News

Bob Staak returns to campus

Former Xavier coach speaks at dinner/auction fund-raiser

02/06/03

Best known as the man who turned the Xavier basketball program around, former coach Bob Staak returns to campus as the guest speaker at the Musketeer club’s blue and white classic dinner and auction on Friday, Feb. 7. The fund-raising event starts at 7:30 p.m. in the Cintas Center banquet room and benefits student athletics at the University. Staak was head basketball coach from 1979-85 and the athletic director from 1979-84. During his tenure at Xavier, he took a struggling basketball program and gave it respectability. In 1981, the men’s basketball team compiled an 8-3 Midwestern Collegiate Conference record and captured its first league title. Staak then led the team back to the National Invitation Tournament in 1984 for the first time since the 1958 championship. He also ended the University of Cincinnati’s domination of college basketball in Cincinnati with a 4-2 mark against the crosstown rivals. The dinner event offers both a silent auction and a live auction. Items to bid on in the auctions range from gift certificates from local restaurants, hotels and theaters to a week’s stay at a condominium in Colorado. For more information about the event, call 513 745-3081.