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  1. The Foundation
  2. THE TORCH

By Aaren Rigor and Elena Woodruff

NCAA March Madness – Ellis Island Connections

As we enter the Final Four of the NCAA March Madness Tournament, here at the Foundation, we wanted to showcase basketball standouts including Bob Cousy, Michael Krzyzewski, Jennifer Rizzotti and Pete Maravich who all have a connection to Ellis Island.

See below to learn more about the family legacies of these star athletes and coaches. Visit out Passenger Search database HERE to take a closer look at the manifests of these notable names, and be sure to check out your own family’s history.  

Bob Cousy

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Bob Cousy (b. 1928) was raised in St. Albans, Queens by WWI Veteran Joseph Cousy and Juliet Cousy. Growing up in the multicultural neighborhood, Bob picked up basketball and became hooked by age 13. From there, he attended Holy Cross University in Worcester, Massachusetts where he was the third highest scorer, helping his team win the 1947 NCAA Tournament. He finished his college career as the leading scorer for three years in a row and declared for the NBA draft in 1950.  

Our experts at the Family History Center discovered that Bob’s  maternal grandfather, Clement Corlet, arrived in the US in 1890. Clement married Marie Corlet in New York City where they had Juliet Corlet, before the family returned to France. Juliet became a French teacher and she met her husband, WWI Veteran Joseph Cousy. The couple relocated back to New York in 1927, and Bob was born in August 1928.  

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1890 manifest of Clement Corlet 

Michael Krzyzewski

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Michael Krzyzewski (b.1947) was born in Chicago, Illinois in a family of Polish ancestry. His grandfather on his mother’s side, Josef Pituch, immigrated to the US to work in the Pennsylvania coalmoines before moving his family to a Polish neighborhood in Chicago. 

While attending West Point University, Krzyzewski played as point guard but is better known as Coach K of the Duke Blue Devils. Before ending his 42-year coaching career, he attained the status of coach with the most wins in D1 basketball history. He is the first coach to achieve 1,000 wins.  

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Jennifer Rizzotti

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Jennifer Rizzotti (b. 1974) attended the University of Connecticut from 1992 to 1996 and kickstarted the school’s winning legacy. Alongside teammate, Rebecca Lobo, she led an undefeated Huskies team and Hall of Fame Head Coach, Geno Aureimma, to their first NCAA Championship title in 1995. A year later in 1996, Rizzotti was awarded Big East Co-Rookie of the Year, the Wade Trophy, Associated Press Women’s College Basketball Player of the Year, the Donda Sports Award for basketball, and the Honda-Broderick Cup for all sports.  

She later became the D1 coach at George Washington University and was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013.   

Rizzotti’s father, Eli, was a carpenter who immigrated from Italy to the US in December 1905.  

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Pete Maravich

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Pete Maravich (b. 1947, d. 1988) boasted advanced skills at the early age of 7 and would become an All-American High School player alongside Lew Alcindor (later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar). His stardom would reach household renown when his college career began, joining his father at LSU in 1967. As a first-year student he was ineligible to play varsity basketball but was immediately an impact player. He would claim the title of NCAA scoring champion for three consecutive years (1968-1970), scoring an unprecedented 69 points in a single game, and was the NCAA’s total scoring leader with 3,667 points a record that stood for 50 years. He did all this without the inclusion of the three-point shot and when his first year’s points were not credited. Unfortunately, his team would never see a championship berth in the college playoffs, only placing 4th in the 1970 NIT. He was honored with a statue at LSU in 2022. 

Grandson of Serbian immigrants, his grandfather Vasil Marevic came into the country in 1903, settling in Pennsylvania before tragically passing away in an accident. His son, Petar “Press” Maravich was a player turned coach that instilled the love of basketball and rigorous discipline into that would lay the groundwork for his son’s greatness.   

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Some of the most promising basketball talents have emerged from NCAA tournaments past and present, victorious or otherwise, and have gone on to achieve further greatness.

We celebrate their stories and encourage everyone to visit our Passenger Search database HERE to find out more about your own family’s legacy.