Friday, February 20, 2015

George Raveling Tapped For Naismith Hall Of Fame

Congratulations to George Raveling for his selection to be in Basketball's Naismith Hall Of Fame.  George was the basketball coach when I was at WSU.   He was the first African-American coach in what was then the Pac-8.  That in it's self is rather amazing, considering it is in maybe the most Conservative area of any of  what was then an all  West Coast conference.  It was a much different world when Raveling assumed the head coaching position at WSU, but he stayed at the school for 11 seasons, which included 2 NCAA tournament appearances.  In addition to his coaching duties, he also wrote a syndicated newspaper column and was a popular banquet speaker.
 Raveling would later leave WSU for other opportunities, a serious accident forced him to step down as USC basketball coach.  He then went to work for NIKE.  Seattle Times columnist Bud Withers wrote a great article on what Raveling brought to WSU, click here.

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