Peter A . Carlesimo Peter A . Carlesimo ( September 2 , 1915 – June 22 , 2003 ) was an American football player , coach of football , basketball , and cross country running , and a college athletics administrator . He coached football , basketball , and cross country at the University of Scranton and served as athletic director there and at Fordham University . He is sometimes credited with being the person most responsible for keeping the National Invitation Tournament ( NIT ) alive in the late 1970s . Carlesimo was born in Newark , New Jersey and graduated from Saint Benedict ' s Preparatory School . Then he attended Fordham University , where he played football alongside Vince Lombardi . He graduated from Fordham in 1940 , and from there went back to his alma mater , Saint Benedict ' s , to be a history teacher and football coach . Carlesimo then moved on to the University of Scranton , where he was the football coach ( 1944 – 1960 ) , basketball coach ( 1944 – 1946 and 1951 – 1955 ) , cross country coach ( 1961 – 1968 ) , and the school ' s athletic director from ( 1953 – 1968 ) . Carlesimo went on to become the athletic director at Fordham University from 1968 to 1978 . As a member of the Metropolitan Intercollegiate Basketball Association ( MIBA ) , Fordham was part of the committee that ran the National Invitation Tournament . The tournament began to lose luster in the mid - 1970s following the implementation of a rule ( the so - called " Al McGuire rule " ) forbidding schools from declining bids to the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament . This had led to a dwindling in talent and interest in the NIT , which Carlesimo sought to fix by rules changes implemented in 1977 . Carlesimo proposed moving the early round games to campus sites , and having only the final four teams play at Madison Square Garden in New York City . This move is seen as the reason the NIT has survived , as more interest is garnered by the schools participating , as they now have more of a financial stake from ticket sales . Carlesimo went on to become the first full - time executive director of the NIT from 1978 to 1988 , and in 1985 , under Carlesimo ' s leadership , the NIT began a preseason tournament which included many of the country ' s best teams along with teams which have used the tournament as a springboard to much better seasons . He is still considered to be one of the most influential persons in the long and storied history of the NIT . He is a member of the University of Scranton ' s Athletic Hall of Fame , the Fordham University Athletic Hall of Fame , the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame , and the NCAA Athletic Director ' s Hall of Fame . He also won Scranton ' s Pro Deo award , a Pop Warner Father of the Year award , and was a member of the Jesuit Honor Society . Carlesimo was known as a humorous speaker , having appeared at countless sports - related dinners and conferences , and was once a guest on " The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson " . He was married to Lucy Rogan and had ten children , including P . J . Carlesimo , the eldest , who was a longtime coach at Seton Hall University and in the NBA . Carlesimo died in 2003 at his home in Upper Montclair , New Jersey .