Rossini coached at Columbia for eight seasons from 1950-51 to 1957-58, compiling a record of 117-71, second only to Jack Rohan in Columbia coaching victories. He gained his greatest renown only after leaving the Lions to head the NYU basketball program.
The Bronx native played basketball at Theodore Roosevelt High. He entered St. John's in 1940, where he came under the tutelage of head coach Joe Lapchick.
Lapchick was a stickler for fundamentals and defense, both of which became trademarks of Rossini's coaching. Rossini saw little action for the Redmen - on a Columbia basketball questionnaire, when asked what position he had played at St. John's, he wrote "sitting position, usually" - but began to realize that teaching and coaching would be his chosen profession.
With the advent of World War II, Rossini left St. John's to serve in the Army Air Forces. While in the service, he coached basketball teams at air bases in Greenwood, Miss., and Bedford, Mass. When he received his discharge, he returned to New York and entered Columbia, admitted as an undergraduate to Teachers College.
He played only one season for the Lions, in 1945-46 under coach Paul Mooney, averaging 12.3 points per game as a six-foot forward. He earned a B.S. in physical education in 1947, then remained at TC in graduate school.
Head coach Gordon Ridings, who had succeeded Mooney, saw possibilities in Rossini, and hired him as junior varsity coach in 1946. In 1948, he moved up to assistant and freshman coach.
Ridings was highly successful at Columbia, winning 69 of 89 games; his .772 winning percentage the Lions' best ever. But six days before the opening game of the 1950-51 season, he suffered a massive heart attack and was ruled off the coaching lines for the entire season.
Although just 29 years old, Rossini was named the acting head coach. He made his debut with two exhibition victories, over the alumni and the New York Athletic Club, sandwiched around a win over Amherst. Columbia defeated Fordham by 23 and Rutgers by 17 before going on a southern trip where they registered two victories over Tulane and one over Rice.
The Lions returned to New York and kept on winning. They won their first game in the Eastern Intercollegiate League, forerunner of the Ivy League, by 40 points over Cornell. They edged by Princeton, 53-52, topped Yale in New Haven, 90-48, and won still more. They completed the regular season 21-0 (23-0 counting the exhibitions) and entered the NCAA Championships as the nation's only undefeated team. Unfortunately, they were upset in the first round by Illinois, 79-71.
Named Columbia's permanent head coach after the season when Ridings retired from coaching, Rossini coached the Lions for seven more years, during which his teams finished second in the Eastern or Ivy League three times.
Following the 1958 season, Rossini was hired as head coach at New York University. In 13 years under his direction, the Violets became one of the nation's leading teams. Rossini led them to three NCAA tournament berths, including the 1960 Final Four, and four N.I.T. appearances. He compiled a record of 185-137 until his resignation in March 1971, shortly before NYU dropped basketball.
Rossini was head coach at St. Francis of Brooklyn from 1975 to 1979, going 55-48, for a college career record of 357-256. He also coached internationally for many years, as national basketball coach of Puerto Rico for 20 years, and the national teams of Tunisia, Uruguay and Qatar. He also coached teams in Japan, Brazil, Spain and Italy.
The former Lion coached in two Olympics, leading Puerto Rico to fourth place in the 1964 Games in Tokyo, and won two Pan American Games medals - a silver with Puerto Rico in 1959 and a bronze with Brazil in 1963.
From 1986, when he returned from Qatar, to 1999, when he finally retired, Rossini lived in Queens and served as adjunct professor at the Staten Island campus of St. John's University. He taught two courses, including a highly-popular class entitled "The Psychology of Coaching."
Rossini was perhaps best known for the outstanding players he helped to develop. His Columbia standouts included Chet Forte, the 1957 National Player of the Year, and another first team All-American, John Azary. Azary's teammates on that fabled 1950-51 team included a future pro, Jack Molinas, and future Columbia head coach Jack Rohan. At NYU, he coached five future NBA players, headed by pro standouts Tom Sanders, Happy Hairston, Barry Kramer and Mal Graham.
Rossini and his wife, Adelia, moved to Sewell, in South Jersey, seven years ago, bringing them close to family members. Although he no longer coached, he couldn't resist playing or instructing.
"Dad played tennis up to two or three years ago," his son, Ron Rossini, said. "If he couldn't find someone to play with, he'd find someone he could teach how to play."
Rossini is survived by his wife, sons Ron and Gregory, a daughter, Beth Rossini, and five grandchildren. Private services were held in Washington Township, New Jersey.
