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The Big East: Inside the Most Entertaining and Influential Conference in College Basketball History
The definitive, compulsively readable story of the greatest era of the most iconic league in college basketball history-the Big East
"This book captures the inside of a special time in Big East basketball. If you love the game, this book is a must read!"-Jim Calhoun, former University of Connecticut men's basketball coach
The names need no introduction: Thompson and Patrick, Boeheim and the Pearl, and of course Gavitt. And the moments are part of college basketball lore: the Sweater Game, Villanova Beats Georgetown, and Six Overtimes. But this is the story of the Big East Conference that you haven't heard before-of how the Northeast, once an afterthought, became the epicenter of college basketball.
Before the league's founding, East Coast basketball had crowned just three national champions in forty years, and none since 1954. But in the Big East's first ten years, five of its teams played for a national championship. The league didn't merely inherit good teams; it created them. But how did this unlikely group of schools come to dominate college basketball so quickly and completely?
Including interviews with more than sixty of the key figures in the conference's history, The Big East charts the league's daring beginnings and its incredible rise. It transports fans inside packed arenas to epic wars fought between transcendent players, and behind locker-room doors where combustible coaches battled even more fiercely for a leg up.
Started on a handshake and a prayer, the Big East carved an improbable arc in sports history, an ensemble of Catholic schools banding together to not only improve their own stations but rewrite the geographic boundaries of basketball. As former UConn coach Jim Calhoun eloquently put it, "It was Camelot. Camelot with bad language."
"This book captures the inside of a special time in Big East basketball. If you love the game, this book is a must read!"-Jim Calhoun, former University of Connecticut men's basketball coach
The names need no introduction: Thompson and Patrick, Boeheim and the Pearl, and of course Gavitt. And the moments are part of college basketball lore: the Sweater Game, Villanova Beats Georgetown, and Six Overtimes. But this is the story of the Big East Conference that you haven't heard before-of how the Northeast, once an afterthought, became the epicenter of college basketball.
Before the league's founding, East Coast basketball had crowned just three national champions in forty years, and none since 1954. But in the Big East's first ten years, five of its teams played for a national championship. The league didn't merely inherit good teams; it created them. But how did this unlikely group of schools come to dominate college basketball so quickly and completely?
Including interviews with more than sixty of the key figures in the conference's history, The Big East charts the league's daring beginnings and its incredible rise. It transports fans inside packed arenas to epic wars fought between transcendent players, and behind locker-room doors where combustible coaches battled even more fiercely for a leg up.
Started on a handshake and a prayer, the Big East carved an improbable arc in sports history, an ensemble of Catholic schools banding together to not only improve their own stations but rewrite the geographic boundaries of basketball. As former UConn coach Jim Calhoun eloquently put it, "It was Camelot. Camelot with bad language."
Editorial Reviews
"From its inception in 1979, the Big East has produced some of the most exciting college basketball we've ever seen. We now know that the action behind the scenes (in locker rooms, living rooms, and most of all the coaching meetings) was even more fascinating than the action on the court. I can't imagine a better pairing of writer and topic than Dana O'Neil and this conference. The stories contained in this book are richly reported and colorfully told. Dig in and enjoy!"-Seth Davis, reporter, CBS Sports and The Athletic
"The heyday of Big East basketball provides a treasure trove of material for an author, and there is no one better for this assignment than Dana O'Neil. She covered it, she lived it, and she revives it with an evocative, feisty flourish. Older fans who want to relive the bare-knuckled glory and the wild stories-and new fans just hearing these tales for the first time-are rewarded by an ideal marriage of subject matter and author."-Pat Forde, senior writer, Sports Illustrated
"The original Big East was gritty and nasty, with a back-alley brawl among rivals every game. It was filled with larger-than-life coaches and superstar players in some of the most epic games ever. Dana O'Neil captures the very essence of that amazing convergence of characters in a league that can never be duplicated. Her book is ‘must read' and ‘must keep for future generations.'"-Jay Bilas, analyst, ESPN
"O'Neil . . . gives the Big East its due in this engrossing history. . . . With this colorful account (one coach called the conference ‘Camelot with bad language'), O'Neil skillfully shows the importance of personalities off the court and on. This is a must-have for March Madness fans."-Publishers Weekly
"This all-inclusive, highly engaging history is as compelling as the Big East Conference itself during those over-the-top years and will delight basketball fans of all ages. . . . The smooth narrative incorporates firsthand accounts from many of the era's headliners, partnered with O'Neil's expert research. This is, to date, the most comprehensive and objective history of this era of the Big East: the rivalries, players, coaches, and championships that were, O'Neil says, ‘almost too preposterous to believe.'"-Library Journal
"O'Neil . . . delivers the goods here: a lively, detailed, often-hilarious, and ever-compelling history that should lure even the casual college-basketball fan. And just in time for the coming season."-Booklist
