David "Dave" Gavitt (b. October 26, 1937, Westerly, Rhode Island) was a college basketball coach and athletic director at Providence College in Providence, Rhode Island. Events 740 - An Earthquake strikes Constantinople, causing much damage and death Year 1937 ( MCMXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Westerly is a town on the south shore of Washington County, Rhode Island, United States. Basketball is a team Sport in which two teams of five active players each try to score points against one another by propelling a ball through a 10 feet (3 m This page refers to a college in Rhode Island. For the college in Manitoba, see Providence College and Theological Seminary. He is also well known as the first commissioner of the Big East Conference and as part of the committee which created the 1992 Olympic Basketball "Dream Team. The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletics conference consisting of seventeen Universities in the northeastern southeastern and midwestern United "
Coaching career
David Gavitt graduated from Dartmouth College in 1959. Dartmouth College ( is a private, Coeducational University located in Hanover, New Hampshire, U He spent two years as an assistant basketball coach at Worcester Academy before becoming an assistant coach at Providence under the legendary Joe Mullaney in 1962. Joseph A Mullaney ( November 17 1925 &ndash March 8 2000) was a successful American Basketball player and coach He left in 1966 to become and then head coach at his alma mater before taking over for Mullaney at Providence in 1969.
Under his ten-year tenure, the Friars advanced to the postseason eight straight years (1971-78; five NCAA appearances, 1972-'74, '77-'78, and three NIT appearances, 1971, '75, 76). In 1973, Gavitt's team made it to the Final Four for the first time in school history. He also served as director of athletics at PC from 1971 to 1982, and was at that position when the school's women's athletics programs were started as a result of Title IX. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, now known as the Patsy T
The Big East, USA Basketball and beyond
In 1979, Gavitt, along with several other college athletics administrators, helped to form the Big East Conference as a means to better compete with the major schools in the country. The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletics conference consisting of seventeen Universities in the northeastern southeastern and midwestern United He became the conference's first commissioner, from 1979 to 1990. Under his direction, the Big East steadily expanded and was an almost immediate success, as several schools became basketball powerhouses (culminating in the 1985 Final Four, in which three schools from the conference - Georgetown, Saint John's, and eventual champion Villanova - were present). Georgetown University is a Jesuit Private university located in Georgetown Washington D Villanova University' is a private university located in Radnor Township, a suburb northwest of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States
During his tenure, six of the conference's schools (Georgetown, Villanova, Saint John's, Providence, Seton Hall, and Syracuse) participated in the Final Four, and all nine teams made it to the NCAA tournament at least once. Syracuse University (SU is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York. His contributions, in fact, are memorialized in the Dave Gavitt Trophy, given to the winner of the Big East's men's basketball tournament, which he was responsible for not only creating, but its annual use of Madison Square Garden. Also, from 1982 to 1984, he was chairman of the NCAA Division I Basketball Committee. It was under his guidance that the tournament expanded to sixty-four teams, in order to provide better opportunity for small conference teams to participate. He was also responsible for the playing of Final Four games in larger venues such as domed stadiums, and the first full contract with a television network to provide universal coverage of the tournament, further adding to the tournament's popularity and prestige.
Gavitt has also been involved in Olympic basketball. In 1980, he was selected as the head coach of the Olympic basketball team, only to lose out on the opportunity due to the boycott of the Moscow games by the United States. Year 1980 ( MCMLXXX) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1980 Gregorian calendar) The 1980 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad, were an International Multi-sport event held in Moscow in the Soviet He would also go on to serve on the Olympic governing body, including a presidency from 1988 to 1992. It was during his tenure that he developed the concept of the "Dream Team," an Olympic basketball team composed of the NBA's best.
Besides these responsibilities, Gavitt was CEO of the Boston Celtics from 1990 to 1994, President of the NCAA Foundation from 1995 to 1997, and Chairman of the Board of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame until 2003. The Boston Celtics are an American professional Basketball team based in Boston, Massachusetts, playing in the Atlantic Division of the The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, located in downtown Springfield Massachusetts, honors players who have shown exceptional skill at Basketball He is a member of the Providence College Athletic Hall of Fame (1984), National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics Hall of Fame (2000), and the International Scholar-Athlete Hall of Fame (2000). Gavitt was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame on September 8th, 2006. He became the third former member of the Friar athletic program (after John Thompson and Lenny Wilkens), and the first native of Rhode Island to be enshrined. John Thompson may refer to Academics Sir John Eric Sidney Thompson (1898&ndash1975 English archeologist and Mayan scholar John G Leonard Randolph "Lenny" Wilkens (born October 28 1937 in Brooklyn, New York U Rhode Island ( officially named the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, is a state in the New England region of the United States
Sources
- "Dave Gavitt To Be Inducted Into The Basketball Hall of Fame" (from Friars.com)
- "Gavitt, Auriemma Named Members of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame" (from BigEast.org)
- 2005-2006 Providence College Men's Basketball Media Guide. Attleboro, MA: Colonial Lithograph Inc. , 2005.
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