From March Madness miracles to a season opener in Rome: The story of Catholic college hoops

NEW YORK (AP) — The Dons. The Hoyas. The Zags. Rollie Massimino and his cigars. Lou Carnesecca and his outlandish sweaters. Sister Jean — a devoted fan and mentor of Loyola Chicago players even after she turned 100.

The list could go on endlessly. Talented teams, colorful coaches, unforgettable characters -- adding up to the remarkable history of Catholic college basketball over the past 100 years.

The Catholic hoops legacy will be on full display in a few weeks in an especially fitting location and matchup.

Catholic powerhouses Notre Dame and Villanova will compete in the 2026 season opener Nov. 1 at Rome’s Palazzo dello Sport, six miles from the Vatican headquarters of Pope Leo XIV, the first American-born pope, a sports fan, and a Villanova graduate. There's been no word from the Vatican on whether Leo might attend the Eternal City Tip-Off, though it's considered unlikely following his lung cancer diagnosis.

The doubleheader between the Notre Dame and Villanova men’s and women’s teams has cast a new spotlight on the deep roots of basketball in Catholic schools in America, dating to the early days of the sport.

After James Naismith invented the sport in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1891, YMCAs and colleges played key roles in the early expansion. Many of those schools were Catholic institutions in urban areas; basketball — requiring only an indoor court and a handful of players — was an ideal sport for them.

By 1927, before the era of season-ending tournaments, the potential of Catholic college hoops became clear — Notre Dame’s 19-1 team was named national champion by the Helms Athletic Foundation. It repeated that feat in 1936.

The NCAA men’s tournament started in 1939, officially crowning a national champion. Since then, Catholic schools have won 10 titles — including three by Villanova.

Holy Cross, in Worcester, Massachusetts, was the first of these champions, defeating Oklahoma in the 1947 final. NBA legend Bob Cousy was a reserve freshman on that Crusaders team.

La Salle was next, defeating Bradley in the 1954 final. Led on the court by future Hall of Famer Tom Gola, the Explorers were one of America’s dominant teams from 1952 through 1956.

The next Catholic champion was the University of San Francisco. Its titles in 1955 and 1956 highlighted the pivotal role played by Catholic colleges in ending pervasive racial segregation of the sport.

The Dons’ 1955 team – led by future Hall of Famers Bill Russell and K.C. Jones – was the first NCCA champion with three Black starters. Its record over the two championship seasons: 57-1.

Further barrier-breaking came when Loyola Chicago's Ramblers started four Black players in the 1963 NCAA championship game en route to an upset overtime victory over two-time defending champion Cincinnati.

One more major barrier remained to be broken. In 1984, John Thompson became the first Black head coach to win an NCAA basketball championship, leading Georgetown to victory in the 12th of his 27 seasons with the Hoyas.

Unlike many of his players, Thompson was a practicing Catholic – attending a Catholic high school in Washington, D.C., before starring as a 6-10 center at Dominican-affiliated Providence College and then serving as Bill Russell’s backup for two seasons with the Boston Celtics.

His early years at Georgetown were sometimes tense as he recruited mostly Black players to the predominantly white Jesuit university. Faculty and students rallied around him after a bedsheet with racist words was hung inside the gym before a game in 1975.

Thompson is remembered for draping a white towel over his right shoulder during each game – a tribute to his mother. He's one of numerous coaches at Catholic colleges who gained iconic status during lengthy careers.

Rollie Massimino coached for 19 seasons at Villanova. His epic moment came at Thompson’s expense in 1985, when the Wildcats engineered one of the NCCA tournament’s biggest upsets by beating defending champion Georgetown 66-64 in the final. A No. 8 seed, that ’Nova team remains the lowest seed ever to win the title.

Amid 80th birthday celebrations in 2014, Massimino said he never watched a full replay of the title game. “I’m afraid we’re still going to lose." His funeral in 2017 was on its suburban Philadelphia campus at Saint Thomas of Villanova Church.

In 2001, another practicing Catholic – Jay Wright – took over as Villanova’s head coach, sticking around for 21 seasons, including NCAA championships in 2016 and 2018. Three players from those teams helped the New York Knicks win the NBA title earlier this year.

In terms of longevity among coaches of Catholic men’s teams, Ray Meyer ranks first – 42 years at DePaul, with a 724-354 record. From 1942 to 1946, Meyer's teams featured George Mikan, widely considered the sport's first superstar.

