President of the Seahawks has Crimson Sports Roots

As Michael Strahan interviewed Paul Allen on the Super Bowl victor’s podium Sunday night, a Crimson sports editor stood between the NFL Hall of Famer and the Microsoft billionaire, taking in the moment.

Peter McLoughlin ’79 was not there to cover the Big Game. After all, he preferred to write about lacrosse and hockey.  He was there to accept the Vince Lombardi Trophy as president of the Seattle Seahawks.

At Harvard, McLoughlin studied English literature while writing for The Crimson’s sports board. The paper’s online archive includes 35 stories written by McLoughlin.

In a May 2012 interview with Seattle Business Magazine, McLoughlin said that his work on the paper helped him realize his desire to pursue a sports-related career:

“I was a sportswriter for The Harvard Crimson and thought, ‘I’ve got to do something in sports,’ because that’s what’s going to motivate me to get up every morning,” McLoughlin said.

Allen named McLoughlin president of the Seahawks and Major League Soccer’s Seattle Sounders in 2010. Before that, the Princeton, N.J., native had served as CEO of the National Hockey League’s St. Louis Blues and in a variety of roles with Anheuser-Busch and NBC Sports.

In 2012, McLoughlin received an expanded role in Allen’s sports holdings as CEO of Vulcan Sports & Entertainment. In addition to overseeing the business operations and administration of the Seahawks and Sounders, McLoughlin currently manages Seattle’s CenturyLink Field and Event Center and serves on the Board of Directors of the National Basketball Association’s Portland Trailblazers.