Witness Post: Joe Campanella

      

Witness Post: Joe Campanella    

He was the oldest son of a Baltimore football legend. His Dad’s life was cut down too soon. As an athlete the son was fiercely competitive and determined to “one up” his father as a high schooler, setting football running and scoring records early in life. His name is Joe Campanella, or “Campy” for short. Campy played football and lacrosse with me for two years and the relationship meant a lot to me, perhaps more in hindsight than at the time.

Ironically, the Italian word campanella translates as “little bell;” however, the teenaged Campy was more like a clanging glockenspiel than a little bell. Running with the football, he created more noise and popped more helmets than most other backfields (quarterback, fullback and halfback) put together. His compact running style, high knee action and “never go down” attitude, made him an intense competitor on the gridiron.

Nearly all of us had nicknames in those days: I was always “Hoop.” With a nickname like that I should have played basketball, but I could not dribble or shoot consistently. Instead I pursued other sports, like football, lacrosse, and wrestling. Campy played on the team with us, yet he was in a league of his own.  We knew each other well, and the camaraderie was enhanced because of our shared intensity. He always flashed a quick, self-confident smile.

Campy was an extraordinary athlete with supreme work ethic; he prepared methodically for the next challenge. Picturing Campy and those seasons together, I visualize several things: his heart, those practice tapes, and his strong legs.

One can’t talk about Campy, however, without first resurrecting the powerful story of his family, and his dad’s heart.

Play with HEART:

  

Campy’s father, Joseph Arthur Campanella, grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and was a celebrated athlete and a talented football player at Cathedral Latin High School. He went on to play outstanding football as a defensive guard for the Buckeye’s at Ohio State. In his senior year he finished second in the voting for the 1952 Outland Trophy, given annually to the Best Lineman in the country. That year the trophy was given to Maryland’s defensive tackle, Dick Modzelewski. Campanella was drafted in the third round of the illustrious NFL class of ‘52. He was picked to play defensive line for the Cleveland Browns. As a home state player, Campanella received some great recognition. In 1954, however, with one child in the house and another on the way, he was traded to the Baltimore Colts—370 miles from his home town.

On the gridiron in Baltimore, Campanella consistently proved to be a reliable mid-game substitute and occasional starter as a defensive lineman and nose-guard for the Colts. In an era known for its tough line play, he was competitive with the leagues best. Campanella never made All-Pro, but through those six seasons he made hundreds of tackles, he recovered fumbles, and he made three interceptions – a rarity among defensive linemen. He was described by his teammates as a quiet leader on his teams. When you add in all of those preseason and postseason practices and scrimmages, six seasons can cause a lot of wear and tear on a man’s heart, mind and body.

Joe Campanella and his wife, Nanette, were raising their growing family in Glen Arm, Maryland. Joe, Junior (Campy) was born in 1953 and was the oldest of the children.

There is an often-told story about the Baltimore Colts that includes an anecdote about young Campy, and Alan “The Horse” Ameche, which has become part of urban legend. Ameche, who played at University of Wisconsin, was voted the Heisman Trophy winner in 1954 for the Badgers and he was the Colts’ first round draft pick that year.

   

In 1956 the Colts held their annual Colts’ Blue-White intra-squad game / scrimmage in front of 40,000 football crazed fans in Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium. It was Johnny Unitas’ first Blue-White game and he played quarterback for both sides … Jim Mutscheller (Notre Dame tight end) beat Raymond Berry and all the other ends in a 100-yard dash. The barrel throw involving four quarterbacks went to John Unitas … Alan Ameche took a lap around the stadium with Joe Campanella’s 3-year-old boy, Joe, Junior on his back. Ameche became the first human being ever invited to run in a “Pimlico Special.” He declined.

 www.PressBoxOnline.com  — Larry Harris, Issue 156: December 2010

Campanella retired from professional football at the end of the 1957 season. He was 27. Campanella’s departure occurred just one season shy of the Colts’ heralded victory in what has been called “The Greatest Game Ever Played,” where the Colts triumphed on Alan Ameche’s one-yard plunge in sudden-death overtime against the highly favored New York Giants.

       

By 1958, though, Joe Campanella and Nan had three young children. And, as a couple, they had decided that it was a good time to look into other business prospects.

