Speaker 1:
From the New York Stock Exchange at the corner of Wall and Broad Streets in New York City, welcome Inside the ICE House. Our podcast from Intercontinental Exchange is your go-to for the latest on markets, leadership, vision, and business. For over 230 years, the NYSE has been the beating heart of global growth. Each week we bring you inspiring stories of innovators, job creators, and the movers and shakers of capitalism here at the NYSE and Ice's exchanges around the world. Now let's go Inside the ICE House. Here's your host, Lance Glinn.
Lance Glinn:
The connection between military service and football runs deep, woven into the ethos of both fields where discipline, teamwork, and resilience are paramount. Each demands extraordinary mental and physical strength, a steadfast commitment to a purpose beyond oneself, and a reliance on those beside you to face and overcome formidable challenges. In both the military and on the football field, each individual has a unique role that is crucial to the success of the whole. Just as a wide receiver's, triumph hinges on the protection offered by the offensive line and the timing of the quarterback. A soldier's safety depends on the coordinated efforts of their whole unit. Both worlds thrive on mutual trust where success is built through unity and strategic execution. Hall of Fame quarterbacks, Roger Staubach and Sid Luckman, former Pittsburgh Steelers offensive lineman, Alejandro Villanueva and the late Pat Tillman are just a few of the athletes who have distinguished themselves both on the Gridiron and in military service.
Alongside them is today's guest, Navy veteran and former New York Giants wide receiver Phil McConkey. After excelling on and off the field at the US Naval Academy and completing five years of service, Phil pursued his NFL dream at age 27, a pursuit that culminated in a six-year career in a Super Bowl XXI touchdown, helping the Giants secure victory over the Denver Broncos. Now as president of Academy Securities, Phil McConkey leads the nation's first post 9/11 veteran-owned and operated investment bank and broker dealer. Today he joins us, Inside the ICE House to discuss his remarkable journey from the Navy to the NFL and beyond. We'll explore his motivations for pursuing the NFL after a five-year hiatus, how Academy Securities supports veterans transition into civilian life and how he and CEO Chance Mims are building on the firm's achievements since its founding in 2009. Our conversation with Phil McConkey, Naval veteran, Super Bowl champion and president of Academy Securities is coming up right after this.
Speaker 3:
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Lance Glinn:
Welcome back. Remember to subscribe wherever you listen and rate and review us on Apple Podcasts so that others know where to find us. You can also now find full video episodes of the Inside the Icehouse podcast on Tv.nyse.com and on the NYSE YouTube channel. Our guest today, Phil McConkey is the president of Academy Securities, the Nation's first post 9/11 veteran-owned and operated investment bank and broker dealer. A graduate from the US Naval Academy, he would serve five years in the Navy as an officer and pilot before embarking on an NFL career, beginning at the age of 27 that saw him play six seasons and was highlighted of course as a longtime Giants fan myself by his fourth quarter touchdown reception from Phil Simms that helped the New York football Giants defeat John Elway's, Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXI. Phil, thanks so much for joining us inside the Icehouse and welcome back to the New York Stock Exchange.
Phil McConkey:
It's always good to be here and I'm glad I'm sitting here talking to you on this historic day.
Lance Glinn:
How cool is it to be on the floor and to see all the action and as you just came from to ring the bell?
Phil McConkey:
It's extremely exciting. Even at this point of my life and being here multiple times through the decades, playing for the New York Giants in the financial capital of the world, I had great exposure to finance and it led me to the path that we're on today. But to come here, I get adrenaline again. There's not a lot of things that can make me feel like it's pregame. So before the bell rings, I have those butterflies because it's the opening kickoff of a game and it sends memory. So very similar sensations and feelings that I had when I was playing football or being in the Navy, and every time you got in the cockpit of that aircraft, you had that same excitement and emotion. And there's a lot of nerves too, because it's good in a way because it heightens your senses, it makes you more focused. So whether you're flying an aircraft or trading equities or catching a pass in the Super Bowl, it's a very similar type emotion that you feel.
Lance Glinn:
And so I want to dive in a little bit to Academy and with a background, your background that includes five-year military career, six seasons in the NFL, over two decades in financial services. You obviously bring a unique perspective to the team.
Phil McConkey:
That's an old bio because an old guy now, and it might be three, coming up on four decades.
Lance Glinn:
Come on, three decades.
Phil McConkey:
Yeah.
Lance Glinn:
So regardless, two or three, you bring a unique perspective to a team that not many others possess. Having the military experience, having the experience of being a professional athlete and in financial services. How would you describe just Academy's overall and what initially drew you to joining the team?
Phil McConkey:
After moving to the San Diego area through a mutual friend who was an ex-Navy SEAL, his classmate was Chance Mims, who was a Naval Academy graduate and surface warfare officer, got out of the Navy in San Diego, got into real estate, and then just saw this opportunity on the broker-dealer side to start something new and different. The disabled veteran aspect of diversity was relatively new at that point. You had other entities involved in that sector, so it was new for us and Chance's idea, our idea was we don't want to be a charity ex-military people, veterans, disabled veterans. True to our background as service members, we understand service. We wanted to add value, but what can you do as a startup broker-dealer with not a big balance sheet like the big guys? What can you offer your corporate clients? So I think true to our nature, we started what we call our geopolitical intelligence group.
