At the ninth annual Youngstown State University Penguin Club
Scholarship Ring Dinner, YSU was proud to honor a man who dedicated
his life to Youngstown State athletics and its student-athletes.
Former head basketball and baseball coach Dom Rosselli was honored
as the 1999 co- Penguin of the Year along with Hall of Fame pitcher
Steve Bartolin.
The school's winningest basketball and baseball coach, Rosselli
guided Youngstown State's basketball and baseball teams for 38 and
31 years, respectively. Rosselli is the only coach in the 70-year
history of Youngstown State intercollegiate athletics to accumulate
more than 1,000 career victories for the Red and White.
Rosselli was a fixture on the basketball bench from 1940-41 to
1982-83. He nurtured a program from the National Association of
Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) to NCAA Division II and then to
Division I. He was also instrumental in Youngstown State's rise as
an independent to conference play, first in the original
Mid-Continent Conference on the Division II level and the Ohio
Valley Conference in Division I.
In his 40 years, Rosselli compiled a career record of 600-393
for a .604 winning percentage. He led his teams to eight 20-win
seasons, including a 24-3 mark with an .889 winning percentage in
1963-64. Both are still school records for most wins and highest
winning percentage in a season.
When he retired following the 1982 season, he was ranked 10th in
NCAA history in lifetime collegiate victories. He recorded the
second-most wins in NCAA Division II history in coaching 39
seasons.
During the 1956-57 season, Rosselli guided the Penguins to a
23-4 mark and an appearance in the NAIA Quarterfinals as the
Penguins lost to Southeastern Oklahoma, 69-65. The following
season, in 1957-58, Youngstown State finished 23-7 and advanced to
the third round of the NAIA National Tournament before losing to
Western Illinois, 70-67. For the third time in as many seasons,
Rosselli and the Penguins made an appearance in the NAIA National
Tournament after a 19-9 mark in 1958-59. YSU defeated Baldwin
Wallace, 97-77, in the championship game of the NAIA Ohio District
and Northern (S.D.) State, 85-76, in the first round of the NAIA
National Tournament. In the second round, the Penguins lost to
Tennessee A&I State, 89-80. Members of those NAIA tournament
teams included Youngstown State Hall of Fame members Bob Atterholt,
Tony Knott, Herb Lake, Charles Moore, and Mickey Yugovich.
He coached the Penguins for two seasons before World War II duty
as a Captain in the U.S. Air Force took him off the court and
overseas.
Upon his return from the war, Rosselli was very involved in YSU
athletics. Rosselli returned to full-time duty on the basketball
court as soon as he returned from the war.
He was an assistant coach on the football team before the war
and when he returned in 1946 he returned to his assistant's
position until 1963. He took over the Penguin baseball program and
was the coach from 1948-50. In 1958, he was back with the Penguin
baseball team and for the next 24 years was a fixture in the
dugout.
In the spring of 1948, Rosselli became the first baseball coach
in Youngstown State history and accumulated a 31-year career record
of 490-314. After three seasons, the baseball program was
discontinued, but baseball was reinstated in 1958 and Rosselli led
the Penguins to an 11-6 record and the NAIA District 22
championship. YSU repeated as district champions in 1959 with a
10-6 mark.
From 1969 to 1977, Rosselli led the Penguins to nine consecutive
20-win seasons, including a 26-8 record and an appearance in the
NCAA Division III Tournament in 1977. During that nine-year span,
the Penguins amassed a record of 199-101 for a winning percentage
of .663. In 1979, Rosselli recorded his 10th 20-win season with a
21-5 mark and collected his 11th and final 20- win campaign in 1982
with a 23-14 record.
Rosselli guided former major league pitcher and YSU Hall of
Famer Dave Dravecky to a four-year career record of 21-7, including
a 7-1 mark in 1977, and a career earned run average of 1.85. His
winning coaching ledger is a distant second to the person known as
"Coach", someone who ate and slept Youngstown State athletics and
always had time for anyone who requested time with him.
A native of Youngstown, Ohio, Rosselli attended Geneva College
and started in three sports. Rosselli led Geneva to a football
victory over Youngstown College in 1938, YSU's first season of
football. Upon graduation in 1939, Rosselli earned a master's
degree from the University of Pittsburgh and began his
well-documented coaching career at Youngstown State. He began as an
assistant football coach to the legendary late Dwight "Dike" Beede
and assistant basketball coach to Ray Sweeney before taking over
the reigns of the cage program in 1940-41.
His many coaching honors include the NCAA's District IV Coach of
the Year, and Ohio's College Coach of the Year, both in 1957 and
1964, and the Italian Coach of the Year.
Rosselli was named to the Curbstone Coaches Hall of Fame in
1978, and was named to the charter class of the Youngstown State
University Athletics Hall of Fame in 1985.
