Former Washington State men’s basketball coach George Raveling died on Tuesday at the age of 88.
Raveling was battling cancer and passed away peacefully surrounded by family, according to a statement from the Raveling family.
Raveling’s impact went far beyond the game of basketball. Raveling was a part of the March on Washington, D.C., with Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963, volunteering to provide security. At King’s famous I Have a Dream speech, King gave Raveling the original copy of that speech that is now on display at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C.
A National Basketball Hall of Famer, Raveling coached Washington State for 11 seasons from 1972 to 1982, leading the Cougars to their first NCAA tournament in 39 years in 1980. He brought the Cougars back to the tournament in 1983 and had an overall record of 166-137. More importantly, he became the first Black basketball coach in the Pac-8, now Pac-12. He later went on to coach the Iowa Hawkeyes and USC Trojans. Raveling also spent time as an assistant coach for the United States’ men’s national basketball team that took home gold in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and bronze in the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
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Raveling was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013 and the National Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015.
In February of 2020, Raveling was invited back to Pullman and honored at halftime during a men’s basketball Apple Cup game, with his name being raised into the rafters.
Rest in Peace, “Coach” George Raveling.