Let me back up a little bit because the mission is to hire, train and mentor military veterans for careers and financial services while serving our customers, whether it be corporate clients, trading, municipalities, issuing debt, short-term liquidity, all the different financial products that we get involved with. So we've got this dual mission, first and foremost is the customer, and we understand that as a service entity. But then at the same time as we engage those clients, we could bring on young heroic people coming out of the military that frankly don't have the pedigree to get some of the big jobs with some of the big banks. They don't have the MBAs. They were underwater diver, defusing bombs attached to ships, right? We got Marine Corps young lady who was an Intel officer in Afghanistan. Folks like that are pilots, but with us, they get the opportunity to get their feet involved with financial services.
So it's a two-fold mission, but we had to find ways to add value. True to our nature the geopolitical intelligence group that we formed with one general Spider Marx, who's a West Point guy, now we're up to almost 30 retired admirals and generals, a couple astronauts involved in all the different fields. We have their finger on the pulse of the geostrategic risk landscape. So what we can offer our clients, it's not this massive balance sheet, but it's a perspective that they may not get anywhere else, right? You've got a Fortune 50 company getting ready to issue $12 billion of debt, and there's news out that the Iranians are threatening to close the Straits of Hormuz and they want calm market conditions. That couple bips up in interest rates affects them tremendously. And so they want to understand what does this mean? Can the Iranians close the Straits of Hormuz? What does it mean to the markets? What's the US's reaction going to be?
So instead of going to their bulge bracket bank, large underwriters, they're coming to little old Academy securities because they want to talk to Admiral Bob Harward, who by the way, was a classmate of mine at the academy, who was a three-star admiral, ran the Navy SEALs. He grew up in Tehran fifth grade through high school, speaks the language and understands that area as well as anyone. So he talks to them and gives them calm about the markets they go through with the transaction they put us on as a co-manager. Off of that, we're able to build up all of our attributes and hire more and train more military veterans, and it's just spiraled from there where we've become the go-to entity when our customers are trying to understand geostrategic risk.
Lance Glinn:
And you would say that's what really separates Academy Securities from others and really what makes your mission so unique.
Phil McConkey:
From anyone else, especially the larger entities who we partner with, who we're incredibly grateful for having that partnership because they helped us stand on our feet back in the day when they saw that we had something of value. And then to see the success stories of some of these young transitioning military veterans that again, get an opportunity in financial services on Wall Street that they would not get anywhere else. And that's a tribute to our clients that help us achieve that.
Lance Glinn:
So in 2023, as we stay on the topic of Academy, Academy Asset Management, a sister company of Academy Securities launch, the Academy Veteran Impact ETF and [inaudible 00:10:45] symbol. V-E-T-Z. How does this ETF specifically support service members and veterans, and what sets it apart from other ETFs with similar missions?
Phil McConkey:
Well, I think before we answered that, which I will, I think the way that was formed, we're a broker dealer. We always thought about getting involved in asset management, but there's a huge hurdle starting up a broker dealer, starting up asset management, track record minimum AUM, right? What came first, the chicken or the egg? So that was always difficult, but our corporate customers came to us and said, "Hey, listen, you're providing us so much content that we're not getting anywhere else. You don't charge us for it. We want to find a way to repay you for that. And we're not issuing debt or equity or doing the broker dealer type transactions where you could benefit. So how about we give you money to invest?" So with their help, we started Academy Asset Management, and first we brought in a client of ours, Seth Rosenthal, who was at Northern Trust, a client. He ran a hundred billion dollars fixed income portfolio. He came over as our CIO, and we started with a few corporate clients and a conservative fixed income strategy.
And then we had other clients that said, "Hey, listen, you're doing so much for us. We want to invest, but we can't do that type of arrangement, but we can do a publicly traded ETF." So that's where we came up with VETZ, V-E-T-Z. Trades on the New York Stock Exchange, invests in mortgages and small business loans for active duty military personnel and military veterans. And the beauty of it is it gives that demographic access to capital where maybe they wouldn't have had. You got a lot of kids coming out of the military, living in high cost areas like San Diego.
Chance, our CEO, trying to buy a home, getting out of the military with not a lot of credit and not making a lot of money and being in a high cost area without a VA loan, without that kind of assistance, it's difficult. So this helps the veterans lower those borrowing costs. And for the investor, there's an altruistic side of this, and I think VETZ is returning 6%, 7%, so a conservative return, but they're having a big influence on a lot of heroes, and they're helping, again, lower borrowing costs when it comes to small business loans and home mortgages for this incredible demographic.
Lance Glinn:
And military veterans. They bring unique experiences to both their service and civilian life shaping their approach to excellence with veterans from the army, the Navy, the Marines represented on Academy Security's leadership team. How does the firm leverage these diverse backgrounds to drive success?
