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Forged by FAU - Rich Freebourn
11/1/2020 7:37:00 PM | Baseball, General
Rich Freebourn began his Florida Atlantic baseball career nearly three decades ago, yet he still wears Owls’ gear regularly. The university provided Freebourn the foundation he needed to excel professionally and personally, and that’s not something he’ll forget anytime soon.
“It’s been 20-something years,” Freebourn said, “and I still feel like I’m on campus and a part of the program.”
Before entering the insurance world, Freebourn aspired for the Major Leagues. He got off to a great start at Edison College (now Florida SouthWestern State), winning consecutive Male Scholar Athlete of the Year awards in 1989 and ’90.
Freebourn’s next step was finding an NCAA program to showcase his talents. FAU and then-coach Kevin Cooney stood out immediately.
“It was important for me to find something relatively close to home where I could compete and be part of the team as soon as possible,” Freebourn, a Lee County native, said of FAU.
In 1991, Freebourn pitched his first season for the Owls. Everything was going as planned. Until, with a month left to go, he suffered a severe elbow injury.
Freebourn rehabbed with intentions of returning to the mound, but he also spent time coaching the Boca Raton American Legion team.
“That kind of got some juices flowing as to how I can not only rehabilitate but stay connected to baseball,” Freebourn said.
That time proved invaluable. By fall, Freebourn learned his injury would prevent him from playing the following season. Freebourn then decided to help the Owls another way: coaching.
Cooney, recognizing FAU had too many freshmen to develop at the varsity level, entrusted Freebourn with a junior varsity squad. Freebourn and Cooney collaborated on a schedule and roster, but after that it was Freebourn’s team to coach. And Freebourn didn’t take that head coaching opportunity for granted.
“It was trust,” Freebourn said. “Not only trust with taking these guys on the road, getting in a van and not having a car accident and killing them. But also, the trust to lead these guys and give them some confidence in playing and helping them develop their skills until they reach the varsity squad.”
Freebourn didn’t just develop players into varsity-level talents. He, along with Cooney and then-assistant John McCormack, helped some turn pro. Two eventual major leaguers, CJ Nitkowski and Tim Harrikala, played for FAU and worked with Freebourn.
Harrikala, a former volleyball star turned pitcher, became the first FAU alum to play in an MLB game in 1995.
“He had a place to play,” Freebourn said of Harrikala, “a place to develop on that JV team.”
While Freebourn taught future pros on the field, he also learned plenty outside the game as an Owl. A mathematics major, Freebourn earned his Bachelor of Arts in 1993 and has used that education throughout his professional career. Freebourn also learned how to communicate and empathize with people from various backgrounds at FAU’s diverse campus.
Freebourn has worked at Brown & Brown, the sixth-ranked U.S. insurance broker per Business Insurance, for the past 16 years. He is a salesperson who works with about 25 accounts across six states. In his role, Freebourn helps organizations ranging from 10 to 10,000 employees secure the products they need to succeed.
“The protection that our insurance products provide helps workers get back in shape if they get injured or helps somebody rebuild after a fire,” Freebourn said. “That math degree and the analysis that I learned at Florida Atlantic has really helped me in analyzing insurance risk and helping customers work through that process.”
Thanks to the education and leadership skills Freebourn acquired at FAU, he can help companies across the country. That’s largely why he says, “even to this day, it’s hard not to catch me in a Florida Atlantic hat or shirt on.
“When you’re a child and you’re thinking about what you want to be when you grow up, everyone thinks about being a policeman, a fireman, a baseball player, and whatever I may be,” Freebourn said. “I was no different. I wanted to be a baseball player. I wanted to fight and compete and make it to the majors, but that wasn’t in my cards. I had something in the back of my mind of being an educator and teacher, and possibly a coach, and Florida Atlantic gave me the opportunity to experience that. And although I enjoyed it, it wasn’t necessarily maybe what I was cut out for. And so that education that I was able to achieve on scholarship, and getting that math degree, could not have been a better foundation. I might not have known it at the time, but that really was one of the major building blocks to being able to get into an industry like insurance.”
Freebourn: third row, fifth from the left
Freebourn: third row, sixth from left
Freebourn: third row, right end
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