Peter A. Carlesimo
| Sport(s) | Football, basketball, cross country |
|---|---|
| Biographical details | |
| Born |
September 2, 1915 Newark, New Jersey |
| Died | June 22, 2003 (aged 87) Montclair, New Jersey |
| Playing career | |
| 1938–1939 | Fordham |
| Position(s) | Guard |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| Football | |
| 1940–1941 | Saint Benedict's Prep (NJ) |
| 1942 | Scranton (assistant) |
| 1944–1960 | Scranton |
| Basketball | |
| 1944–1946 | Scranton |
| 1951–1955 | Scranton |
| Cross Country | |
| 1961–1968 | Scranton |
| Administrative career (AD unless noted) | |
| 1953–1968 | Scranton |
| 1968–1978 | Fordham |
| 1978–1988 | NIT (executive director) |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 80–60–4 (college football) 61–77 (basketball) |
Peter A. Carlesimo (September 2, 1915 – June 22, 2003) was an American football player, coach of football, basketball, and cross country running, and a college athletics administrator. He coached football, basketball, and cross country at the University of Scranton and served as athletic director there and at Fordham University. He is sometimes credited with being the person most responsible for keeping the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) alive in the late 1970s.
Carlesimo was born in Newark, New Jersey and graduated from Saint Benedict's Preparatory School. Then he attended Fordham University, where he played football alongside Vince Lombardi. He graduated from Fordham in 1940, and from there went back to his alma mater, Saint Benedict's, to be a history teacher and assistant football coach. Carlesimo then moved on to the University of Scranton, where he was the football coach (1944–1960), basketball coach (1944–1946 and 1951–1955), cross country coach (1961–1968), and the school's athletic director from (1953–1968).
Carlesimo went on to become the athletic director at Fordham University from 1968 to 1978. As a member of the Metropolitan Intercollegiate Basketball Association (MIBA), Fordham was part of the committee that ran the National Invitation Tournament. The tournament began to lose luster in the mid-1970s following the implementation of a rule (the so-called "Al McGuire rule") forbidding schools from declining bids to the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament. This had led to a dwindling in talent and interest in the NIT, which Carlesimo sought to fix by rules changes implemented in 1977. Carlesimo proposed moving the early round games to campus sites, and having only the final four teams play at Madison Square Garden in New York City. This move is seen as the reason the NIT has survived, as more interest is garnered by the schools participating, as they now have more of a financial stake from ticket sales.
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