Phil McConkey:
Again, I think it's a perspective that our clients get from us that they're not getting from a lot of other sources, and we've got some great success stories of young people that have transitioned. First job out of the military, didn't know anything about financial services that are thriving for themselves, their families. There's countless stories of some heroic deeds that these people have undertaken. One is we have a young woman who is an explosives ordinance disposal officer in the Navy. So she's a navy diver, and part of her job is to go underwater, defuse bombs attached to ships. So you think about how dangerous that is, thinking, catching a punt in the NFL, [inaudible 00:14:28] defusing a bomb attached to the ship. So I just remember when she first started, she wanted to be in sales, so we gave her a list of clients to cold call and you know in sales that's the hardest thing to do is a cold call.
So a few days I could see she's struggling a little bit, and I started to talk to her and I said to her, I said, "Kim, so tell me what you did in the Navy." She goes, "You know what I did?" I go, "No, no, explain it to me." She goes, "I was an explosive EOD officer." I go, "Well, tell me, describe your job as if I don't know." And she went on to talk about how as a diver, you're underwater. You're defusing a bomb attached to a ship. I go, "Stop right there. So what happens if you cross one of those wires?"
She goes, "Boom, it's over. I'm gone." I go, "Okay, juxtapose what you just told me to sitting. Is that chair comfortable? Is the room, is the temperature okay in this room? You're picking up the phone. 'Hi, this is Kim from Academy Securities, I'd like to talk to you, blah, blah, blah, blah.'" I go and I started to weigh this and the light came on. And then after that, the confidence level of this young woman was tremendous, and she's had a tremendous success run for herself, her family, for us, and she's an absolute great teammate.
Lance Glinn:
And commander Janie Mines, she leads Academy Securities inclusion efforts and someone who is bringing more diversity, bringing more experiences to the team. How have her own experiences as the first African-American women to graduate from the US Naval Academy helped enrich the leadership team, help enrich the Academy Securities team as a whole? In what ways has she advanced inclusion and innovation at the firm?
Phil McConkey:
Yeah, we learned long time ago, I was a sophomore at the Naval Academy when the first class of women came in the year behind me, and Janie was one of 4,500 midshipmen, the only Black woman out of 4,500. I can't imagine. You just want to hide. There was nowhere for this young woman to hide. So she was an inspiration to me from way back in the day. But what we understand in the military when my daughter being a senior at the Naval Academy right now is we need everybody to win. And when we're tasked, our military is tasked with solving complex problems, a huge advantage that we have that kids today understand, I think some of the old whatevers are having tough time with it, is the more diversity of thought that you have on the battlefield helps you accomplish missions. If everybody looks alike, thinks alike, comes from the same place, it's harder to solve those complex problems. But when you have diversity of thought, and by the way, the military today is not like your grandfather's military where it was all brute strain.
It's about brains and teamwork, and these young people get it more than anybody. That's our hidden strength. Our enemies are monolithic and the way they look and the way they think, we have a huge advantage. The kids of today, and I'm living it through the eyes of my daughter again, who's a senior at the Naval Academy. They're so far beyond some of these issues that have held us back as a nation with race and sex and whatever. They're together, they're one, and it bodes extremely well for our country. And spend any time at the Naval Academy or those other academies too, and you would be just heartened at the way these kids are. Yeah, so it gives us great hope for our future. But Janie, again, an incredible story of perseverance to be one of 4,500, a pioneer. And let me tell you something back then.
This since 1976, there are a lot of people in the Naval Academy, in the Navy I didn't want to see women enter a service academy, let alone a Black woman. And she persevered and handled that with such grace and dignity. I remember looking at her from afar and just being inspired. Because I thought, "Oh, what was me? And this place is too tough. I don't think I can handle it." And you juxtapose what I was going through, looking at the eyes through this young woman, couldn't believe it. So she was an inspiration to me when I was 19 years old. And then a few years ago, we got to reconnect and told her what we're doing at Academy, and she's been an incredible asset for what we do to help us and help our clients understand. She just has such an incredible background and experience that not a lot of people have attained. And so we're just so lucky to have Janie Mines with us.
Lance Glinn:
Absolutely. I mean, her story is incredible. You mentioned the perseverance. You mentioned fighting through the odds of sorts to get to where she is, just an incredible story that she has.
Phil McConkey:
And I think there's a lot of parallels to the military and sports that we make. And what I had to do is a barely 160 pound guy that hadn't played football in five years. But I think there's a common denominator, especially with a lot of military people and a lot of NFL guys that I played with. The common denominator, you hate to lose a hell of a lot more than you like to win. I've seen that trait and I've studied highly successful people throughout my life, and that's the one thing that I found that really unites those types of people. The intensity of losing, the fear of losing, the pain of losing is much more great, much more intense than the spoils of victory or the joy of winning.
Winning is just a relief that you didn't lose a game. You execute a trade and it goes through, you're really... But that trade goes bad or you miss a trade, that emotion of that loss is much more intense than the emotion or the joy or the spoils of victory. And I think that is something that really ties together extremely successful people. I played in three Army Navy games, or four of them, excuse me, won three of them. I barely think about those games.
Lance Glinn:
That fourth one.
