Rollie Massimino, famed coach who led Villanova to ’85 NCAA basketball title, dies

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Rollie Massimino, who led Villanova's storied run to the 1985 NCAA championship and won more than 800 games in his coaching career, died Wednesday after a long battle with cancer. He was 82. Massimino's death was announced by Keiser University, where he was still the men's basketball coach. He spent the final days of his life in hospice care. Best known for that national title at Villanova, Massimino also coached at Stony Brook, UNLV and Cleveland State. He spent the last 11 years of his life at Keiser, where he started the program and turned it into an NAIA power.

"As our campus community deeply mourns the loss of Coach Massimino, we extend our warmest thoughts and condolences to his wife, Mary Jane, and the entire Massimino family," Keiser Chancellor Arthur Keiser said. "We are so truly honored to have shared this time with him and take some degree of comfort in knowing the positive impact he has had on college students for the last four decades remains immeasurable."

Massimino faced numerous health issues in recent years yet never stopped coaching. And even though he left Villanova 25 years ago, he was still considered family by the Wildcats and coach Jay Wright.

"If not for Rollie Massimino, I'm not even a part of this," Wright once said. "If not for the Big East, Rollie Massimino is not Rollie Massimino. I know it. He knows it. And if not for the Big East, no one knows about Villanova."

Wright was given a championship ring from 1985, and Massimino was given a championship ring from 2016. Wright wasn't working at Villanova during the first title season; Massimino wasn't officially there for the second one. But Wright worked Massimino's camps in the mid-1980s before coming to Villanova, so that made him part of the family.

Massimino always went out of his way to take care of those he considered family. So Wright got that 1985 ring. And the only moment when Wright teared up at Villanova's 2016 ring ceremony was when he handed Massimino his piece of championship jewelry.

"When you're a young coach and you grow up in Philly, Rollie Massimino is a legend to you," Wright said.

Roland Vincent Massimino was born Nov. 13, 1934, in New Jersey, played his college basketball at Vermont and got his master's degree from Rutgers. His first head coaching job was at his alma mater, Hillside High School, in 1962. His college coaching career started at Stony Brook in 1969, and after two seasons he became an assistant at Penn — under Chuck Daly.

Massimino and Daly would remain close until Daly's death in 2009. Like Daly, Massimino was always dapper on the sidelines. So when Daly died, Massimino took Daly's collection of sharp dress shoes and wore a pair in every game he coached for the remainder of his life.