At the encouragement of Carroll Rosenbloom, the owner of the Colts, Campanella pooled his money with Alan Ameche and Louis Fischer, who was Campanella’s classmate from Ohio State, and they became early investors in some restaurants. The first store, called “Ameche’s Drive-In” in Glen Burnie, Maryland featured the Powerhouse and Kingfish sandwiches served with the Special “35” Sauce. The number of stores slowly grew beyond the flagship drive inn.

In the early 1960’s Ameche, Fischer and Campanella wanted to expand their restaurants so they started looking for a fourth partner. They had approached and been turned down several times by Gino Marchetti, the All Pro defensive lineman. Marchetti had already decided that when he retired he would return to California to join his brothers at a gas station in Alameda, in the Bay Area.

Carroll Rosenbloom, though, persisted. He took the time to describe for Marchetti the fundamentals of the restaurant business and recommended that he stay in Baltimore and invest with his former teammates. After years of cajoling, Marchetti finally agreed to join the restaurant business.

The business partnership secured, the company brand was soon incorporated under the “Gino’s” name. Gino’s restaurants, staking new ground, featured hamburgers, fried chicken, French fries, and soft drinks. One relationship that the group fostered was with a little-known chicken purveyor by the name of Colonel Sanders. His chicken recipe was “finger licking good.” And you could only get it at Gino’s.

 

Campanella left the restaurant group in 1963 and started “Rustler Steak House” which expanded the kitchen offering to steaks, baked potatoes, bread, soups, salads and checkered napkins. Campanella sold the new chain after opening five stores and returned to work with his former partners after less than a year.

Timing was everything. Gino’s, Ameche’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Rustler were entering the family dining market with fast food, just as the baby boom generation was demanding steaks and hamburgers, fried chicken and biscuits, French fries and sodas, brownies and ice cream — all at family-friendly prices. These restaurants were the top choice of “the kids of Baltimore County”, which included those of us from schools like Loyola and Calvert Hall.

In 1966, after Don Kellett retired as General Manager of the Colts, Carroll Rosenbloom invited Joe Campanella to re-join the football team as the VP and General Manager. Although it was a career shift back into sports, Campanella decided to follow his heart and he accepted the job. One reason for the decision was that Campanella had a great deal of respect and admiration for the coach, Don Shula.

Shula had been a winning head coach for three years, and despite his young age (36), he had received excellent training as assistant coach under both Paul Brown and Weeb Eubank. Campanella also knew Shula as a fellow Ohio native. Shula had played defensive back in high school and for John Carroll College, in Cleveland. The two also played together as professionals for the Cleveland Browns and the Baltimore Colts. The alignment of circumstances that would allow Rosenbloom to reunite Shula and Campanella as coach and GM seemed destined to happen.

  

Joe Campanella stayed physically active, often running or playing ball with friends.

All that ended several months after beginning his stint as General Manager of the Colts. Campanella was playing a friendly round of handball with Don Shula and a buddy at the Downtown Athletic Club, when he became short of breath and asked to stop. After stumbling, Campanella said he had to get off the court. He never made it, dying in Shula’s arms.

Campanella’s sudden and untimely death occurred in February, 1967: he was 36. At the time doctors thought it was a heart attack. Rosenbloom and the entire Colt organization were in shock. Shula tearfully remarked, “He was just a wonderful human being; one of my closest friends.” Gino Marchetti was overcome with grief at Campanella’s funeral, saying:

If I live to be 100, I will never meet a better friend. He showed me the right directions to go: in business, and spiritually by bringing me back to the church. He meant to me what air means to the body. If you want to know what a real man is like, well man, he was!

–  From Football in Baltimore: History and Memorabilia by Ted Patterson.

The Legacy:

Campy was still in elementary school when his father died. He was the oldest of 6 children by then. His youngest brother, John, the seventh Campanella, was born a few months after their father died.

Those of us at Loyola High School in the mid-‘60’s did not know much of anything beyond the news stories about Joe Campanella’s death. We heard what was in the news and sports commentary, but that was about it. And when we were with Campy, we did not talk about it. Death was scary enough without bringing it into the locker room. The “code” seemed to say that the circumstances and grief around his father’s death were private, so we kept silent. It was just one of those tragedies. Deep inside, though, Campy seemed to know that he was different. As the oldest son of a football hero, it must have put some additional stress and pressure on his outlook at life and sport. Campy seemed to have finished his mourning, when I met him. Instead he was on a mission. He worked harder and longer than the rest of us. We did not use the words “mission” or “passion” at the time, so we called it drive and heart. Campy always played with heart!

