WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Former University of Vermont men's basketball player and college coaching legend Rollie Massimino '56 passed away at the age of 82 on Wednesday. Massimino had entered a hospice care facility near his home earlier this week.
 
RELATED LINKS
Massimino Hall of Fame Bio
 
Part of UVM's graduating Class of 1956, Massimino was a three-year letterwinner in basketball under Fuzzy Evans. After Vermont, he went on to become one of the premier college basketball coaches in the nation, most notably at Villanova where he guided the Wildcats to the 1985 NCAA Championship.
 
At Villanova, Massimino directed the Wildcats to 11 trips to the NCAA Tournament including five appearances in the regional finals. In the 1985 title game, Massimino's eighth-seeded Wildcats upset No. 1 ranked Georgetown, 66-64, at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky. In the 1984-85 season opener, Massimino and Villanova opened the campaign with a win in Burlington against the Catamounts. Before taking the helm at Villanova in 1973, Massimino spent two seasons as an assistant coach at the University of Pennsylvania, when the Red and Blue compiled a record of 46-10.
 
Massimino's head coaching stints included stops at Stony Brook, UNLV, Cleveland State, and his latest tenure at Keiser where he started the program in 2006. Keiser visited Patrick Gym last year for a preseason game. Last season at Keiser, Massimino became the 22nd men's college basketball coach to reach the 800-career win mark.
 
He was inducted into the UVM Athletics Hall of Fame in 1983 and the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013.