The legendary college basketball coach and Nike executive George Raveling has died at the age of 88.
His family released a statement on Tuesday, saying Raveling was surrounded by family when he died following a battle with cancer.
‘There are no words to fully capture what George meant to his family, friends, colleagues, former players, and assistants and to the world,’ his family said.
‘He will be profoundly missed, yet his aura, energy, divine presence, and timeless wisdom live on in all those he touched and transformed.’
Raveling served as Nike’s global basketball sports marketing director and played a key role in getting Michael Jordan to sign with the brand.
He was played by Marlon Wayans in the Ben Affleck and Matt Damon film ‘Air’, which depicted the fiercely competitive battle to land Jordan’s signature.
The legendary college basketball coach and Nike executive George Raveling has died at 88
Raveling was surrounded by family when he died following a battle with cancer, they revealed
Raveling played a key role in getting Michael Jordan to sign his mega-money deal with Nike
‘Sonny (Vaccaro) likes to take the credit. But it really wasn’t Sonny, it was actually George Raveling,’ Jordan said in 2015.
‘He used to always try to talk to me, “You gotta go Nike, you gotta go Nike. You’ve got to try”.’
Jordan is estimated to have earned over $1.5billion as part of that deal after he negotiated a 5 per cent royalty on every pair of Air Jordan shoes sold.
Before his work with Nike, Raveling had an impressive career both as a player and coach in college basketball.
He played for Villanova from 1957 to 1960 before becoming their assistant head coach in 1963.
Raveling would go on to coach Maryland, Washington State, Iowa and USC before retiring in 1994. He was named Pac-10 Coach of the Year three times and was crowned NABC Coach of the Year.