Years later Campy’s youngest brother, John, would help instigate some research through Johns Hopkins Hospital on the Campanella’s family heart condition. Tragedy had struck a second time, when their sister, Carrie, also in her mid-thirty’s died of heart failure, while riding her beloved horses. John went to have some tests conducted at Johns Hopkins and he was diagnosed with arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia, or ARVD. While not a death sentence, it is a condition that takes steady and constant supervision. It’s hard to know if Campy has the same family heart condition, but with the family history of ARVD he has been on high alert to this day.

As high school students, though, Campy and I had no thoughts of family health conditions, it was football season.

Coach Brune and Coach Young:      

 

Loyola High School’s varsity Football Coach was Joe Brune. He had some quotable ingredients that he often reminded us about during weekly film reviews of the last game: Offense was all about short bursts of energy; explosiveness in execution; and intense focus on timing. Defense was all about controlled aggression, reactive power, watching for offensive clues, and tackling by putting your “hat” or helmet on the ball and your arms around the mid-section of the ball carrier, driving them to the ground. He would point out the good versus the poor execution in excruciating detail. Practice sessions consisted of repetition of those ingredients: practice makes perfect and perfection wins games.

By the late 60’s Brune was a veteran coach, having played in college and having spent several years studying coaching under George Young at Baltimore’s City College. City, back then, was one of the most successful high school football programs in the state.  Young, a standout at Calvert Hall College in Baltimore, and then at Bucknell, entered into the NFL in the same class of 1952 recruits as Joe Campanella, Senior. Brune had also played at Bucknell along with a slew of other football men who grew up to be high school, college and professional coaches. Young went on to become the VP/GM of the New York Giants and a Hall of Famer as an executive in the NFL. The new gymnasium at Calvert Hall is named after George Young.

  

George Young

Coach Brune was a George Young protégé and he often gave major credit to Young for his coaching style. Brune also brought some ideas and techniques of his own. To Brune’s way of thinking, what better way to accomplish superior offensive and defensive play than by drilling, with or without the rest of the team? And the backfield can even drill without the offensive line! Small clusters of players can spread out and drill all day long. But how does a coach effectively and realistically simulate an offensive line and the defense without 22 players on the field? Well, that takes imagination. Brune’s imagination brings me to “the tapes” story.

The Tapes:

To explore the idea behind the tapes, imagine a line on the field that is not made of lime powder (like the typical white yard markers) but printed in such a way that you could take it up and put down anywhere, anytime. The line would simulate an offensive line. Such a portable tool has a few challenges: how do you secure the line to the field and not trip on it? How do you make it durable enough to withstand constant cleats and all that mud? And how do you store it?  Brune discovered his “tapes” in Fells Point in Baltimore harbor.

Brune taught Advanced Placement and Honors English to juniors and seniors. As a high school teacher and football coach, it was hard to make a living, while raising a family. Most teachers considered summers as critical time to fill in the gaps in income and make money for their families. There were few ways to make “big money” in Baltimore, but since it was a solid blue collar town, there were some enterprising blue collar jobs that pay well, if you were willing to sacrifice. One of those places was on the docks in the inner harbor. They were not the safest places in the city, but if you knew your way around, and were willing to work odd hours, you could make a lot of money. Joe Brune was one of those unusual men who “made the time” to work at the docks in Fells Point and to read Emily Dickenson, Robert Frost, James Joyce and William Shakespeare. He found these divergent passions to be perfectly compatible.

As a dock hand and longshoreman, Coach Brune developed a good relationship with the dockworkers who served as the pier firemen. Brune had asked for and been given some old and leaky canvas-covered hoses. For fire protection, the hoses were ideal because they rolled up neatly in out-of-the-way places, and would easily expand when attached to a hydrant and filled with water. One nice aspect of these hoses is that when dry, they lie perfectly flat. Brune cut the hoses into strips about twenty feet long, put stakes in each end to secure them in place and painted bright vertical lines on the hoses, representing “holes” for the center, two guards, two tackles, and two ends. These strips became “the tapes.” A quarterback, running back, and fullback could line up on the tapes and drill power plays and bellies, without needing linemen. The imaginary players were simulated by the slots painted on the hose. The faster the quarterback can get the ball to the halfback, and the faster the fullback can lead the way into the hole, the better the execution, and the more yardage could be gained. Simple, right? While the linemen were off practicing blocks, and shoving the sled, or drilling versus the bags, the backfield was getting the timing of these critical running plays down to routine execution.

