- George Raveling
College coach infobox
Name = George Raveling
Sport =Basketball
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DateOfBirth = birth date|1937|6|27
Birthplace = flagicon|United StatesWashington, DC
DateOfDeath =
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College =University of Southern California
Title = Head coach
Awards = Pac-10 Coach of the Year -- 1983
Championships = 6 teams in NCAA Tournament 1980, 1983, 1985, 1986, 1991, 1992
2 teams in National Inventational Tournament 1993, 1994
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Player = *
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Coach = *
CoachYears = 1972-19831983-1986
1987-1994
CoachTeams =Villanova University (asst)
University of Maryland(asst)Washington State University University of Iowa University of Southern California
Position =
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BBallHOF =George Raveling (born
June 27 1937 ) is a former college men's basketball coach and FOX Sports Net color commentator. He was the head coach atWashington State University (1972-1983), theUniversity of Iowa (1983-1986), and theUniversity of Southern California (1987-1994). TheWashington, D.C. native attended St. Michael's High School inHoban Heights, Pennsylvania , and was an assistant coach at his alma mater Villanova, and at Maryland.On
August 28 1963 , as Dr.Martin Luther King waved goodbye to an audience of over 200,000 "March on Washington" participants, he handed Raveling the original typewritten "I Have a Dream " speech.Raveling guided the Washington State men's basketball team from 1972-1983 with two NCAA tournament appearances during his 11 years. The first appearance was in 1980 and marked the first time WSU was included in the NCAA bracket since finishing second in 1941. Three years later Raveling returned WSU to the NCAA tournament. Raveling was one of the winningest coaches in Washington State basketball history, finishing his WSU career with 167 wins, 136 losses, and seven winning seasons, including five straight from the 1975-76 campaign through the 1980 season.
While at Washington State, Raveling was an assistant coach for the USA team at the
1979 Pan American Games and the West Regional coach at the 1979 U.S. Olympic Sports Festival. He also was an assistant coach for the U.S. Olympic Trials in 1980.Among his outstanding players were Don Collins, Bryan Rison and Steve Harriel, who all earned All-Pacific-10 Conference first team honors. Collins went on to play in both the NBA and CBA after setting the WSU record for career steels and finishing third in scoring. Raveling was the UPI Pac-8 Coach of the Year winner in 1976, and was the league's coach of the year winner in 1983. Coach Raveling was honored by WSU with his induction into the Pac-10 Basketball Hall of Honor.
Raveling replaced
Lute Olson as head coach at the University of Iowa in 1983, guiding the Hawkeyes to back-to-back 20-win seasons and NCAA tournament berths in 1985 and 1986. In 1984, he served as the assistant coach for the USA Olympic men's basketball team.Bob Knight served as the head coach, andSteve Alford andMichael Jordan were guards on that team. Shooting 63.9 percent from the floor, the US team captured the ninth Olympic title with a convincing 96-65 victory over Spain in the gold medal game. During his 4-year tenure at Iowa, Raveling is probably best known for his recruits and outstanding players, includingB.J. Armstrong ,Kevin Gamble ,Ed Horton ,Brad Lohaus ,Roy Marble andGreg Stokes , all of whom went on to play in the NBA.In 1986, he returned to the Pac-10 conference as head coach for the University of Southern California. In his most controversial early decision at USC,
Bo Kimble andHank Gathers were booted from the team. Kimble and Gathers later went on to outstanding success at crosstown programLoyola Marymount .During Raveling's career at USC, the Trojans advanced to the NCAA tournament in 1991 and 1992 and competed in the NIT in 1993 and 1994.
On the morning of
September 25 1994 his Jeep was blindsided in a two-car collision. He was seriously injured suffering nine broken ribs, a fractured pelvis and clavicle and a collapsed lung. He was in intensive care due to bleeding in his chest cavity for two weeks. Citing the automobile accident and planned lengthly rehabilitation, he retired as head coach of USC at the age of 57 onNovember 19 .Raveling has worked for Nike since his retirement from USC, and has authored two books on rebounding drills, "War on the Boards" and "A Rebounder's Workshop". He has served as a color commentator for
CBS Sports and FOX Sports Net, often drawing assignments for Pac-10 conference games.External links
* [http://www.usabasketball.com/history/moly_1984.html 1984 USA Olympic Men's Basketball team]
* [http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,478839,00.html "Guardian of The Dream," "Time" magazine, August 28, 2003]
* [http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/university_of_southern_california/index.html?offset=90&s=oldest&inline=nyt-org "The New York Times": 1994 automobile accident]
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