Phil McConkey:
But the one game that got away, it still bugs me to this day. I had the best game in my life in the NFL, in the Super Bowl. I had three huge plays in the second half. I barely think about those plays, but I think about the second play of the second quarter. It's third down in three from our 40 yard line. We played Denver at Giant Stadium in late November, so we were pretty conservative. And third down, and three, we're going to go six yards, curl up and get the first down. Well, we want totally contra this game. We're throwing flea flickers and we're throwing on first down when we always used to run on first down.
So we had this play put in where I was just going to go hook up normally from the slot, five, six yards. They think we're going to just try to get the first down. I'm going to stutter step and go right down the middle of the field. So set up perfectly, right? And again, my wife gets on me because I can't remember what I ate for breakfast, but I'm describing to you in gory detail what happened-
Lance Glinn:
Just play.
Phil McConkey:
...in 1987, in January 23rd, 1987. So sure enough, play comes in, I go up, I stutter step this guy. He's got me one-on-one in the slot, and I stutter step and I'm going to the middle of field. I'm taken off. When he realized that he had been had, that I faked him out. I could see his eyes. They got huge. Know he was beat. And what he did was he stuck out his right leg, caught my right leg, and I stumbled. Sims throws the ball. It should have been a 60 yard touchdown. Sims would've thrown four touchdowns. Sims had the most... So Sims would've been 23 out of 25 instead of 22 out of 25 with four touchdowns. And make matters worse, they didn't even call a penalty. You think about the ones that got away more than the touchdown-
Lance Glinn:
And I think coach Parcells like to stray away from the third and three run-
Phil McConkey:
No, that was the genius of Parcells. So here's his genius is here's a guy very conservative on offense. Our defense was unbelievable. You got Lawrence Taylor and Harry Carson, hall of Fame guys and Leonard Marshall and Carl bangs, Jim Burt. People don't talk about Gary Reasons. It's just on and on and on. Defense was unbelievable. And Parcells was a defensive coach. Belichick is defensive coordinator. Our special teams coach was Romeo Cornell who came up as a defensive guy. These are all defensive guys. So they look at... But in the biggest moment of his life isn't another great example for people when you talk about success and winning, here's the biggest game of Bill Parcells' his life, and he's going totally contra to who he is as a football coach in his makeup and his theory, right?
Totally contra by throwing the ball on first down, when we would always run it, the flea flicker, as I talked about, all these different trick plays, fake field goal or fake punt, sorry, that ignited things in the second half. He had the courage to go contra, and we caught these guys and dominated a football game, especially in the second half. So that's incredible leadership, I think. And you've got incredible examples. I'm using that word a lot, incredible. So sorry.
Lance Glinn:
No, no, no. I mean, look, again, they are incredible examples. The stories are incredible as well.
Phil McConkey:
When you look at the military, you go to study military history, some of the great battles that the United States have been in, and some of the incredible, I'm using this word again, incredible leaders, how they've gone contra and were bold and did things that nobody expected to win. And I think that's a really important part of the fabric of who we are as a nation.
Lance Glinn:
And now you had, as we talk about football, you had a successful playing career in Indianapolis. You mentioned the four Army-Navy games, three in one. In those four games, you established yourself in the record books for the midshipman as a wide receiver and a returner. Did you consider your NFL aspirations at the age, at that time of 22 to be something that was always just going to be a dream? Or did you think that, hey, once my service ends, I could potentially make a run at this?
Phil McConkey:
So I was a little boy growing up in Buffalo, tough surroundings, parents working really hard to make ends meet. I dreamt big. I was a little skinny runt, but I had big dreams and two of them, I couldn't settle on one, so I had two. I wanted to score a touchdown, the Super Bowl, and I wanted to be a pilot, right? So great high school career. We couldn't afford college. I couldn't get a scholarship because they had a limit on the number of scholarships, couldn't give. And I was a hundred and-five pounds, but Army and Navy called and I chose Navy luckily. And so I went there figuring, okay, at least I'll get one of these dreams. I'll be a pilot. Was able to play football there and we had some great success. And I go to flight school in Pensacola and okay, this is going to be my life and it was great. I was fine. And initially I was fine not going to play football. My last football game, which I thought was the holiday ball, we upset Brigham Young.
I was the MVP. I'm taking my pads off almost 22 years old and been playing since I was a kid. So it's your whole life. And I remember savoring the moment, taking my pads off thinking this is the last time I'm ever going to put pads on in my life. Little did I know that locker room in San Diego, 1989 would actually be the last time when I played for the Chargers and I was going to be 33 years old. And I said, "This really is the last time."
But anyway, I was content, at least initially with being a pilot in the Navy. Flight school, flying off ships, I'm in the Mediterranean, I'm fine. I'd start watching games on TV a couple years into it and I just start thinking what if. What would happened, if I had the opportunity, could I have made it? What would I have done? And at one point I just decided I can't go through the rest of my life. I'm 67 years old right now and being a 67-year-old guy wondering what if, don't want to spend my life like that. So I decided I'm going to give up this incredible career and go take a shot. Now I had no chance at that point.
Lance Glinn:
Is that all you thought it was, just a shot?
