Overview

• Raveling’s family announced he died Sept. 1 at age 88 after a battle with cancer, saying he passed peacefully surrounded by loved ones.
• He was a Division I head coach from 1972 to 1994 at Washington State, Iowa and USC, compiling a 335-293 record and earning College (2013) and Naismith (2015) Hall of Fame honors.
• As a Nike basketball executive and 1984 U.S. Olympic assistant, he urged Michael Jordan toward Nike and introduced him to Sonny Vaccaro, helping enable the landmark endorsement.
• He volunteered at the 1963 March on Washington, obtained Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s original “I Have a Dream” speech, and donated it to Villanova in 2021.
• A pioneer for Black coaches, he became the first Black coach in the ACC as a Maryland assistant in 1969 and the first Black head coach in the Pac‑8 at Washington State, later serving on the 1984 and 1988 Olympic staffs and retiring after a serious 1994 car crash.