Michael O'Shaugnessy - Football (1979-80) - Class of 2010
A two-sport athlete for the Fighting Knights (baseball and football) Michael was a standout defensive lineman for the UCF football team during the program's first two seasons of play in 1979 and 1980. His impact on the field was great, but his presence off the field could be viewed even higher.
As a defensive end on Don Jonas' inaugural football team, O'Shaughnessy, was one of the top defensive players the Knights fielded. He established a still-standing school record for sacks in a game with five against Emory & Henry during that 1979 season. Leading his team both seasons of his career with 10 sacks in 1979 and 12 sacks in 1980, he remains among UCF's all-time best with 22 career sacks.
O'Shaughnessy, the team's Most Spirited Player in 1980 as voted on by his teammates, has shown a long and continued role serving UCF Athletics as an assistant offense line coach in 1981, the founder and first President of the UCF Letterman's K Club, a member of the Knights Booster Board of Directors and as UCF football's radio sideline reporter from 1990-94. Michael was also a member of the baseball team in 1979, which was the school's first championship baseball team as part of the Sunshine State Conference.
Continuing his athletic pursuits after college he has competed in the Iron Man Triathlon, is a two-time and current Guinness World record holder in the sport of paddle boarding (Cuba to USA and English Channel), a four-time East Coast Paddle Board Champion and holder of two other World Records in the sport (Irish Sea, Loch Ness) and a six-time Florida State Paddleboard Champion. His paddleboard is hanging in the East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame in Cocoa Beach. He is an author of two books (Millennium Woman - a Guideline to Personal Security and Financial Prosperity for Today's Woman and Blue Collar Iron Man, co- authored with UCF's Dr. Frank Rohter).
Off the field, O'Shaughnessy has done much work to bring positive light to his University and was designated as the Alumnus of the Decade for the 1980's at the school's 40th anniversary celebration. A successful entrepreneur in real estate and a biography subject of UCFTV's U-Knighted, Michael co-founded with his wife, Leslie, the Millennium Woman Foundation, a non-profit organization which has funded over 250 educational scholarships to single-parent women nationwide.