William Joseph Raftery (born April 19, 1943) is an American
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...
analyst and former college basketball coach.
Early life and playing years
Born William Joseph Raftery
in
Orange, New Jersey
The City of Orange (known simply as Orange) is a Township (New Jersey), township in Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 34,447, an increase o ...
, and raised in nearby
Kearny,
Raftery grew up in a Catholic family with Irish immigrant parents, Francis and Margaret. He had a brother, Francis, and a sister, Rita, who was a Catholic nun (Sr. Francis Raftery) who served as president of the
College of Saint Elizabeth
Saint Elizabeth University (SEU) (formerly College of Saint Elizabeth, CSE) is a private Catholic university in Morris Township, New Jersey, United States. Portions of the campus are also in Florham Park. SEU offer 25 undergraduate degree pr ...
.
Raftery graduated in 1959 from the now defunct
St. Cecilia High School in Kearny, where he starred in basketball and became the all-time leading scorer in state history with 2,193 points, a record he held for nine years. (
Shaheen Holloway, one of his successors as head coach at
Seton Hall University
Seton Hall University (SHU) is a Private university, private Catholic Church, Catholic research university in South Orange, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1856 by then-Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley and named after his aunt, Saint Elizab ...
, scored 42 fewer points and
Kyrie Irving had 113 fewer as New Jersey high school players.) He earned all-state honors in basketball and led his team to the state championship in his senior season. He was also named all-state in baseball and soccer.
He has been named, retroactively,
Mr. Basketball USA for 1959.
Raftery played for the
La Salle Explorers men's basketball team under coach
Donald "Dudey" Moore. During his freshman year he scored a freshman record 370 points, followed by a team leading 17.8 points per game in his sophomore year. As a senior, he co-captained the Explorers to the
National Invitation Tournament
The National Invitation Tournament (NIT) is an annual men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Since 2023, all rounds of the tournament are played at various sites across the country whi ...
.
Just before graduating with a
B.A. in history, he was selected in the 14th round (82nd overall) of the
1963 NBA draft by the
New York Knicks
The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the Na ...
, but he never played in the NBA.
Coaching career
Raftery began his coaching career at
Fairleigh Dickinson University at Madison (now in
Florham Park, New Jersey) where he was the head basketball coach from 1963 to 1968.
There, Raftery also coached golf and served as associate athletic director.
From 1970 to 1981, Raftery was the head coach of the
Seton Hall Pirates, where he posted a 154–141 record and led the team to four
ECAC postseason tournaments and two National Invitational Tournament appearances. In 1979, he was named Coach of the Year by the New Jersey Sports Writers Association.
His 154 wins as a coach places him fifth on the all-time list at Seton Hall behind
Honey Russell,
P. J. Carlesimo
Peter John Carlesimo (born May 30, 1949) is an American former basketball coach who coached in both the National Basketball Association (NBA) and college basketball for nearly 40 years. He is also a television broadcaster and has worked with ESP ...
, Frank Hill, and
Kevin Willard.
Head coaching record
Broadcasting career
Raftery said it was during his senior year in college, when La Salle was competing in the NIT, that legendary New York sportscaster
Bob Wolff suggested he eventually consider a career in broadcasting. “It always stuck in my head,” Raftery said. “It was just one of those things in the back of my head, and I said, ‘This will keep me in the game that I enjoy.’”
He began his broadcasting career as co-host of
ESPN
ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...
’s ''College Hoops Tonight'' in 1980. He began calling
New Jersey Nets
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995
* "New" (Daya song), 2017
* "New" (No Doubt song), 1 ...
games in 1982.
Raftery has served as an analyst and color commentator for
CBS Sports
CBS Sports is the American sports programming division of Paramount Global that is responsible for sports broadcasts carried by its broadcast network CBS and streaming service Paramount+, as well as the operator of its cable channel CBS Sports N ...
'
college basketball coverage since 1983. During CBS' coverage of ''
March Madness
The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as March Madness, or The Big Dance, is a single-elimination tournament played in the United States to determine the men's college basketball national champion of the NCAA Division I, Di ...
'', Raftery had long partnerships with
James Brown
James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, musician, and record producer. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century music, he is referred to by Honorific nick ...
(1990–93) and
Sean McDonough
Sean McDonough (born May 13, 1962) is an American sportscaster, currently employed by ESPN and the WEEI Boston Red Sox Radio Network. McDonough has play-by-play experience for all four major professional sports leagues in the United States an ...
(1995–99) but rose to prominence during his 15-year partnership (2000–14) with
Verne Lundquist.
During the 2014–15 collegiate basketball season, CBS/
Turner Sports
TNT Sports is the division of Warner Bros. Discovery in the United States that is responsible for Sports broadcasting, sports broadcasts on its parent company's streaming service, Max (streaming service), Max, and primarily the TruTV, TBS (Americ ...
partnered Raftery with
Jim Nantz and
Grant Hill
Grant Henry Hill (born October 5, 1972) is an American professional basketball executive and former player who is a co-owner of the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and a part-owner of Orlando City SC of Major League ...
to make up the primary announcing team for the remainder of the regular season following the arrest of
Greg Anthony
Gregory Carlton Anthony (born November 15, 1967) is an American former professional basketball player who is a television analyst for NBA TV and Turner Sports. He played 11 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Anthony also co ...
for soliciting a prostitute, all the way through the NCAA men's basketball tournament and the
Final Four
In sports, the final four is the last four teams remaining in a playoffs, playoff tournament. Usually the final four compete in the two games of a single-elimination tournament's semi-final (penultimate) round. Of these teams, the two who win in ...
.