 

  John Baer & Coach Brune                      Baer makes a point

In August of my junior year at Loyola (1970), we were playing summer football and “running the tapes” with the other offensive backs. The quarterback we drilled with the most was John Baer, the fullback was Ken Smith (Smitty), and the running back was Campy. Kenny Kopro, and Fred Cook would alternate with Campy and I would alternate with Smitty. We would work for hours, drilling to improve the timing among the call, the snap, and the hand-off. I learned quickly that I had better move pretty fast and keep running, if I wanted to avoid being trampled by Campy.

Nearly every day, before practice you could find Campy pulling out a rolled up hose of tape from the container and shoving the stakes on each end into the ground for some practice. That portable offensive line was part of his consistent routine. There were several sets of “tapes” ready for anyone who wanted to go out and drill on his own. Few backs, except Campanella and Baer, ever volunteered without a “personal invitation” from Coach Brune or the assistant coaches.

We would practice for hours, drilling to get the timing among the call, the snap, and the hand-off. Those Maryland summers were steamy in August, even at early morning. Humidity was about 75 percent and the temperature about 75 degrees at 9 AM when practice started, in preparation for those double sessions. The temperature would settle in the 90’s by mid-afternoon. Many mornings Campy was out there on his own, or with Baer, dressed in football pants, jerseys and helmets doing drills on the tape. Even from the locker room, you could hear Baer shout: “Even  … Set!”, and knew from the echo that those guys were already at it. They would be sweating and grunting long before the rest of us arrived. I was so tired from the double sessions from the day before, I had no compunction to arrive early and join them, as they seemed to be on a separate mission. By the afternoon sessions the humidity was at about 90 percent and the sweat would be pouring off us. Salt pills and water breaks were critical parts of the regime.

After the second practice session, as it started to cool down, Campy would occasionally call Baer out for some final drills. “Odd … Set!” The rest of us were already out of the shower by the time they came into the locker room at the end of their drills. We knew that the extra time that they spent on the tapes was not to impress Coach Brune, and it was not about showing up the rest of us. It was about getting the timing and intensity perfect. Baer and Campy had a private pact. We were along for the ride.

Campy’s Constant Motion Legs:

These many years later, I have often wondered what was special about Campy. Was it his speed, weight, height, muscle and desire to play hard? Yes and No, and not in that order.

Joe Bracken, Mark Glaser and I could all run faster and longer than Campy, so it was more than his relative speed. Campy was about my weight, so it was not about pounds. I was a few inches taller than he, so that may have been one factor. Campy had compact running style. His head and shoulders were always moving up field. He seemed to be aerodynamically perfect. He was always explosive off the snap, eyes up, helmet low, and his driving knees created raw power against any potential tackler. Air coursed loudly in and out of his lungs with every breath. He was working hard. But mostly, Campy was determined not to go down.

Visually, Campy had the most powerful piston-like legs I had ever seen. They never stopped pumping, and in practice those legs would run right over you if you were in the way. I have the cleat marks to prove it. We had some good runners and blockers in the backfield, but no one’s football stats were even close to Campy’s. In his junior and senior years, Campy was voted first team All-Maryland Scholastic Running Back. His career point total (118) is still a school record.

To talk about his legs a little more, what I noticed was the difference between the “normal leg muscles” and his pile-driver legs. There was one particular set of muscles, above the knee on the inside of the thigh, called the Vastus Medialis muscles, which were extraordinarily large. The oversized tear-drop shaped muscle group seemed, at least to my eye, to be a big contributor to the power he generated with his legs. With their size and definition, Campy’s Vastus Medialis muscles were like those of a body builder.

  

My brother, Laurie, was on the lacrosse team with Campy and me and he recalls how Campy went for ground balls. If the choice were between scooping up the ball or knocking down the opponent, you could bet on his choice. He would lower his center of gravity and knock the other player up into the air and flat on the dirt.  Campy used his legs with the same force he had in football. He was adaptable.

