George Henry Raveling (born June 27, 1937) is an American former college basketball player and coach. He played at Villanova University, and was the head coach at Washington State University the University of Iowa and the University of Southern California
Raveling has been Nike's global basketball sports marketing director since he retired from coaching in 1994. FOX Sports Net color commentator, he is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Early life
Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Raveling did not play basketball until his ninth grade year. He was enrolled at St. Michael's, a Catholic boarding school in Hoban Heights, Pennsylvania; it was founded as an orphanage in 1916 near Scranton and closed in 2010. His grandmother's employer helped him enroll. Raveling's father died when he was 9 and his mother was institutionalized when he was 13, so academics became among the most influential forces in his life.
College and early career
Raveling attended college at Villanova University near Philadelphia and played basketball for the Wildcats. An outstanding rebounder, he set school single game and season rebounding records in his time. Raveling was team captain in his senior season, featured on the cover of the 1960 media guide, and led the Wildcats to consecutive appearances in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) in 1959 and 1960. The Philadelphia Warriors selected him in the eighth round (pick 7) of the 1960 NBA draft.
Raveling became an assistant coach at his alma mater Villanova, then moved to Maryland in 1969 on the staff of new head coach Lefty Driesell. he became the first African American coach in the Atlantic Coast Conference
March on Washington with Martin Luther King Jr., 1963
On August 28, 1963, as Martin Luther King Jr. waved goodbye to an audience of over 250,000 "March on Washington" participants, Raveling asked King if he could have the speech. King handed Raveling the original typewritten "I Have a Dream" pages. Raveling was on the podium with King at that moment, having volunteered to provide security. He kept the original, and had been offered more than three million dollars for the speech in 2013. He declined the offer. In 2021, he gave it to Villanova University. It is intended to be used in a long-term "on loan" arrangement.
Head coaching career
Washington State (1972–1983) Hired in Pullman in Raveling was the first African-American basketball coach in the Pacific-8 Conference (Pac-8, now Pac-12). He guided the Washington State Cougars from with two NCAA tournament appearances during his eleven years. The first was in 1980 and marked the first time WSU was included in the NCAA bracket since the runner-up finish in 1941; the second was three years later in 1983. Raveling was one of the winningest coaches in Washington State basketball history, with a record and seven winning seasons, including five straight from the 1975–76 campaign through the 1980 season.
While at WSU, Raveling was the West Regional coach at the 1979 U.S. Olympic Sports Festival, and an assistant coach for the U.S. Olympic Trials in 1980.
Among his outstanding players were James Donaldson, Craig Ehlo, Don Collins, Bryan Rison, and Steve Harriel, who all earned All-Pac-10 first team honors. Donaldson went on to play in the NBA for 14 years and was on the Western Conference team for the All-Star Game in 1988. Collins played in both the NBA and CBA after setting the WSU record for career steals and finishing third in scoring. Ehlo, a junior college transfer from Texas, was selected in the third round of the 1983 NBA draft by the Houston Rockets; he played fourteen seasons with four NBA teams, amassing respectable career totals of 7,492 points, 2,456 assists, and 3,139 rebounds.
Raveling was the UPI Pac-8 Coach of the Year winner in 1976, its coach of the year twice (1976 (shared), 1983), and was the national runner-up for AP coach of the year He was honored by WSU with his induction into the Pac-12 Hall of Honor.
Iowa (1983–1986) Raveling succeeded Lute Olson as head coach at the University of Iowa in April 1983, and guided the Hawkeyes to consecutive 20-win seasons and NCAA tournament berths in 1985 and 1986.
1984 Olympics, assistant coach
At the Olympics in 1984 in Los Angeles, he served as the assistant coach for the USA team, composed of collegians. Bob Knight was the head coach, and Steve Alford and Michael Jordan were guards on that team. Shooting 63.9 percent from the floor, the U.S. team captured the ninth Olympic title with a convincing 96–65 victory over Spain in the gold medal game.