Craig Littlepage (born August 5, 1951) is an American college athletics administrator and former
basketball player and coach. He is the former athletic director at the
University of Virginia. He was named to that position in 2001 and has been with the school as an administrator since 1990. Littlepage served as the head men's basketball coach at the
University of Pennsylvania from 1982 to 1985 and at
Rutgers University from 1985 to 1988.
Early career
Littlepage played
basketball for the
University of Pennsylvania and graduated from Penn's
Wharton School in 1973 with a degree in
economics. He served as an assistant coach at
Villanova University and
Yale University before coming to the University of Virginia in 1976 as an assistant coach for
Terry Holland. Littlepage's alma mater Penn hired him as head coach in 1982. He then was hired as head coach by
Rutgers University in 1985. After Littlepage was dismissed as head coach of the Scarlet Knights in 1988, he returned to Virginia and again served as an assistant until 1990 when Holland resigned and was replaced by
Jeff Jones.
University of Virginia
On August 21, 2001, University of Virginia President
John T. Casteen III
John Thomas Casteen III (born December 11, 1943, in Portsmouth, Virginia) is an American educator. He served as president of the University of Connecticut from 1985 to 1990 and as Professor of English and president of the University of Virginia f ...
announced Littlepage's appointment to be the ninth Virginia Athletics Director. He was the first Black Athletics Director in UVa history. In 2003 and 2006, he was named the Black Coaches Association's "Athletics Administrator of the Year." He was also listed on Sports Illustrated's list of the 101 most influential minorities in sports in 2003 and 2004. Littlepage created a motto of "uncompromised excellence in intercollegiate athletics," and led Virginia athletics to achieving success in a broad range of sports.
In 2003, following a controversial performance by the
Virginia Pep Band The Virginia Pep Band was a student-run musical ensemble at the University of Virginia (UVA). In the tradition of scatter or scramble bands, like those at Stanford Band, Stanford, Marching Owl Band, Rice and the Ivy League, the Pep band, Pep Band p ...
at the 2002
Continental Tire Bowl in which the band lampooned the home state of the opposing
West Virginia Mountaineers and was banned from any future performance at the bowl, Littlepage banned the Pep Band from participating in any Cavalier varsity sports. A donation from Carl Smith allowed the formation of the Cavalier Marching Band.
In
2006
File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...
, he headed the
NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Committee. The committee's most prominent duty was to select the 65 teams that participate in the
NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament
The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as NCAA March Madness and commonly called March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 college basketball teams from ...
.
At the beginning of the
2008 football season, Littlepage briefly banned signs from all school athletic events. Following a student protest at the school's second home game of the season, in which
ESPN's
Rick Reilly encouraged students to bring in blank signs and signs that said, "This is not a sign," Littlepage repealed the ban.
Among the head coaching hires Littlepage has made at Virginia includes
Dave Leitao and
Tony Bennett for men's basketball,
Joanne Boyle
Joanne Boyle (born November 1, 1963) is the former head coach of the University of Virginia women's basketball team. Prior to joining the Cavaliers, Boyle served as the head coach of the California Golden Bears women's basketball team. Boyle pla ...
for women's basketball,
Brian O'Connor in baseball, and
Mike London and
Bronco Mendenhall
Marc Bronco Clay Mendenhall (born February 21, 1966) is an American football coach who most recently coached at The University of Virginia. He stepped down after the 2021 season. Mendenhall joined Virginia in 2015 after spending the previous elev ...
in football.
On September 5, 2017, Littlepage announced his retirement, to commence when a successor is named.
Carla Williams was formally named his successor on October 22, 2017.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Littlepage, Craig
1951 births
Living people
American men's basketball coaches
American men's basketball players
Basketball coaches from Pennsylvania
Basketball players from Pennsylvania
College men's basketball head coaches in the United States
Penn Quakers men's basketball coaches
Penn Quakers men's basketball players
People from Cheltenham, Pennsylvania
Rutgers Scarlet Knights men's basketball coaches
Sportspeople from Montgomery County, Pennsylvania
Villanova Wildcats men's basketball coaches
Virginia Cavaliers athletic directors
Virginia Cavaliers men's basketball coaches