NJ has lost a coaching giant in Mike Granelli; there won't be another

Mike Granelli won more college basketball games as a head coach in New Jersey than anyone else, ever, at any level – 607 victories over 32 years at Saint Peter’s.

Yet the Hoboken native and longtime Bradley Beach resident, who died last week at age 87 and will be laid to rest Friday, viewed himself as a teacher first.

“He was all over his players’ grades – you didn’t get good grades, you didn’t play,” son Kevin Granelli said. “My father had a real contract with them: You play for me and I’m going to get you an education. He would get progress reports from their teachers every week. If you were too sick to go to class, you had to report to the trainer’s office (for an evaluation). His biggest accomplishment was being a mentor.”

If that seems old school, it’s the tip of the iceberg. There will never be another Mike Granelli. He actually tallied 770 college coaching victories – 163 as the head coach of Saint Peter’s men’s soccer program from 1970-1989. He took the reins of the basketball program’s reins in 1972, at the start of the Title IX era that launched women’s sports, and held both jobs simultaneously for 17 years while teaching history and physical education in the Hoboken school district.

Mike Granelli at Saint Peter's

“Things were different then – recruiting wasn’t what it is today,” said Rich Ensor, who served as a student-manager on Granelli’s soccer and basketball teams and later became commissioner of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. “But he did a remarkable job doing that type of coaching while switching between two sports.”

In 1972, women’s basketball was barely removed from archaic 6-on-6 rules where three guards and three forwards were confined to separate halves of the court. Recruiting primarily from high schools in Hudson County, Granelli put teams on the court that played a polar-opposite brand of ball. He helped grow the game into a full-court endeavor.

“He had an ability to identify players who would fit into his system – very aggressive defense and fast break offense,” Ensor said. “He knew how to develop players and that’s why he was so successful.”

At first, the college didn’t even have a gym for his hoops team to practice in – the Yanitelli Center opened in 1975. But Granelli’s record speaks for itself: Over 32 seasons he posted a mark of 607-249 (.709), with 10 MAAC regular-season titles, nine MAAC tourney crowns and seven NCAA Tournament appearances. He retired in 2004, and no Saint Peter’s women’s basketball coach has posted a winning record since.