43
Venerable YSU coach Rosselli dies
The Vindicator
Photo
Dom Rosselli with Tony Lariccia with the 12 foot 1500 pound statue dedicated to Dom Rosselli.
Photo
Former YSU basketball coach Don Rosselli speaks to the crowd gathered at Beeghly Stadium while being honored. Don's wife of 62 years, Connie, stands by his side in center court.
Photo
Don Rosselli is honored with a jersey in his name during a ceremony at halftime at Beeghly Stadium marking his years as a YSU basketball coach. The number589 on the jersey denotes the number of wins YSU had under the instruction of Rosselli
By John Kovach
Many who knew him agree: He had life’s priorities in the proper order.
BOARDMAN — Boardman philanthropist Tony Lariccia remembers Dom Rosselli as a multitalented gentleman who displayed the best traits of a man, educator and coach, and who projected a model image that benefited Youngstown State University and the community for more than half a century.
“He was a father figure for me who was impeccable in character, composition, courage and substance,” said Lariccia, a longtime admirer of Rosselli, the former YSU basketball, baseball and football coach and lifelong Youngstown resident who died Tuesday at age 93.
“I never heard him use profanity in all [my life]. He was a saint of a man who had large wings on his back, bigger than the beech trees on my lawn,” said Lariccia. “He did a lot of good for thousands of students. His students and athletes kept in touch with him with e-mails and letters.”
Lariccia, a stockbroker for Merrill, Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith of Canfield, first met Rosselli as a teenager and was so impressed by his stature and career that he funded a $100,000 statue that was erected in front of Beeghly Center honoring the three-sport coach.
Lariccia also funded the Rosselli Bobblehead Day held at the university.
“I met him in 1960 when I was 15 years old. I met him at South Fieldhouse and shook his hand and I told him he had great basketball teams and he thanked me,” recalled Lariccia, a graduate of Struthers High (1963) and YSU (1966). “He was a very humble man and didn’t talk much. He did his talking with his work.”
Roger Lyons, the men’s basketball coach at Ashland University, was an assistant to Rosselli at YSU from 1976-80.
“I spent four tremendous years with Dom Rosselli, years that I will never, ever forget,” said Lyons. “I was a graduate assistant coach at Kent State University who had applied for the vacant assistant coaching position and remember jumping up and down for almost half an hour when he called to tell me he had selected me as his new assistant coach.
“I didn’t have a real wide range of basketball knowledge back then, but he was patient with me and never made me feel like an outsider. I knew he was a great X’s and O’s coach, but came to realize real quick that he was an even better person off the court.”
Lariccia believes Rosselli not only served as an outstanding example in his life, but as a special emissary for the university and area, who was respected by students and athletes and also was well-known throughout national coaching circles.
“He was classy and with a smile and he never talked about anybody. His students and athletes always kept in touch with him. The image he presented was of a high-class gentleman,” said Lariccia. “What an example he was.”
YSU football coach Jon Heacock also was impressed by Rosselli’s approach to life.
“Coach Rosselli always had something positive to say,” said Heacock. “If you could just inject that energy into everybody, what a great world this would be. He made an impact at this university and he stayed right here in the area.”
But Lariccia said that one of Rosselli’s greatest successes was as a husband, parent, grandparent and great-grandparent.
“He was a tremendous husband and father. He was married 67 years to the same woman [Concetta Rose]. On Monday, Nov. 8, he would have been married for 67 years,” said Lariccia. “He loved her. He loved to brag about her. With her he had four children and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.”
Lariccia said Rosselli’s wife also proved to be a great recruiting asset when Dom used to take his frequent car trips looking for basketball players primarily throughout Ohio, Pennsylvania and other nearby states.
“He didn’t have anyone to go with him to recruit so he would take his wife,” said Lariccia.
Ken Brayer, a former sports information director at YSU and scorekeeper at home games, also spent some memorable road trips with Rosselli.
“Oftentimes, our road room assignments meant that I was Coach Rosselli’s roommate,” said Brayer. “During those trips his conversations were rarely about basketball. They were usually about family and family values. His priorities were always in the right order, and believe me, I learned a lot about life from him.”
Rosselli was a standout quarterback and running back at The Rayen School on Youngstown’s North side and Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pa. Dike Beede hired him as an assistant football coach at then-Youngstown College in 1942.
Lariccia said Rosselli had many fans, including Atty. Charles Richards of Warren who is especially fond of recalling the Penguins’ six-overtime game against Gannon University (1966) and single-overtime contest with Randolph Macon College (1977), although both were losses.
“[Richards] saw both of those. He remembered both games like they were yesterday, just like he was looking at his refrigerator. They are forever burned in his brain,” said Lariccia.
But Lariccia said Rosselli had many other talents that perhaps the general public did not realize.
“In the summer, he was a carpenter, electrician, plumber and bricklayer. He laid brick at the home of Dike Beede and even did [Beede’s] brick fireplace and chimney. He was a multitalented man. Dike always enlisted him to do home repairs.”
In addition, Lariccia said Rosselli was a world-class table tennis player, a talent shared and enjoyed by Lariccia, who played against Rosselli.
“I played ping-pong with him, and I was champion at the Downtown Central YMCA and he would handle me,” said Lariccia.
“He was just unbelievable. He was table tennis champion in the U.S. Air Force during World War II and he was a captain in the Air Force.”
In fact, Lariccia said he heard that Rosselli “beat someone blindfolded and another [opponent while] on his knees. Nobody could beat him — and I’m really good. My wife [Mary] would know I lost again by the look on my face.”
kovach@vindy.com
XVindicator correspondent Greg Gulas contributed to this story.