Dave Gavitt
 |
|
| Sport(s) | Basketball |
|---|---|
| Biographical details | |
| Born |
October 26, 1937 Westerly, Rhode Island |
| Died | September 16, 2011 (aged 73) near Rumford, Rhode Island |
| Alma mater | Dartmouth College |
| Playing career | |
| Basketball | |
| 1959–1960 | Dartmouth |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| Basketball | |
| 1967–1969 | Dartmouth |
| 1969–1979 | Providence |
|
Basketball Hall of Fame Inducted in 2006 |
|
David Roy "Dave" Gavitt (October 26, 1937 – September 16, 2011) was an American college basketball coach and athletic director at Providence College in Providence, Rhode Island. He was 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."
Born in Westerly, Rhode Island, Gavitt graduated from Dartmouth College in 1959, where he was a member of the 1959-1960 varsity basketball team, the last Dartmouth basketball team to win the Ivy League championship. 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. He left in 1966 to become assistant coach 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.
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. 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).
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. His contributions 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.
...
Wikipedia