Another long-serving coach was Lou Carnesecca, who reached post-season play in all of his 24 seasons at St. John’s. He was beloved for his cheerful personality, garish sweaters and devotion to his Catholic faith.

Al McGuire, head coach at Marquette from 1964 to 1977, won an NCAA title in his last season there before transitioning to a successful broadcasting career. He took pride in being brash, mingling expletives with prayer in his pre-game pep talks.

In 1970, McGuire got a call from a priest in the Marquette president’s office, disagreeing with the coach's decision to skip the NCAA tournament and play instead in the NIT.

″I told him, ’Father, I don’t hear confession and you don’t coach this team,′″ McGuire recalled. ”Twenty minutes later, the priest called back and said, ‘You’re right.’″ Marquette proceeded to win the NIT.

Not all the great coaches at Catholic colleges have been Catholic. Mark Few, head coach at Gonzaga since 1999, is the son of a Presbyterian minister. He has coached the Zags to 27 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances, including two Final Fours.

In general, over the decades, these Catholic teams have not explicitly depicted their ambitions in religious terms — but they often have embraced spiritual support that's close at hand.

The Rev. William Kelly, who taught in Marquette’s theology department, was the basketball team's chaplain for 31 years. The Rev. Richard Rock has been chaplain of the St. John’s team since 2013, exhorting the players with pre-game prayers and encouraging them to engage in community service.

The most famous chaplain, however, was a nun, not a priest – Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt of Loyola Chicago.

Born in San Francisco in 1919, Sister Jean grew up in a staunch Catholic family, and as a young woman joined the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She taught at Catholic schools and coached girls’ basketball before arriving at Mundelein College, on the Chicago lakefront, in the 1960s. The school affiliated with Loyola in 1991, and Sister Jean was hired to help students with the transition.

In 1994, she was asked to help student basketball players boost their grades. and soon was named chaplain of the men’s team -- a role she held until September 2025, shortly before her death at age 106.

Sister Jean gained folk hero status in 2018 as the Ramblers, a lowly 11th seed, reached the NCAA Final Four.

She was featured by newspapers and TV stations nationwide. Her likeness appeared on socks and bobbleheads. Her NCAA news conference had as many journalists as NFL stars draw at the Super Bowl.

What does it take to have your prayers heard, she was asked. “God always hears," she replied. "But maybe He thinks it’s better for us to do the ‘L’ instead of the ‘W,’ and we have to accept that.”

John Gasaway, author of a history of Catholic college hoops titled “Miracles on the Hardwood,” says the colleges without big-time football programs – basically all except Notre Dame and Boston College – may face challenges in the new era of pay-for-players.

He also notes no Catholic school has advanced to the men’s Final Four over the past four seasons.

“But that will change immediately if the Zags or whoever else breaks through,” he said. “That activates something in our collective memory.”

Short term, Gasaway is excited about the Eternal City Tip-Off,

“It’s a great matchup -- two venerable brands in Catholic education,” he said. “Whatever involvement the pope wants to have -- even if it’s just posing with the teams -- it will be such a thrill for them.”

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

FILE - Loyola University basketball player, Tom Welch, shakes hands with Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, the team's official chaplain, before attending practice on Monday, Jan. 23, 2023, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski)

FILE - Villanova's Jalen Brunson, left, leans on coach Jay Wright during a timeout during the second half of an NCAA men's college basketball tournament first-round game against Radford, Thursday, March 15, 2018, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

FILE - Lou Carnesecca coaches his St. John's team from the sidelines during their game against Niagara in New York, on Nov. 23, 1991. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

FILE - Villanova coach Rollie Massimino is up on his toes during the NCAA college basketball Final Four championship game against Georgetown, in Lexington, Ky., April 1, 1985. Underdog Villanova, shooting 79 percent from the field, beat Georgetown 66-64. No one thought we could do it, but I did," Massimino shouted afterward. (AP Photo/Bob Jordan, File)

FILE - Georgetown head coach John Thompson, left, embraces most valuable player Patrick Ewing, after Georgetown defeated Houston 84-75 in Seattle on April 2, 1984. (AP Photo/File)

FILE - Marquette player Butch Lee, left, and coach Al McGuire celebrate after their team won over The University of North Carolina at Charlotte in the NCAA college basketball semifinals in Atlanta, March 26, 1977. Marquette won 51-49 with a last-second shot. (AP Photo/File)

FILE - University of San Francisco basketball player Bill Russell is carried from the floor of the Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Mo., by students celebrating a win over La Salle for the NCAA basketball championship, March 19, 1955. (AP Photo/Bill Streator, File)

FILE - Bob Cousy, Holy Cross forward, second from right, intercepts a pass intended for Tony Lavelli, (8) of Yale, left, in first period of an NCAA college basketball game Feb. 19, 1949, in New Haven, Conn. Rob McMullen of Holy Cross, left, comes in on the play. Art Fizgerald, (7) of Yale is at right. (AP Photo/File)

Stocks fell on Wall Street Friday as another pullback in big technology companies weighed on the market.

