Want to see more of Brogan at home? Click here for an inside look at the president’s crib.

Before you even wake up for class, FAU’s President Frank T. Brogan has already run a few laps around campus. Four to seven miles to be exact.

He might be the head of the university, but the everyday 5 a.m. runner is pretty much your average guy.

He plays soccer with his son on the weekends, loves to watch sports and hates shopping.

Whether he’s traveling from campus to campus, in meetings with donors or speaking at special events, Brogan says his favorite part about being the president of a university is interacting with the students – something he tries to do on a daily basis.

The president’s on-campus cribHired in March 2003 as FAU’s fifth president, Brogan, and his wife Courtney, were the first to live in the fancy presidential mansion on the east side of campus.

The Baldwin House, named after its donor Eleanor R. Baldwin, is an event and reception facility as well as the private residence for the president and his family. There are two floors, an atrium, library, salon parlor, 20-seat dining room, catering kitchen, sports room and offices.

Baldwin, a longtime resident of Boca Raton and a former high school teacher, donated $1.5 million for the building’s construction in July 2001. Thirty donors contributed to the nearly $2 million it took to decorate the elegant home.

“It’s such a beautiful home,” Brogan says of the Mediterranean-style 14,000-square-foot building. “But it’s not the ‘president’s mansion’ – we only live upstairs and come in a side entrance. But the pizza man comes to the main grand doors!”

Brogan, his wife, and their 3-and-a-half-year-old son Colby John live in the private residence upstairs. They have their own bedrooms, kitchen and living room. There are also two guest rooms, one of which the Brogans turned into a playroom for Colby John.

His favorite room in the house? The sports room, of course. Decorated in Owl memorabilia, the room has a big-screen TV, bar and comfy lounge chairs. Brogan has his honorary Owl jerseys displayed prominently over the bar aside a wall lined with photos of every 2008 FAU sports team.

The owl obsessionFrom owl salt and pepper shakers and owl toothpick holders to the nearly 50 owls lining his library office and the owl sculptures scattered about the house, there’s no denying Brogan loves the FAU owl mascot.

“I was always fond of owls, but now I’m just obsessed,” Brogan says, adding that his collection includes a few owl ties and the owl cufflinks he wears daily.

How’d the collection grow? Gifts, of course. And if you’re wondering about duplicates, he’s got several.

“Whenever someone travels and sees an owl they bring it back for me,” he adds. “I have owls from all over the world and I had no idea there were so many different types of unique owls.”

1. Before becoming FAU’s fifth president in 2003, Frank T. Brogan served as the Republican lieutenant governor to former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. 2. He was also the former Florida Commissioner of Education, a middle school principal and a fifth grade teacher in Martin County.

3. Brogan is one of six kids and the first of his family to graduate from college. He also has a twin brother named John.

4. He’s an FAU alum – Brogan received his master’s degree in education from FAU in 1981.

5. Brogan’s first wife, Mary, died of breast cancer in 1999 after 23 years of marriage. He and current wife Courtney married in 2002.

6. The house has a collection of colorful sculptures by Ertes, a clothing designer from the 1920s, which was almost donated to the Chinese government.

7. Brogan hates to shop and has a tailor drive down from Tallahassee twice a year to select shirts, ties and suits tailor-made just for him.

8. The family owns a townhouse in Stuart near Port Salerno and tries to take family vacations there to relax. 9. The president misses teaching and randomly will sit in on classes just to listen and interact with students. This month, Brogan celebrates 30 years in education.

10. Brogan helps students move into their dorms every year during move-in day at the Boca and Jupiter campuses without ever telling anyone who he is.

Want to see more of Brogan at home? Click here for an inside look at the president’s crib.