"The heyday of Big East basketball provides a treasure trove of material for an author, and there is no one better for this assignment than Dana O'Neil. She covered it, she lived it, and she revives it with an evocative, feisty flourish. Older fans who want to relive the bare-knuckled glory and the wild stories-and new fans just hearing these tales for the first time-are rewarded by an ideal marriage of subject matter and author."-Pat Forde, senior writer, Sports Illustrated
"The original Big East was gritty and nasty, with a back-alley brawl among rivals every game. It was filled with larger-than-life coaches and superstar players in some of the most epic games ever. Dana O'Neil captures the very essence of that amazing convergence of characters in a league that can never be duplicated. Her book is ‘must read' and ‘must keep for future generations.'"-Jay Bilas, analyst, ESPN
"O'Neil . . . gives the Big East its due in this engrossing history. . . . With this colorful account (one coach called the conference ‘Camelot with bad language'), O'Neil skillfully shows the importance of personalities off the court and on. This is a must-have for March Madness fans."-Publishers Weekly
"This all-inclusive, highly engaging history is as compelling as the Big East Conference itself during those over-the-top years and will delight basketball fans of all ages. . . . The smooth narrative incorporates firsthand accounts from many of the era's headliners, partnered with O'Neil's expert research. This is, to date, the most comprehensive and objective history of this era of the Big East: the rivalries, players, coaches, and championships that were, O'Neil says, ‘almost too preposterous to believe.'"-Library Journal
"O'Neil . . . delivers the goods here: a lively, detailed, often-hilarious, and ever-compelling history that should lure even the casual college-basketball fan. And just in time for the coming season."-Booklist
Short Excerpt Teaser
Chapter 1
Gavitt's Folly
"There would never be a Big East without him"
Giddy with success, Dave Gavitt and Mike Tranghese stepped outside and into the din of New York City. It was September 16, 1981, and the two men had just put the finishing touches to a $1 million deal with Madison Square Garden. In two years, their fledgling Big East Conference would play its tournament in the world's most famous arena. The move was audacious, maybe even borderline harebrained. Then again, only a few years earlier some had thought the same of the very idea of the Big East Conference. But Gavitt, the league founder and commissioner, was undeterred, convinced a tournament in New York City would give his conference the verve and legitimacy it needed. With Tranghese, his aide-de-camp, at his side, he spent three meetings negotiating the deal with Sonny Werblin, the MSG president.
After the two sides finally hammered out the last of the details, Werblin invited the pair to stay the night as his guests. Tommy Hearns and Sugar Ray Leonard were meeting that night in a welterweight fight dubbed "The Showdown," and Werblin had a spot to watch the fight. Gavitt preferred to head home to Rhode Island, but Tranghese, a huge boxing fan, begged his boss to stay. Gavitt agreed, and after the meeting the two wandered to the curb to hail a cab for a quick ride back to their hotel. Whereupon Gavitt, who had just brokered a $1 million deal, turned to Tranghese and asked, "Do you have any money?"
Some forty years later, Tranghese shakes his head as he recalls the memory. "I had $11 on me," he says. "But this is Dave. Dave never had any money. He borrowed money from me all the time, and at the end of the month I would tell his wife, Julie, and she'd send me a check. Dave didn't do details. Only big ideas."
The man with the big ideas once concocted a doozy that changed the shape of a sport. It is impossible today to imagine college basketball without the Big East Conference; in 1979, it was equally impossible to imagine college basketball needed the Big East Conference. Only one man believed it did-Dave Gavitt. "There would never be a Big East without him," says Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim. "I don't care what anyone says. We were all against it. All of us. Only he could see the bigger picture."
Gavitt was universally praised as brilliant, but his real gift lay in his people skills. Everyone loved him, and everyone trusted him. He was intelligent without being elitist, a networker but not a user, and a charmer but not a used car salesman. "A common man" is how Gavitt's son, Dan, described his father, recalling a man who spoke with his hands and an Italian flair, despite his Irish and French Canadian heritage. He had a knack for talking to people, cajoling them almost. "Huddling"-that's how Georgetown coach John Thompson, Jr., described Gavitt's methods. Connecticut head coach Jim Calhoun says every time he saw Gavitt walking down the hall, he'd think, "Look at this, look at this, he's coming down here and he's smiling. I don't want to hear what he's going to tell me, but I know I'm going to say yes."
The world felt smaller then, and certainly simpler. The basketball circle was especially tight, more like two degrees of separation than six. Gavitt came up in it, forging relationships and connections that carried him a lifetime, able to call on friends when he needed a favor. Dee Rowe, for example, would become UConn's athletic development fund director and help steer the state school into the Big East. Long before that, though, he hired Gavitt as his assistant coach at Worcester Academy because Gavitt had played baseball at Dartmouth College for Tony Lupien, who just so happened to have been Rowe's college coach at Middlebury. Similarly, as an assistant to Joe Mullaney at Providence College, Gavitt took an African American star out of D.C. under his wing, helping the big man ward off homesickness and an initial wish to transfer. Years later, as the congregation made its way to the gravesite for Gavitt's funeral, that player-John Thompson, Jr.-pulled Gavitt's son aside and told him, "One guy made me comfortable at Providence, and Joe Mullaney was not that guy. Your dad made me feel safe. He's the only reason I stayed at Providence."