I was the captain of the defense in Campy’s senior year (1971), playing roving linebacker, or monster back, and occasionally playing fullback. And during practice, when I was on defense, I saw a lot of Campy. I often felt the power and pop of his lowered shoulders and helmet, and the sting of his pumping knees. If I arm tackled, all I saw was his back.  If I hit him up high, he would carry me for 5 extra yards or bowl me over; if I hit him too low he would hurdle or dodge me. If I hit him stomach high and square, wrapping my arms around his knees, and got support from another defender to help me wrestle him to the ground, I could smile with a successful tackle.  In game situations, it was as if his hair were on fire. Campy was a scoring machine and he was going to get to the goal line first and often, no matter who we were playing against. The opponents’ defense had better be ready to rumble on every carry, because Campy wanted six points with every carry.

The Payoff:

1970 was a strange year for football in the Maryland Scholastic “A” Division. That year the league was well balanced and no team seemed to be able to emerge as dominant. Our Loyola Dons were near the top of the Division going into the final game with our arch rival, Calvert Hall. And from our perspective it was epic. This year was the 50^th playing of the Loyola vs. Calvert Hall game.

For many of those years, called the “Turkey Bowl,” the game was played on Thanksgiving Day at a neutral field. The most prestigious field site was Memorial Stadium.  That year the Athletic Director, Ed Hargedan, approved the ordering of special 1920 – 1970, 50-year game jerseys. We were all psyched.

 

Hoop #44 makes a good tackle     Campy makes a catch

According to the news clippings before the game in The Baltimore Sun, Campy was one of the top players in the state, possessing a keen ability to catch and run and score with the football. The Dons were heavily favored. If the Dons won the game we would be crowned league champs. Campy played another outstanding final game that day, running for over 150 years and scoring both of our touchdowns against “The Hall.” Campy scored his second touchdown in the final minute. As the clocked ticked toward the end, the score was knotted at 14 all. If we tied the game, we would be recognized as co-champions in the league.

The decision not to squib the kick-off after the tying touchdown run, led to a long run back by the Cardinals, which set up a long field goal attempt. In that pressure-packed moment, Calvert Hall’s Phil Marsiglia kicked a 42-yard field goal with 4 seconds remaining on the clock to seal the win for the Cardinals. When we saw the clock tick to zero and the ball sail through the uprights, and we were stunned. A player, who was an extra-point kicker, had nailed a kick that would have been the envy of an NFL field goal specialist. How was that possible? In our minds a loss popped the season. The air was quickly escaping the balloon.

Campy #41 up the middle

The season, however, had a different outcome: somehow under-dog City miraculously beat the heavily favored Poly in an exciting game at Memorial Stadium, and the season was all turned upside down. Even with a very weak 6W – 5L season, the Dons had finished at the top of the division. We were the champions and had the jackets and the division bragging rights to prove it, at least for a year.

The next season, in 1971 we had some pretty good football players on the team, including several All Conference first and second team returners. It included Joe Perticone (#88), who played at Princeton, and Art Meadowcroft (#79) who played at Minnesota and was drafted in the 8^th round by the Buffalo Bills. The coaches and players were all looking forward to a great season, earning top honors outright rather than backing into it. Personally, I was happy to be playing. As monster back I started every game on defense and, from time to time, subbed for Smitty at fullback. In one play at fullback against Edmonson, I caught the ball about 10 yards deep over the middle and turned to run up-field. Suddenly my knee hit the crown of the opponent’s helmet and we both went down. My knee hurt like crazy when I returned to the huddle, and I could not figure out why play was halted. Apparently, my knee had knocked out my opponent. We had to wait for the medics to cart the downed player on a stretcher to the sidelines. We lost the game badly.

Campy, who had been injured during most of his sophomore year, encouraged me to whirlpool and work out with my upper body, and to give time for my knee to recover. Having seen his knees and thighs, I was going to take his advice. I limped around noticeably for most of the week, and practiced lightly. The next game against City College, I felt well enough to start and I played on sheer adrenaline. The final score was a tie with powerhouse, City, and the Baltimore Sun recognized me as the league’s defensive player of the week. I thanked Campy for his help and words of encouragement to me that week.

During the season we beat Mt. St. Joe, Gonzaga, Douglas, and Gibbons, but we lost to non-conference rivals BelAir and Good Council, and conference teams Edmonson and Poly. We did not get good traction early in the season. Our non-conference losses were surprising, and they left us out of the poll rankings. We rallied strongly in our last game and had a convincing 18 – 7 win against Calvert Hall. The Don defense was amazingly fierce against the Cardinals, who had an outstanding offense. Campy did his usual sensational running, scoring three touchdowns. I recovered two fumbles in that game, but the season’s ending record was not what we had anticipated. Any season beating our arch rival in the “Turkey Bowl” was considered a good one, but as returning conference champions, we were disappointed as we finished in the middle of the conference standings. Those early losses stacked against us and we finished well out of first place.