Phil McConkey:
I thought it was. Well, I was confident. I didn't know, but I was just grateful for the opportunity just to get an opportunity. And I was lucky because Bill Parcells just came on as head coach, Belichick elevated defensive coordinator and Romeo to a special teams coach. Oh, I was lucky that they were defensive guys. And the one thing I can do, probably at one point better than anybody on the planet was catch punts. Maybe I'm not returning them 50 yards for a touchdown-
Lance Glinn:
But you're reliable. You're not going to muck them.
Phil McConkey:
In windy giant stadium with 30, 40 mile an hour gusts. My defense isn't coming back on the field because I fumbled. So that was something that got me noticed and it was important to those guys, those coaches. And so that's how I initially got my opportunity and then playing receiver. So yeah, my first 27 years old, the average guy comes out of college at 22. If he makes it a year in the NFL, plays like 3.2 years. So the average guy's done at 25. I was starting at 27. In fact, I was one of the older guys on the team as a rookie. But similar to my military experiences prior to that and my business experience post that, that team and the reason we were Super Bowl champions, it's a great lesson that I learned in the military. We go back to talking about being on a ship or flying a plane or submarine or Marines or whatever. Everyone's important. Yeah, the commanding officer is important.
Yeah, the quarterback or the head coach is important, but the second class petty officer that's tightening the bolts on that helicopter is as important as the pilot flying that aircraft. And I recognize that back then. So I remember being made to feel important and we try to make everybody feel important because we have a job to do and we need everybody to win, everybody, not just top person. So the Giants at that time recognized that the leadership, the coaches, down to the football players with the Sims and Harry Carson and George Martin and Lawrence, all these guys understood we needed everybody to win. So I'm a lowly punt returner. I'm the last guy on the roster, but they treated me to be as important as the quarterback Phil Sims. So when you're made to feel important on a team or an organization, you give more of yourself because it's for someone else. You've got more to give as a human being when it's for someone else than if it's just for yourself.
I found that out in my life, your family member, a teacher, whatever, you will give more for others when you're made to feel included. And I was made to feel included on that team. They made me feel as important as Lawrence Taylor, so I would do anything to succeed and to win for them, not even more than for myself. And it's the same thing I learned in the military, and I think that's what we've taken at Academy Securities, and I think that's why we've been thriving and continue to get better. And we understand too. You got to keep going. My college coach, George Welsh used to say something that didn't make a lot of sense to me early on, but it didn't... As I matured-
Lance Glinn:
Now it's an-
Phil McConkey:
I got older. Now it makes so much sense. Every day he would say to us, "Fellas, you're either getting better or you're getting worse." To practice hard and study hard and do all that. And like, "Okay, yeah, what does that mean?"
But he's right. And I've learned in my life, there's no status quo. You're either getting better or you're getting worse at your job, your family, as a parent, whatever, you're either getting better or you're getting worse. And if you think you're just skating along doing things that got you to that point, you're actually getting worse. So it's a constant battle to win. And what I do in business now that keeps me going physically, I still think I'm not good enough. I'm still training hard. I'm still [inaudible 00:31:08] strengths and doing all those things that I've done my whole life because... There's another thing that I learned. I'm comfortable being uncomfortable. Going to the Naval Academy you're very uncomfortable and it's constant. There's no let up. Or you go to practice, it's constant, it's uncomfortable or studying all that stuff. But what happens is you get so used to being uncomfortable that it becomes your ally, your friend. You get used to being uncomfortable to the point where when you're not uncomfortable, you're leery. You're like-
Lance Glinn:
What's going on?
Phil McConkey:
"What's going on, man?" Waiting for some shoe to drop. So I think that, again, I've studied highly successful people my whole life in the military, in sports, in politics, in business, and just another common denominator, just hating to lose more than you like to win. And always being uncomfortable because that spur in your saddle and that can propel people to do great things where other people don't think that they can accomplish those things. They can because they've got that mindset and that attitude. And they hate to lose more than they like to win. And they're comfortable being uncomfortable. You've got people coming in the city all day long getting on a subway or commuting. It's uncomfortable.
Lance Glinn:
Yeah, trust me, I feel that coming from New Jersey, I feel every single day.
Phil McConkey:
Yeah. You feel it, but you do it often. You get accustomed to it. You can get comfortable in very uncomfortable situations as a human being. There's a lot of people that once they get uncomfortable, they're done. They quit. But the winners, the successful people, people that overcome great odds, they're comfortable being uncomfortable.
Lance Glinn:
So you mentioned your coach, George Welsh at Navy. Brian Newberry obviously replacing a great long-time Navy coach in Ken Niumatalolo. Navy six and two right now as we record, unfortunately recently lost to Rice and what was a very weird game with a long five-hour weather delay. But are you excited and impressed with what you've seen? Six wins right now, navy could lose out the rest of the season, still most wins since 2019.
Phil McConkey:
Yeah, I am super impressed with the team and the coaching and where they're going and those things are going to happen. Look, they played Notre Dame, and it's a physical game. I played in four of those games and I understand what happens coming out of it. I don't want to make excuses for the team, but they got to go on the road, five plus hour weather delay on the road. So I think they'll get back on schedule. I'm in Annapolis a lot and I go to practice and I watch, and they are extremely efficient.