Born in Westerly, Rhode Island, and raised in Peterborough, New Hampshire, Gavitt grew up with a ball in his hand. If he wasn't the best player, he was the hardest-working. He played baseball and basketball at Dartmouth, a point guard and critical sixth man for Doggie Julian, the former Celtics coach, who headed up the Big Green. Teammates called Gavitt "The Mayor" because he gathered everyone around and led them, a skill set that would come in handy in adulthood.
The title Gavitt...
Gavitt's Folly
"There would never be a Big East without him"
Giddy with success, Dave Gavitt and Mike Tranghese stepped outside and into the din of New York City. It was September 16, 1981, and the two men had just put the finishing touches to a $1 million deal with Madison Square Garden. In two years, their fledgling Big East Conference would play its tournament in the world's most famous arena. The move was audacious, maybe even borderline harebrained. Then again, only a few years earlier some had thought the same of the very idea of the Big East Conference. But Gavitt, the league founder and commissioner, was undeterred, convinced a tournament in New York City would give his conference the verve and legitimacy it needed. With Tranghese, his aide-de-camp, at his side, he spent three meetings negotiating the deal with Sonny Werblin, the MSG president.
After the two sides finally hammered out the last of the details, Werblin invited the pair to stay the night as his guests. Tommy Hearns and Sugar Ray Leonard were meeting that night in a welterweight fight dubbed "The Showdown," and Werblin had a spot to watch the fight. Gavitt preferred to head home to Rhode Island, but Tranghese, a huge boxing fan, begged his boss to stay. Gavitt agreed, and after the meeting the two wandered to the curb to hail a cab for a quick ride back to their hotel. Whereupon Gavitt, who had just brokered a $1 million deal, turned to Tranghese and asked, "Do you have any money?"
Some forty years later, Tranghese shakes his head as he recalls the memory. "I had $11 on me," he says. "But this is Dave. Dave never had any money. He borrowed money from me all the time, and at the end of the month I would tell his wife, Julie, and she'd send me a check. Dave didn't do details. Only big ideas."
The man with the big ideas once concocted a doozy that changed the shape of a sport. It is impossible today to imagine college basketball without the Big East Conference; in 1979, it was equally impossible to imagine college basketball needed the Big East Conference. Only one man believed it did-Dave Gavitt. "There would never be a Big East without him," says Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim. "I don't care what anyone says. We were all against it. All of us. Only he could see the bigger picture."
Gavitt was universally praised as brilliant, but his real gift lay in his people skills. Everyone loved him, and everyone trusted him. He was intelligent without being elitist, a networker but not a user, and a charmer but not a used car salesman. "A common man" is how Gavitt's son, Dan, described his father, recalling a man who spoke with his hands and an Italian flair, despite his Irish and French Canadian heritage. He had a knack for talking to people, cajoling them almost. "Huddling"-that's how Georgetown coach John Thompson, Jr., described Gavitt's methods. Connecticut head coach Jim Calhoun says every time he saw Gavitt walking down the hall, he'd think, "Look at this, look at this, he's coming down here and he's smiling. I don't want to hear what he's going to tell me, but I know I'm going to say yes."
The world felt smaller then, and certainly simpler. The basketball circle was especially tight, more like two degrees of separation than six. Gavitt came up in it, forging relationships and connections that carried him a lifetime, able to call on friends when he needed a favor. Dee Rowe, for example, would become UConn's athletic development fund director and help steer the state school into the Big East. Long before that, though, he hired Gavitt as his assistant coach at Worcester Academy because Gavitt had played baseball at Dartmouth College for Tony Lupien, who just so happened to have been Rowe's college coach at Middlebury. Similarly, as an assistant to Joe Mullaney at Providence College, Gavitt took an African American star out of D.C. under his wing, helping the big man ward off homesickness and an initial wish to transfer. Years later, as the congregation made its way to the gravesite for Gavitt's funeral, that player-John Thompson, Jr.-pulled Gavitt's son aside and told him, "One guy made me comfortable at Providence, and Joe Mullaney was not that guy. Your dad made me feel safe. He's the only reason I stayed at Providence."
Born in Westerly, Rhode Island, and raised in Peterborough, New Hampshire, Gavitt grew up with a ball in his hand. If he wasn't the best player, he was the hardest-working. He played baseball and basketball at Dartmouth, a point guard and critical sixth man for Doggie Julian, the former Celtics coach, who headed up the Big Green. Teammates called Gavitt "The Mayor" because he gathered everyone around and led them, a skill set that would come in handy in adulthood.
The title Gavitt...