As to a recap of Campy’s senior year?  His perpetual motion legs again earned him the well-deserved reputation as the hardest running back to tackle in the Baltimore metro area. He also earned enough touchdowns and statuary to fill a trophy case.  Campy set records for Loyola High School and the Maryland Scholastic Association in yards per game, total season yards, and points. Yes, there were some outstanding athletes who came along in the interim, and the league changed school conferences and configurations over the years, but there have been few athletes like Campy. His record for points (118) would stand for over 20 years. He credits John Baer for giving him the ball, but the record is a testament to Campy alone.

After Campy graduated from Loyola High he attended the University of Pennsylvania. Instead of football he decided to play lacrosse at Penn. The rest of the football teams in the Ivy League were fortunate that he changed his mind and played his “other sport.”

I have been blessed to have had a football role-model like Joe Campanella to emulate in my athletic career. There was no one like him in my life before or since. Some of the credit goes to his family genes, of course, as he had an exceptional man as a father. But as the oldest son, Campy gave an extraordinary amount of effort and heart in his own right. Thanks also to Joe Brune and his practice tapes, and to John Baer who drilled with Campanella until they reached hand-off perfection. And I will never forget those football experiences, nor those powerful thigh muscles. Campy was amazing.

Post Script

Immersive 3D Launches New Interactive Learning System And Names Joseph Campanella As President

June 12, 2013

Immersive 3D (i3D), a Baltimore-based education technology firm specializing in 3D virtual learning systems and platforms for K-12 education, named local business executive Joe Campanella as its company President. The announcement comes just as i3D is set to debut its Virtual Learning System “Cyber STEM Academy,” at the STEM Trek Conference on June 15 at Towson University.

“I’m honored to be at the forefront of the technology that merges the energy and graphics of 3D gaming with the promise of STEM-based learning curricula,” said Campanella, a Wharton School graduate and Baltimore businessman.

Campanella was the founder and CEO of Campanella Realty and Consulting, and is now bringing his extensive experience in business development, operations and management to i3D. Campanella has been active in the Baltimore business community for over three decades, including serving as an investor in the Gino’s Burgers and Chicken franchise that his father and former Baltimore Colt, Joe Campanella, helped found in 1957.

I3d’s new interactive learning system, Cyber STEM Academy, offers a plug-and-play platform for integrating STEM lessons and education games with existing curricula in a 3D multi-user environment. Students can create an avatar to explore the virtual school, discover experiential learning using the laboratories, experiment with physics in the gymnasium, play virtual instruments in the auditorium – all while being associated with the lessons in the classrooms. The student-friendly, multi-user environment also includes learning pods for additional studies in subjects such as nutrition, health, ethics, college planning and more. Additionally, plasticity puzzles, brain-training and memory exercises are presented to the student throughout the STEM learning experience.

“We’ve always known that kids can learn from playing video games and now we’re creating the platform for it to happen,” said Frank Vivirito, i3D founder and CEO.

Vivirito, a veteran Hunt Valley, Md. computer game professional, founded i3D after he was asked to create a prototype for local school districts and immediately saw a need and the promise of using video-game style 3D graphics to foster K-12 STEM education.

I3D, a supporting sponsor of the Baltimore County STEM Alliance, will debut Cyber STEM Academy at STEM Trek Conference on June 15th . This conference will provide an opportunity to share information about STEM initiatives in Baltimore County and the potential for collaborations and partnerships. Participants will include one representative from each Baltimore County Public School as well as other area STEM educators and professionals. The conference will feature a panel discussion, forum sessions, poster sessions and exhibitions from supporters and developers of STEM programs. STEM Trek Conference will be held at Towson University, University Union, from 9:00 am – 3:00 pm. For more information, please visit http://bcsastemtrek.eventbrite.com/

About Immersive 3D LLC (www.immersive-3d.com)
Immersive 3D LLC, headquartered in Baltimore, Md., is the only K-12 fully 3D learning platform specializing in STEM initiatives. Through its Cyber STEM Academy, i3D is bringing computer game quality and immersive graphics to the classroom.

– See more at: http://baltimore.citybizlist.com/article/immersive-3d-launches-new-interactive-learning-system-and-names-joseph-campanella-president#sthash.yX2NOnrc.dpuf