George Raveling, a university basketball coach of the Hall of Fame with whom Michael Jordan gives him credit to influence him with the Nike shoes brand, a movement that launched a cultural phenomenon, has died. He was 88 years old.
“It is with a deep sadness and unimaginable pain that we share the death of our beloved ‘coach’, George Henry Raveling, who faced cancer with courage and grace,” Raveling’s family wrote in a statement. “There are no words to completely capture what George meant for his family, friends, colleagues, former players and assistants, and for the world.”
Raveling played in Villanova and became an assistant at the University of the Philadelphia area in 1963. That launched a race that lasted more than three decades. He was an assistant coach at the University of Maryland, then chief coach in the state of Washington, Iowa and the University of Southern California. He was appointed PAC-10 coach of the year three times, honored by the National Association of Basketball Trainers and included in the Basketball Hall Naismith Memorial in 2015.
In particular, Raveling encouraged Jordan, after he left the University of North Carolina to join the Chicago Bulls of the NBA, to sign with Nike, then an incipient brand, in 1984. A decade later, entangled retired from College Ball, but remained connected with the game, becoming the director of Marketing of Nike Basketball Sports in Nike.
Jordan said in 2015 that Raveling “used to try to talk to me,” you have to go to Nike, you have to go to Nike. You have to try. “
Actor Marlon Wayans portrayed Raveling in the 2023 “Air” film about the intense battle between the shoes brands to sign Jordan.
In August 1963, Raveling and a friend were convinced by the father’s father to attend the march in Washington by Jobs and Freedom, with Martin Luther King Jr.
The night before, they met an organizer who asked them to serve as security. Raveling was 6 feet 4 inches.
The young people agreed, and Raveling was parked on stage throughout the event. When King finished electrifying the crowd in what became his most famous speech, Raveling’s youthful curiosity shone.
“At the end of the speech,” Raveling recalled to Andscape in 2020, “as Dr. King ended and began to bend his speech, while he left, I just said: I don’t know why, they only said impulsively: ‘Dr. King, can I have that copy?’ And he turned and handed it to me.
For 25 years, he said he never shared with anyone, not even with his wife, who owned the coveted documents. It was not until 1983, when Raveling became the first black coach in Iowa and the Big Ten conference, which shared that he had the original copy of King’s speech.
“It will be extracted deeply,” the family said in his statement: “However, their aura, energy, divine presence and timeless wisdom live in all those who touched and transformed.”
