Craig Littlepage (born August 5, 1951) is an American college athletics administrator and former

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

player and coach. He is the former athletic director at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...

. 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 The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

from 1982 to 1985 and at

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...

from 1985 to 1988.

Early career

Littlepage played

for the

and graduated from Penn's

Wharton School The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in P ...

in 1973 with a degree in

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...

. He served as an assistant coach at

Villanova University Villanova University is a private Roman Catholic research university in Villanova, Pennsylvania. It was founded by the Augustinians in 1842 and named after Saint Thomas of Villanova. The university is the oldest Catholic university in Penns ...

and

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

before coming to the University of Virginia in 1976 as an assistant coach for

Terry Holland Michael Terrence Holland (born April 2, 1942) is an American college athletics administrator and former basketball player and coach. He is currently the emeritus director of athletics and special assistant to Chancellor Steve Ballard at East Caro ...

. Littlepage's alma mater Penn hired him as head coach in 1982. He then was hired as head coach by

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 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 at the 2002

Continental Tire Bowl The Duke’s Mayo Bowl is an annual college football bowl game that has been played at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, since 2002. The game currently features a matchup between a team from the Atlantic Coast Conference (AC ...

in which the band lampooned the home state of the opposing

West Virginia Mountaineers The West Virginia Mountaineers are the athletic teams that represent West Virginia University, an American university located in Morgantown, West Virginia. The school is a member of National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I. The Mou ...

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, he headed 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 an ...

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. 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 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%). Th ...

Rick Reilly Richard Paul Reilly (born February 3, 1958) is an American sportswriter. Long known for being the "back page" columnist for ''Sports Illustrated'', Reilly moved to ESPN on June 1, 2008, where he was a featured columnist for ESPN.com and wrote t ...

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 David Antonio Leitao Jr. (born May 18, 1960) is an American professional basketball coach who is the head coach for City Reapers of Overtime Elite (OTE). He has previously been the head coach of the Maine Red Claws of the NBA Development Leagu ...

and

Tony Bennett Anthony Dominick Benedetto (born August 3, 1926), known professionally as Tony Bennett, is an American retired singer of traditional pop standards, big band, show tunes, and jazz. Bennett is also a painter, having created works under his birt ...

for men's basketball, Joanne Boyle for women's basketball, Brian O'Connor in baseball, and

Mike London Michael Wilson London Sr. (born October 9, 1960) is the current head football coach for the William & Mary Tribe football program at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. He is a former defensive back and associate head coa ...

and Bronco Mendenhall 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