Dick Versace
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Dick Versace (born April 16, 1940 in Fort Bragg, North Carolina) is a former basketball coach and NBA executive. He is also the first person of Puerto Rican descent to have coached an NBA team.
His parents were Colonel Humbert Joseph Versace and Marie Teresa Rios, a famed Puerto Rican author. The 1960s television sitcom, The Flying Nun was based on one of her books.
He has coached both at the collegiate level and in the NBA. In the early 1980s, he was head men's basketball coach at Bradley University, where he led the team to the NIT championship. He would later serve as an assistant coach for the Detroit Pistons, and as head coach the Indiana Pacers for two years, from 1988 through 1990. After leaving the Pacers job, Versace became a sportscaster.
In 1999, Versace was made the director of player-personnel for the then-Vancouver Grizzlies; he remained with the team through the end of the 2004-2005 season.
Versace is the brother of Medal of Honor recipient Rocky Versace, who was executed by the Viet Cong in 1965.
| Preceded by: Joe Stowell |
Bradley Head Men's Basketball Coach 1978 – 1986 |
Succeeded by: Stan Albeck |
| Preceded by: George Irvine |
Indiana Pacers Head Coach 1988 – 1990 |
Succeeded by: Bob Hill |
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Greater Peoria Sports Hall of Fame
- BasketballReference.com: Dick Versace
- Memphis Grizzlies 2004-05 Media Guide
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Categories: United States basketball coach stubs | 1940 births | Living people | American basketball coaches | Indiana Pacers coaches | National Basketball Association executives | People from North Carolina | Memphis Grizzlies | Bradley Braves men's basketball coaches | National Basketball Association broadcasters | The NBA on TNT | Puerto Rican sportspeople
