Turning Football, Video Games into a Career

When Rick Mancuso '09 was a student, he had two extracurricular passions: football and video games. A three-year starter at quarterback for the Engineers football team, his fraternity profile stated, "His dream job is a programmer for the EA (Electronic Arts) sports division."

Thanks to a fellowship aimed at former collegiate athletes, plus endless hours of practice in both hobbies, Mancuso is living his dream. Earlier this year, he was selected for the EA SPORTS NCAA Football fellowship, a full-time, paid opportunity for former student-athletes to apply their football knowledge to the development of EA’s NCAA Football '13 video game.

Mancuso was one of two former collegiate athletes selected from a nationwide search, joining Clint Oldenburg, a former Colorado State University offensive lineman who played four years in the NFL. Mancuso worked as an engineer at EA’s Tiburon studios in Orlando, modifying game code, investigating and repairing bugs, and tuning game features.

"Prior to the fellowship, I had no background in video game development," he says. "But throughout my academic career, I loved the infinite potential of software and grew to love building software."

During his MIT career, Mancuso was a New England Football Conference Rookie of the Year, a Boston Globe Golden Helmet Award winner, and in 2005, passed for a then-MIT record 387 yards and four touchdowns in a victory over Nichols College.

"I tried to use my on-field experiences to help designers get the game to feel as much like a realistic football game as possible," he says. "But in my opinion, the most important skill every student can take away from MIT is the confidence and ability to tackle any problem."

Mancuso experienced first-hand the level of work it takes to design and develop a successful video game.

"The internship at EA lived up to all of my expectations," he says. "Football is a game that is constantly changing and there are always new concepts being created at all levels. I learned more than I could have imagined."

At the internship's conclusion, Mancuso accepted a full-time position with EA as a software engineer, which he will begin in June 2013 after completing a graduate program in software engineering at the University of Scranton.

NCAA Football '13, which has sold nearly 1 million copies, includes all 120 Division I FBS (formerly I-A) college football programs. That means no MIT Engineers, who play in Division III, but that has not prevented Mancuso from reliving his gridiron glory.

"A few years ago, they added a feature where you can create your own team and import them into the game," Mancuso says. "I've been importing MIT ever since."