Raftery was also an analyst with ESPN, primarily partnered with
Sean McDonough
Sean McDonough (born May 13, 1962) is an American sportscaster, currently employed by ESPN and the WEEI Boston Red Sox Radio Network. McDonough has play-by-play experience for all four major professional sports leagues in the United States an ...
and
Jay Bilas and formerly
Mike Gorman for
Big East
The Big East Conference (stylized as BIG EAST) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that competes in National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA NCAA Division I, Division I in 10 men's sports and 12 women's sports. H ...
games.
Before CBS elevated him to their primary announcing team, he served as an analyst for
CBS Radio/
Westwood One's coverage of the
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...
Men's Final Four from 1991 to 2014 working in later years with
Kevin Kugler and
John Thompson.
After the media rights for the Big East moved from ESPN to Fox Sports in 2013, Raftery signed with
Fox Sports
Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The name originates from Fox Broadcasting Company in the United States, which in turn derives its name from Fox Fi ...
to call Big East basketball games on the upstart network
Fox Sports 1
Fox Sports 1 (branded on-air as FS1) is an American pay television television channel, channel owned by the Fox Sports (United States), Fox Sports Media Group, a unit of Fox Corporation. FS1 airs an array of live sporting events, including Majo ...
with
Gus Johnson.
Raftery was also the lead analyst for the Nets (prior to the franchise's move to
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
) for over 20 years until 2002 and was an on-course commentator for
PGA Tour
The PGA Tour (stylized as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also known as the PGA Tour, the PGA Tour Champion ...
Champions Tour events.
While at CBS he also worked as an analyst for select NBA games, paired with
Brent Musburger
Brent Woody Musburger (born May 26, 1939) is an American sportscaster, currently the lead broadcaster and managing editor at Vegas Stats and Information Network (VSiN).
With CBS Sports from 1973 until 1990, he was the original host of their ...
and
Dick Stockton.
Beginning with the 2024 NCAA Tournament, Raftery has been paired with
Ian Eagle, his former partner with the Nets and frequent regular season college basketball partner.
His trademark quotes include:
*"Onions!" (when a shot is made late in a close game),
*"Send it in big fella!" (when a post player makes a slam dunk),
*"With a little kiss!" (when a shot banks in, usually in a nonstandard way),
*"A little nickel-dimer!" (when a soft foul is called)
*"Get the puppies organized!" (in reference to good footwork)
*"A little lingerie on the deck!" (when a player makes a nifty move with the ball and fakes out the defender).
*"Man-to-man!", which he announces very fast and excitedly at the start of most games.
[Rolling Stone - April 2, 2015]
Additionally, he is remembered for "Send It In, Jerome!", his call immediately after
Jerome Lane
Jerome Lane Sr. (born December 4, 1966) is an American former professional basketball player who played six seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Lane played college basketball for the University of Pittsburgh, where he was an Al ...
of the
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...
shattered the backboard with a powerful
dunk during a 1988 game.
[
]
Awards and honors
*Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame (2017)
* NSSA Hall of Fame (2015)
*Curt Gowdy Media Award
The Curt Gowdy Media Award is an annual award given by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame to outstanding basketball writers and broadcasters. It is named for American sportscaster Curt Gowdy, who was the Hall of Fame's president ...
from Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as basketball's most complete library, in addition to promoting and pre ...
(2006)
*Four-time Sports Emmy Award
The Sports Emmy Awards, or Sports Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), the Sports E ...
winner for Outstanding Sports Event Analyst
*La Salle University Hall of Athletes (2004)
*Fairleigh Dickinson Athletics Hall of Fame inductee (1997)
*Coach of the Year by the New Jersey Basketball Writers Association (1979)
Other ventures
Aside from his commentating duties, Raftery was also the president of W.J. Raftery Associates, an event/marketing firm.
Personal life
Raftery earned an M.A.E. in education from Seton Hall University in 1966. In 2001, he received an honorary doctorate from La Salle.
Raftery and his wife, the former Joan Fleming, live in Florida. Previously they lived in Florham Park, New Jersey, where they raised four children, Billy, Kristi, Kelli and Suzi. They have five grandchildren.
In 2015, Billy and his father's broadcasting partner, Grant Hill
Grant Henry Hill (born October 5, 1972) is an American professional basketball executive and former player who is a co-owner of the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and a part-owner of Orlando City SC of Major League ...
, produced ''With A Kiss'', a documentary about Raftery's first shot at calling the Final Four
In sports, the final four is the last four teams remaining in a playoffs, playoff tournament. Usually the final four compete in the two games of a single-elimination tournament's semi-final (penultimate) round. Of these teams, the two who win in ...
at age 71. The documentary premiered in 2016, hours before the longtime broadcaster called his second Final Four as a television analyst for CBS Sports
CBS Sports is the American sports programming division of Paramount Global that is responsible for sports broadcasts carried by its broadcast network CBS and streaming service Paramount+, as well as the operator of its cable channel CBS Sports N ...
. In 2018, Billy and Hill formed Point Road Productions.
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raftery, Bill
1943 births
Living people
20th-century American sportsmen
American golf commentators
American men's basketball coaches
American men's basketball players
American television sports announcers
Basketball coaches from New Jersey
Basketball players from Essex County, New Jersey
Basketball players from Hudson County, New Jersey
College basketball announcers in the United States
College men's basketball head coaches in the United States
Guards (basketball)
La Salle Explorers men's basketball players
NBA broadcasters
New Jersey Nets announcers
New York Knicks draft picks
Parade High School All-Americans (boys' basketball)
People from Florham Park, New Jersey
People from Kearny, New Jersey
Seton Hall Pirates men's basketball coaches
Seton Hall University alumni
Sports Emmy Award winners
Sportspeople from Morris County, New Jersey
Sportspeople from Orange, New Jersey