The S&P 500 was down 1.1% as of 2:01 p.m. Eastern time and on track for a weekly loss. The benchmark index is pulling back from the all-time high it set last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 257 points, or 0.5%.

The Nasdaq composite was down 2.1% and headed for its first weekly loss in five weeks. Weakness for AI stocks has been a major drag on the tech-heavy index this week.

Technology companies were the biggest drag on the broader market. Micron Technology fell 4.1%, Advanced Micro Devices dropped 5.1%, Broadcom was down 3.6% and Intel lost 4.7%. The declines in heavyweight tech stocks outweighed losses in most other parts of the market, and slightly more U.S. stocks were rising than falling within the S&P 500.

It’s been a choppy week for chipmakers and other big tech stocks central to the artificial intelligence industry. Investors are now worried that the companies, which have relied on debt markets to finance an investment spree into their technology, may not be able to keep borrowing and spending as heavily with yields in bond markets worldwide recently climbing to their highest levels in years.

Netflix’s stock fell 3% a day after the company announced that Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria will be replaced by Peter Rice. The news comes just days after Netflix said that it plans to lay off about 6% of its workforce, amounting to nearly 1,000 positions.

Big banks and other financial companies gained ground. JPMorgan rose 0.9%, Citigroup gained 0.5% and Wells Fargo was up 0.7%.

European markets were broadly higher and Asian markets rose.

In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady. The yield on the 10-year Treasury was at 5.10%. It had topped 5.30% earlier this month and touched its highest level since 2002 because of worries about high inflation, signals of a strong U.S. economy and other factors.

Yields are down despite reports this week showing that inflation at the consumer and wholesale level rose more in the U.S. than economists expected.

The reports could persuade the inflation-fighters at the Federal Reserve to hike their key interest rate before the end of this year. The central bank increased its key interest rate by a quarter-point to about 3.9% in September, its first increase in three years.

Wall Street traders expect the Fed will keep its short-term rate unchanged at policy meeting this month, but the odds of a rate increase at the December meeting have jumped to 74.3% from 50.2% a month ago, according to data from the CME Group.

On Friday, Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh offered no fresh signals about potential interest rate policy moves by the Fed while attending a meeting of financial leaders in Bangkok.

Elsewhere in the market, shares in Tesla fell 2.5% after the electric vehicle company unveiled a new model of its Roadster sports car that can thrust itself up in the air.

Alcoa jumped 3% after reporting quarterly results that topped Wall Street estimates.

Expectations are high for growth in profits from all kinds of companies this reporting season, which began in earnest this week. That’s what’s allowed U.S. stocks to set records despite high inflation and the many other worries weighing on Wall Street.

In energy markets, oil prices remained elevated as the global oil supply continues to be under pressure without a deal between the U.S. and Iran to end the Iran war.

Brent crude, the international standard, was up 3.1% at $109.21 per barrel. That is up from around $72 a barrel in late February before the start of the war. Brent climbed into triple digits last month, the first time since July.

The national average for gasoline is at $4.33 a gallon on Friday, according to AAA. While that’s lower than the $4.37 a gallon that it averaged last month, it’s sharply higher than the $3.06 a gallon from a year ago.

Oil remains well-supported as uncertainties surrounding the situation in the Middle East and concerns over oil flows in the Strait of Hormuz had the market “pricing in a significant risk premium,” ING commodities strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey wrote in a commentary Friday.

Specialist Dilip Patel works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

A man uses his mobile phone to take photos of the electronic screen displaying Indonesia Composite Index at the Indonesia Stock Exchange in Jakarta, Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)

People walk past an electronic screen displaying stock prices at the Indonesia Stock Exchange in Jakarta, Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)

A screen shows the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A screen shows the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics Co. stock prices at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders work at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)