May 28, 2015
TRADITIONS: BIG EAST
The BIG EAST Conference was born in
Providence in 1979, the brainchild of PC’s athletic director and basketball coach, the late Dave Gavitt ’89Hon. The original seven
member schools were Providence, St. John’s, Georgetown, Syracuse, Seton Hall, Connecticut, and Boston College. In 1984, three BIG EAST basketball teams — Georgetown, St. John’s, and Villanova — made it to the NCAA Final Four. The BIG EAST, which offers play in more than 20 men’s and women’s sports, expanded to 16 schools for several years. It was reborn as a 10-school, basketball-centered conference in 2013.
At right is PC’s athletics mascot, Friar Dom.
