
Spanish 'brother,' Gonzalo, made horror films. He'd take me to the
set, film a few script pages and let me sit in on the edit sessions
in his bedroom. That sparked my interest in film."
"I learned the hard way that you can
sell your little independent movie that you worked so hard on to a
big outfit like Lion's Gate and still not make your money back,"
said Kossick. "That was the fate of a movie I produced called A
Jersey Tale. It was a small, independent movie built on a story
that revealed a page of world history that many people don't know
about, the Armenian Genocide. You would think that given the
current debate in Congress that we would have a blockbuster on our
hands, but not so much. Lesson learned: never invest your own money
in film!"
Kossick is now in his ninth year with
NBA Entertainment and has been involved with producing games and
features, including a long promotional tour of China with Yao Ming
and the Boston Celtics vs. the Minnesota Timberwolves in London.
Kossick was actually interviewed for this profile via email from
Shanghai, where he was preparing to produce the preseason game
between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Orlando Magic.
"My patient wife, Leigh, always made
me keep a real job while I pursued my passions," stated Kossick. "I
remember as a child, the NBA successfully burned indelible images
in my head: MJ and Mars Blackman, Bird and the Celtics, and the
Lakers' Showtime and Paula Abdul. The NBA, and you could argue Phil
Knight of Nike, created sports marketing and sports business. Both
Nike and the NBA have been global leaders since and neither has
looked back."
"At the NBA, I managed to take my
passion for film and learn all the basic tools of writing, editing,
and producing," Kossick said. "After grasping the fundamentals, I
decided to learn the business of basketball, beginning with the
entertainment side. My current group is called Live Programming and
Entertainment and we produce all the NBA-sanctioned games such as
the game I am working tomorrow in Shanghai, the Cavaliers versus
the Magic. Even though we are not producing the original West Side
Story, we take our shows pretty seriously."
He has been hired as a consultant to
the Beijing Olympic Committee for three months beginning in May to
set up their basketball venue for this summer's Olympic Games.
Traveling the world covering the NBA
is not enough to keep the multi-talented Kossick busy so he started
a lacrosse equipment company called Lax.com.
"I started the company in 1999 with
some high school buddies," noted Kossick. "I've become increasingly
interested in pursuing this opportunity full-time. It's a small
business with lot of upside. I think a lot of the best practices
that the NBA employs can easily translate to this emerging
business/sport. Like most people, I'd like to one day run my own
business. And if history tells you anything, I won't stray too far
from the world of sports and entertainment."
Along the way Kossick even found time
to earn an MBA in sports management & finance from Seton Hall
University (2007).
Mark and Leigh reside in Ridgewood,
N.J. with their son Robert ("Red") and daughter Carter, who might
soon be making their own highlights.