Lance Glinn:
Horvath is a great quarterback. He is.
Phil McConkey:
The way they practice, there's no wasted motion. The athletes are doing extremely well. He's a wonderful player and I am excited for the team and happy for them and just want them to finish out strong here.
Lance Glinn:
So your Giants career, you obviously make the Giants roster after getting that mini camp invite, you succeed with the franchise, playing with them in 84 and 85, you get cut in 86, you then sign with the Green Bay Packers, Lionel Manuel gets hurt. You then get traded back to the New York Giants. Did you feel any animosity towards the franchise for having cut you earlier that season and then coming back?
Phil McConkey:
I hated Parcells. I wanted to punch him in the mouth. I thought he made a huge mistake, but I was getting to play. I got another opportunity with the Packers and after the fourth game, Forrest Gregg, the Hall of Fame player for the Packers and coach at the time calls me in his office. So I think they're going to cut me because I'm 30 years old at that point just about. And he says, "I got good news for you. We traded you back to the Giants." I was like, "What?" And so Parcells calls me and he says, "Hey, they drive a hard bargain, those Packers on that trade." I go, "What are you talking about?" He goes, "I had to throw in a couple clipboards with a blocking to get you back." So he gave me a sense of my worth on the open market. And yeah, coming back and that was our Super Bowl year we go on that magnificent run.
And to this day, it's something that you cherish and you look back on. And most of it is about the relationships you had with players and coaches that you cherish more than a piece of hardware or any other accolades. It's something you can share with a special group of guys that were still brothers to this day. Some guys haven't seen each other in decades, but you get together and the same guy's getting on the same other guys for the same chunk from all that time ago. It was a lot of fun. And it's like you're a kid all the time.
Lance Glinn:
And you mentioned earlier in our conversation, you had two dreams. You wanted to be a pilot, which you obviously achieved, and you want to catch a touchdown in the Superbowl. Right place at the right time. Phil Simms pass hits off, Mark Bavaro's hands goes right to you. There's your touchdown in the Superbowl.
Phil McConkey:
Well, I should have had one before on the fleet flicker. I was a 44 yarder down to the one foot line. I think I did a somersault and thinking, "Oh my gosh, I'm that close to one of my dreams."
Lance Glinn:
I've seen the, not celebration, that's the wrong word, but the sitting up like this, and man, I was do close.
Phil McConkey:
It was mixed emotions, right? I was elated that we're going to score a touchdown and take control of the game because that play broke the game open, but just so frustrated that I didn't get in, but then I got it after the next one. But yeah, that was awesome. And it was interesting. Not long after that, I got a telegram that's 80s telegrams, right? Jack Kemp, who was one of my boyhood idols. I grew up in Buffalo. I was a huge Bills fan. He's the quarterback of my team. Then he became a congressman for a couple of decades. He was running for president, and so it'd been in 88, and he asked me if I'd help him. I was just elated that he would even recognize me. I said, "Sure." So one of the things that I had to do, it's appropriate being in this building right now, and we're going to have a fundraiser for Jack and we're going to aim to get money from Wall Street donors. Guys work down here.
And there was an establishment on the Upper West Side. I'll never forget it. They had a stage set up. Now I'm going to go up and introduce him. And there's other supporters of his there and couldn't have picked a worst day. So we're trying to take money out of the pockets of Wall Streeters to help Jack Kemp run for president. October 19th, 1987, stock market fell 508 points. Well, that doesn't sound like a lot today. It was 22.4%. So that's like the market today going down-
Lance Glinn:
Was a lot back then.
Phil McConkey:
10,000, right? Can you imagine? So I've got to introduce him. And this crowd was, you can imagine the silence. To their credit, they showed up, man, but they were-
Lance Glinn:
They were not in the giving money mood.
Phil McConkey:
...just despondent. Yeah, not going to give him. So I don't know what the heck I'm going to say. So I'm walking up the stage and I recognize something. I got up there and I'm trying to make them feel better and show them some empathy and say, "Hey, I understand what you're going through. We lost a big game a couple of weeks ago to the Bears. I know how tough this is, but I'm telling you, tomorrow's a new day. You get dressed, you go to work, and it's going to get better." And I'm trying to make them feel better and show some similarity with the Giants and what they're going through. But that number kept popping in my head. I go, "But I have to cite one major difference. The New York Giants never lose by 508 points. So lighten up the mood a little bit for Jack to come up."
Lance Glinn:
So what was more of a right place right time, the Mark Bavaro's hands, or as you're celebrating the Super Bowl, finding a handgun on the field? I mean, that's a story that is just-
Phil McConkey:
Yeah, what's interesting is when you talk about sports and football compared to the military, it's not life and death. You're going to get hurt and whatever, but it's not life and death. That situation still haunts me. So what happened to those that don't know? It's Bedlam after the game, you can imagine you win a Super Bowl and I'm just flying around celebrating my teammates, and right in the middle of the field, I look down and there's a revolver, a handgun. I think it was a 357 Magnum. This was a large gun laying on the field. And I'm stunned and looking at it. And at that time, the camera, the CBS camera was panning the field and they're showing Phil Sims the MVP of the game. And I come running by just-
Lance Glinn:
Yeah, celebrating.
