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William Joseph Raftery (born April 19, 1943) is an American
basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
analyst and former college basketball coach.


High school and college years

Raftery attended Saint Cecilia High School in
Kearny, New Jersey Kearny ( ) is a town in the western part of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States and a suburb of Newark. As of the 2010 United States Census, the town's population was 40,684, a record finally surpassed after 35 years. He earned all-state honors in basketball and led his team to the state championship in his senior season. He was also named all-state in baseball and soccer. He has been named, retroactively,
Mr. Basketball USA Mr. Basketball USA, formerly known as the ''ESPN RISE'' National Player of the Year and EA SPORTS National Player of the Year, is an award presented to the United States boys' high school basketball national player of the year by Ballislife.com. ...
for 1959. Raftery played at
La Salle University La Salle University () is a private, Catholic university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The university was founded in 1863 by the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools and named for St. Jean-Baptiste de La Salle. History L ...
under coach
Donald "Dudey" Moore Donald is a masculine given name derived from the Gaelic name ''Dòmhnall''.. This comes from the Proto-Celtic *''Dumno-ualos'' ("world-ruler" or "world-wielder"). The final -''d'' in ''Donald'' is partly derived from a misinterpretation of the ...
. During his freshman year he scored a freshman record 370 points, followed by a team leading 17.8 points per game in his sophomore year. As a senior, he co-captained the Explorers to the
National Invitation Tournament The National Invitational Tournament (NIT) is a men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Played at regional sites and traditionally at Madison Square Garden (Final Four) in New York Cit ...
. Following his senior year at La Salle, Raftery was selected in the 14th round (82nd overall) of the
1963 NBA draft The 1963 NBA draft was the 17th annual draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on April 30 and May 7, 1963, before the 1963–64 season. In this draft, nine NBA teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basket ...
by the
New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Associat ...
but never played in the NBA.


Coaching career

Raftery began his coaching career at Fairleigh Dickinson University at Madison (now in Florham Park, New Jersey) where he was the head basketball coach from 1963 to 1968. Also, Raftery coached golf and served as associate athletic director. From 1970 to 1981, he was the head coach of
Seton Hall University Seton Hall University (SHU) is a private Catholic research university in South Orange, New Jersey. Founded in 1856 by then-Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley and named after his aunt, Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, Seton Hall is the oldest diocesa ...
, where he posted a 154–141 record and led the Pirates to four ECAC post-season tournaments and two National Invitational Tournament appearances. In 1979, he was named Coach of the Year by the New Jersey Sports Writers Association. His 154 wins as a coach places him fifth on the all-time list at Seton Hall behind
Honey Russell John David "Honey" Russell (May 31, 1902 – November 15, 1973) was an American basketball player and coach who was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1964. He turned professional after his sophomore year of high schoo ...
,
P.J. Carlesimo Peter John Carlesimo (born May 30, 1949) is an American basketball coach who coached in both the National Basketball Association (NBA) and college basketball for nearly 40 years. He is also a television broadcaster, having worked with ESPN, '' Th ...
, Frank Hill, and
Kevin Willard Kevin Schreiber Willard (born April 6, 1975) is an American college basketball coach and the current head men's basketball coach at the University of Maryland. Willard played basketball at Western Kentucky during the 1992–93 season (his freshm ...
.


