Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 22, 1990 TAG: 9005220079
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SPRINGFIELD, MASS. LENGTH: Medium
Steitz, director of athletics-emeritus at Springfield College, had a heart attack in the driveway of his East Longmeadow home after going out to get the newspaper, school spokesman Ken Cerino said.
Steitz was in cardiac arrest when he arrived at Baystate Medical Center at 6 a.m., hospital officials said. He had been hospitalized earlier in the year for a severe angina attack.
The administrator was best known in the United States as national editor for the NCAA Rules Committee, a position he held since 1968. He also was instrumental in the growth of the international game.
"We are all shocked. He was such an integral part of the Olympic family," said Dr. Harvey Schiller, executive director of the U.S. Olympic Committee. "He probably did more for basketball in the world than anyone, including James Naismith."
"He was a great competitor, but a true sportsman," said Joe O'Brien, director of the basketball Hall of Fame, which Steitz helped start in 1959.
In honor of Steitz, who was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1983 as a contributor, the museum will close for Wednesday's memorial service at Springfield College.
"It really is the end of an era at Springfield College as well as in the game of basketball," said Frank S. Falcone, president of the college.
Dick Schultz, executive director of the NCAA, called Steitz a "great asset to collegiate athletics" who will be "sorely missed."
Steitz was the first United States coach to take his team on a world tour and a co-founder as well as president for 10 years of USA Basketball, the governing body for all international amateur basketball in this country. He also was chairman of the U.S. Olympic Basketball Committee for the 1984 Games and a member of the international rules committee.
"The whole basketball world will miss him and I'll always be grateful to him," said Darlene May, women's basketball coach at Cal Poly-Pomona and an international referee. Steitz, contending that it was absurd that the Olympic Committee would not allow a woman to referee women's games, led a successful battle to allow May to officiate at the 1984 Games.
He also pushed the USOC into instituting its own drug testing before the 1984 Games.
Although he was one of the game's leading historians, Steitz was no traditionalist.
He believed the game had to continually evolve "to remain the best on the block." He was responsible for most of the rules changes in college basketball over the past 25 years, including the time clock, the elimination of jump balls except at the start of the game and the return of the dunk.
His "principal of verticality," which gives a player possession of his space from floor to ceiling, is one of the foundations of the modern game.
He said in a recent interview that he was proudest of the 3-point shot, which he called the most significant rules change "for the good" of the game since the elimination of the center jump after each basket 53 years ago.
by CNB