Jim Crowley poses with St. Bonaventure President Dr. Jeff Gingerich, his wife Monti, his daughter Jocelyn and Director of Athletics Joe Manhertz.
Dylan Nuzzo/GoBonnies
BY: JONNY WALKER, MANAGING EDITOR
In January, Jim Crowley received a phone call from Steve Campbell, a senior administrator in St. Bonaventure University’s athletics department.
Bonaventure had begun a national search for its next women’s basketball head coach. Intuitively, Campbell consulted Crowley, the winningest coach in program history and leader of the Bonnies from 2000 to 2016.
Crowley said Campbell ran through a handful of potential candidates before getting to the last name on his list.
“And then he said ‘I have to ask.’ And he barely got the question out [asking if I was interested in the position] before I said, ‘Yep.’ And that got it going,” Crowley recalled at his introductory press conference.
After earning three Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year awards, an ESPN.com National Coach of the Year award and the sixth most wins in the history of Atlantic 10 women’s basketball, Crowley left Bonaventure for Providence College and the more prestigious Big East Conference. After seven seasons, Crowley and Providence officially parted ways on March 7.
On Monday, university leaders hosted an open press conference in the Doyle Conference Center, reintroducing Crowley as head coach.
“They [family and friends] told me from the day I left that it was a mistake,” Crowley said. “They’ve told me every day since, and they’ve been loving the last week of reminding me.”
Prominently displayed behind the podium from which Crowley addressed the crowd of nearly fifty people was a banner that read “Welcome home.”
“This place is family,” Crowley said. “It is interwoven in all that I am. To come back here and be part of this community, be part of this school, be part of this program is heavy in the best possible way.”
Crowley shared the podium with Jeff Gingerich, university president, and Joe Manhertz, director of athletics.
Both Gingerich and Manhertz joined Bonaventure more than five years after Crowley left in 2016. But both said they knew of Crowley through his lasting impressions on members of the Bonaventure community and the records he set.
“The outpouring of people who said ‘If you can’t get Jim, get somebody like Jim’ was incredible as soon as we announced the transition,” Gingerich said. “That said a lot [about Jim’s character].”
Manhertz, who headed Bonaventure’s national head-coaching search, said he met Crowley at a Bonnies game in Rhode Island.
“Knowing what he [Crowley] meant to this program — and understanding what he did and how we accomplished it — was really important for us and just tells me that he fits [at Bonaventure].”
In 2015-2016, Crowley’s last season as Bonnies head coach, the team drew an average home crowd of 879 people. Last season, that figure had fallen to 196.
“I want people to want to come see us again,” Crowley said. “Because we play hard. And we play together. And we represent this great community — great university — the way it should be.”
Across seven seasons at Providence, Crowley won just 25% of his conference games. Despite experiencing less success in the Big East, Crowley said he doesn’t regret taking the job at Providence.
“It was the right time for me to take the opportunity,” Crowley said. “It was the right time for our family … and it made me a better coach. I got to meet some incredible people [at Providence] … and have some great opportunities.”
Crowley said coaching in the Big East satisfied a personal and career goal for him, but it left him longing for Western New York.
“The Big East was the Big East, and I had my shot,” Crowley said. “And Providence is a great place. But something was missing … This is my home. I know this place. I love this place.”
Exactly seven years to the day before Crowley’s re-introductory press conference — on March 13, 2016 — the Bonnies received their last NCAA Tournament selection.
“A group of folks sat over in the Hall of Fame, hoping we were going to get into the NCAA Tournament,” Crowley remembered. “And we were pretty sure … but never knew. And then our name popped up.”
Seven years later, Crowley vowed to restore the national prominence he once brought to Bonnies women’s basketball.
walkerjc20@bonaventure.edu