Phil McConkey:
...wildly. And then the next shot is me standing there with my helmet in one hand and this pistol. I had some arms training as a kid, and I'm pointing it at the ground and a security guard took it away from me. So afterwards they said that a security guard wrestling with a fan who got on the field and lost his revolver. I don't know many security guards or cops then that carried a gun like that large. Maybe there was somebody with ill intent that got onto the field, maybe they got distracted or something, dropped the gun. I don't know.
But I told people in the press conference, because the media mob, I had an okay game, but not like Sims is the MVP of this historic game. Why are you over there? And they all they wanted to know about was the gun because again, switchboards back then CBS got flooded with calls. McConkey had a gun in his helmet. They were asking me. So they're asking me about it. And my response was, "Well, I helped my team today win a Superbowl and I saved some lives, all in a day's work. So there you go."
Lance Glinn:
That's an incredible story.
Phil McConkey:
Yeah, you wonder what the real story was.
Lance Glinn:
And we may never know. We'll never know.
Phil McConkey:
You didn't know back in 1987.
Lance Glinn:
That's just an incredible story to think about. Talk about again, right place at the right time for you. I mean, that's just the tip pass right into your hands and finding a handgun on the field is just quite the evening for you.
Phil McConkey:
I've got to realize all these dreams, do all these things, but they pale in comparison to one other thing, and everybody can understand this. You don't have to be an athlete. You don't have to be a professional football player. You don't have to be in the military. You don't have to be a pilot doing all those exciting things. Being a parent trumps all those dreams and accomplishments.
Lance Glinn:
I'm expecting my first daughter in March.
Phil McConkey:
Let me tell you something, my daughter, you could add all those things I've done in my life and all those dreams and all the success, multiply it exponentially. It's not close to being a father, not even close. And I've had situations where I've got a lot of friends and they bemoan the fact that maybe they didn't achieve this or do this or they want to do this. It says, "How many kids you got?" I go, "Let me tell you from experience, being a parent, being a father, blows all that other stuff away. It's not even close. So cherish that position."
Lance Glinn:
Yeah, like I said, I'm expecting my first child, a daughter in March, and I know my wife and I are very excited. I've gotten tons of advice as I'm sure everyone-
Phil McConkey:
Daughters are great, man, let me tell you.
Lance Glinn:
Yeah, it's something we're obviously looking forward to. It's scary, but it's an exciting scary for sure. I do want to pivot back to Academy Securities. The firm boasts impressive figures, 5 trillion in capital markets, underwriting commitments, 3.2 trillion in debt capital market transactions, 575 billion in public finance transactions, 396 billion in equity capital market transaction among many other accolades. Given this clear success in attaining and securing these clients and commitments, what do you believe makes the firm not just so effective in gaining these clients but then maintaining these clients in the long term?
Phil McConkey:
I think it's a mindset that we put our clients first. We understand service as well as anybody, and we want to serve and we want to do well. And we've got this insatiable appetite for success, in doing things right, in winning. There was a day when there were five or six, five investment grade debt transactions in the marketplace. We were a co-manager on five of them, five out of the six. We're all looking at the sixth one that everybody should be celebrated, right? This is great. The six-
Lance Glinn:
That got away.
Phil McConkey:
What a record, what a day. But we're all looking at the... What happened instead of the successes, what did we do wrong here? Why didn't we get on this one?
So that's where our focus is. It's just like being on a team, right? Yeah, you scored a touchdown, but you messed up on this play. How do we get better here? Or you're in the military and on a mission, and yeah, you had all these successes, but it's that one that got away. And I think it's that mindset that we have that we just need to get better every single day. Because we owe it to our customers, number one, and we owe it to our heroic military veterans that are on our team.
Lance Glinn:
And you had mentioned earlier part of Academy's mission of hiring, mentoring, training veterans that transition into civilian life. According to the Veterans Benefits Administration, around 200,000 service members annually transition from the military into civilian life. How is Academy Securities collaborating with various nonprofits that support veteran employment to integrate these individuals onto your team and to assist them in their post-military careers?
Phil McConkey:
So I think our social mission, again, is to hire trained, mentor, military veterans, recruits, and financial services. We'd like to hire all of them. We can't. We're a small firm, but we become a conduit to something much larger than ourselves with our relationships with the bulge bracket bank, with the private equity firm, asset manager, where we can take some of these kids coming out of the military if there's not a position with us, make introductions for them. And there have been a lot of success stories where we've been able to help position a lot of these kids to jobs on Wall Street. So that's a huge. Again, that's our social mission. First and foremost, we got to do great for our customers and add differentiated value and at the same time help military veterans.