Head coaching record


Broadcasting career

Raftery has served as an analyst and color commentator for
CBS Sports CBS Sports is the sports division of the American television network CBS. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on W 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on W ...
' college basketball coverage since 1983. During CBS' coverage of '' March Madness'', Raftery frequently partnered with Verne Lundquist. Starting with the 2014–15 collegiate basketball season, CBS/ Turner Sports partnered Raftery with
Jim Nantz James William Nantz III (born May 17, 1959) is an American sportscaster who has worked on telecasts of the National Football League (NFL), NCAA Division I men's basketball, the NBA and the PGA Tour for CBS Sports since the 1980s. He has ancho ...
and
Grant Hill Grant Henry Hill (born October 5, 1972) is an American former professional basketball player who is a co-owner and executive of the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He attended Duke University and is widely consider ...
to make up the primary announcing team for the remainder of the regular season, all the way through the NCAA men's basketball tournament and the Final Four. Raftery was also an analyst with
ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
, primarily partnered with Sean McDonough and
Jay Bilas Jay Scot Bilas (born December 24, 1963) is an American college basketball analyst who currently works for ESPN. Bilas is a former professional basketball player and coach who played for and served as an assistant under Mike Krzyzewski at Duke Uni ...
and formerly Mike Gorman for Big East games. He has served as an analyst for
CBS Radio CBS Radio was a radio broadcasting company and radio network operator owned by CBS Corporation and founded in 1928, with consolidated radio station groups owned by CBS and Westinghouse Broadcasting/Group W since the 1920s, and Infinity Broad ...
/
Westwood One Westwood One is an American radio network owned by Cumulus Media. The company syndicates talk, music, and sports programming. The company takes its name from an earlier network also named Westwood One, a company founded in 1978. The compan ...
's coverage of the
NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...
Men's Final Four along with Kevin Kugler and John Thompson. Raftery was also the lead analyst for the New Jersey Nets (prior to the franchise's move to
Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
) for over 20 years until 2002 and was an on-course commentator for
PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also ...
Champions Tour PGA Tour Champions (formerly the Senior PGA Tour and the Champions Tour) is a men's professional senior golf tour, administered as a branch of the PGA Tour. History and format The Senior PGA Championship, founded in 1937, was for many year ...
events. Raftery while at CBS also worked as an analyst for select NBA games, paired with Brent Musburger and Dick Stockton. On June 27, 2013, Raftery signed with
Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the F ...
to call Big East basketball games on the upstart network
Fox Sports 1 Fox Sports 1 (FS1) is an American pay television channel owned by the Fox Sports Media Group, a unit of Fox Corporation. FS1 replaced the motorsports network Speed on August 17, 2013, at the same time that its companion channel Fox Sports 2 ...
with Gus Johnson. His trademark quotes include: "Onions!" (when a shot is made late in a close game), "Send it in big fella!" (when a post player makes a slam dunk), "With a little kiss!" (when a shot banks in, usually in a nonstandard way), "A little nickel-dimer!" (when a light foul is called), "Get the puppies organized!" (in reference to good footwork), and "A little lingerie on the deck!" (when a player makes a nifty move with the ball and fakes out the defender). Another phrase Raftery is known for is "Man-to-man!", which he announces very fast and excitedly at the start of most games.Rolling Stone - April 2, 2015 He is especially remembered for "Send It In, Jerome!", his call immediately after
Jerome Lane Jerome Lane Sr. (born December 4, 1966) is an American former professional basketball player who played six seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Lane played college basketball for the University of Pittsburgh, where he was an A ...
of the
University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...
shattered the backboard with a powerful dunk during a 1988 game.


Awards and honors

*2006 Curt Gowdy Media Award *
NSSA Hall of Fame The National Sports Media Association (NSMA), formerly the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, is an organization of sports media members in the United States, and constitutes the American chapter of the International Sports Pr ...
inductee (class of 2015) *Four-time
Sports Emmy Award The Sports Emmy Awards, or Sports Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), the Sports E ...
winner for Outstanding Sports Event Analyst


Other ventures

Aside from his commentating duties, Raftery was also the president of W.J. Raftery Associates, an event/marketing firm.


Personal life

Born William Joseph Raftery in Orange, New Jersey, Bill Raftery grew up in an Irish Catholic family with Irish immigrant parents. His sister is a nun. Raftery earned a B.A. in history from La Salle University in 1963 and an M.A.E. in education from Seton Hall University in 1966. In 2001, he received an honorary doctorate from La Salle. Raftery lives in Florham Park, New Jersey with his wife, Joan, and has four children and five grandchildren. His son, Billy, produced and narrated a documentary about his father's life in basketball entitled ''With a Kiss''. The documentary premiered hours before the longtime broadcaster called his second Final Four as a television analyst for
CBS Sports CBS Sports is the sports division of the American television network CBS. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on W 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on W ...
.


References


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Raftery, Bill 1943 births Living people American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players American television sports announcers Basketball coaches from New Jersey Basketball players from New Jersey College basketball announcers in the United States College men's basketball head coaches in the United States Golf writers and broadcasters La Salle Explorers men's basketball players National Basketball Association broadcasters New Jersey Nets announcers New York Knicks draft picks Parade High School All-Americans (boys' basketball) People from Florham Park, New Jersey People from Orange, New Jersey Seton Hall Pirates men's basketball coaches Seton Hall University alumni Guards (basketball)