Lance Glinn:
And in October, this past October, the veteran unemployment rate was 3% lower than the 4.1% rate for non-veterans. But look, even 3% I think you'd agree is still too high. How can both the public and private sectors, including Academy Securities contribute to helping veterans gain employment and successfully transition to life with or civilian life, excuse me, with obviously stable income and net opportunities for growth?
Phil McConkey:
I think the big thing is for entities to understand the value and the worth of a military veteran. As we discussed earlier, maybe they don't have an MBA from an Ivy League school, but man, they got a doctorate in teamwork. They got a doctorate in facing real bullets. So what we do in business and Wall Street pales in comparison to what they've been through. So that intestinal fortitude, that teamwork, it's applicable to anything. You bring on someone like that onto your team, you're better immediately. Again, maybe they don't have the credentials that you would typically look for or find, but man, they can change, they can adapt as well as anybody doing those types of things. And they make your team stronger. And I think as a nation too, I think there's a dearth of military veterans. I think you're starting to see more coming into our elected officials, especially the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. We've got more heroes now filtering into the political system. Because for a while there there was a dearth of military veterans serving in.
How can you vote on whether to send these kids to war if you have experienced it? And you don't have to have everybody, I'm just saying. But you've got to have some representation of that demographic to make those decisions. And I think you're starting to see a little bit more of it now. And I remember as a kid being old that there were quite a few coming off of even World War II or Vietnam. There were quite a few veterans in Congress and our elected officials. And I'm hoping we see more of them. It's good for our country to have that perspective.
Lance Glinn:
So fellas, we begin to wrap up. And you mentioned the intelligence group earlier in our conversation Academy Securities recently added Admiral Patrick Walsh to the advisory board and the Geopolitical Intelligence Group. As geopolitical landscapes continue to evolve, how are you and Chance positioning Academy Securities with the help of the Admiral and everyone else on the Geopolitical Intelligence group to address emerging risks and capitalize on new opportunities?
Phil McConkey:
And again, this goes back to Chance's brainchild back in the day. He saw this opportunity, which was absolutely brilliant. We talked earlier about the first asset was General Spider Marks, and now we're up to about 30 of them. And I think, again, we help our clients navigate geostrategic risk as they make decisions. They're making huge decisions on timing of transactions, on investments, understanding what's going on different parts of the globe. We had a customer that was interested in making some investments in South America, and they're considering the political strife or imbalance or instability in that part of the world. And they're calling us because of our assets that had experience running different operations in that part of the world. From AI to cybersecurity to national security. We've got experts. We have people that sat in the very same seats that were making these geostrategic decisions for our country and for the free world.
And if you're in business and you're not taking that into account, you should be. And we become the go-to entity to help our clients understand geostrategic risk. And another part there, we have Peter Cher, who's a global macro strategist. He's at CNBC and Bloomberg all the time. Peter can help interpret what the generals and admirals and experts are saying about this geostrategic risk and put it into terms where capital markets practitioners understand. And that's very helpful, again, to our clients. So that combination of Peter's expertise on the markets and the geostrategic expertise come together that we can leverage and help our clients. And by the way, it doesn't cost them a dime. It doesn't cost them a dime. They put us on a transaction, we make money, we hire more of these veterans. We bring on more of these assets that help them understand risk. So we just keep getting stronger and bigger and better and providing more opportunity for worthy and talented military veterans.
Lance Glinn:
And as you, Chance and the leadership team plan for the future, how do you all see and envisioned Academy Securities growing over the next 5, 10, 15 years?
Phil McConkey:
Well, I think we want to get to the big boy level, the midterm bank level. We're going to continue that way on the broker-dealer side. But the huge opportunity for us is in the asset management. We talked about vets earlier, we talked about Academy Asset Management. As we gain more and more track record, more and more entities, we'll be able to potentially invest. And that will provide us. And I believe, we believe that the asset management side of Academy can dwarf all the great success we've had on the broker-dealer side, and then provide even more opportunity for the heroes that we've discussed over the last hour here with Academy Asset Management, because we really think that it's a mission driven environment where investments made by entities get a nice return. It's stable, it's safe, but you're helping active duty military personnel buy their first home or a veteran start a business. So that's an altruistic side of what we're doing there where our customers and clients feel really good about engaging with Academy.
Lance Glinn:
Well, Phil, thank you very much for your service. Thank you very much for all you do for Vets today, and thank you very much for joining us Inside the ICE House.
Phil McConkey:
So good to be here, man, on this big day. We got to go see some more numbers here as they roll in.
Lance Glinn:
Absolutely.
Phil McConkey:
Great being with you. Thank you.
Lance Glinn:
Thanks so much.
Speaker 1:
That's our conversation for this week. Remember to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen and follow us on X @ICEHousePodcast. From the New York Stock Exchange, we'll talk to you again next week. Inside the Icehouse. Information contained in this podcast was obtained in part from publicly available sources and not independently verified. Neither ICE nor its affiliates make any representations or warranties expressed or implied as to the accuracy or completeness of the information, and do not sponsor, approve or endorse any of the content herein, all of which is presented solely for informational and educational purposes. Nothing herein constitutes an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy any security or a recommendation of any security or trading practice. Some portions of the preceding conversation may have been edited for the purpose of length or clarity.