Rick Pitino was born in New York City, and raised in nearby Bayville. The longtime coach’s basketball journey began as a player as he was the team captain of his high school basketball team, Saint Dominic, in Oyster Bay, Long Island.
A point guard, Pitino enrolled at the University of Massachusetts in 1970 and still ranks in top 10 in career assists for the Minutemen.
His coaching career started as a graduate assistant at the University of Hawaii in 1974.
After Bruce O’Neal was fired, Pitino became Hawaii’s interim head coach before moving on to Syracuse and working under Jim Boeheim as an assistant in 1976.
Pitino got his first head coaching gig with Boston University in 1978 and remained there until 1983 when he became an assistant coach for the New York Knicks under the legendary Hubie Brown.
After a short stint in the league, Pitino made his way back to the college coaching world as the head coach of Providence College, where he completely turned the program around and led the team to a miraculous 1987 Final Four appearance.
That led to his first NBA head coaching job with the New York Knicks. In another short but impactful stint, he led the Knickerbockers to their first division title in nearly two decades.
Pitino then bounced back to the college coaching carousel, becoming Kentucky’s head coach in 1989. As he’s done in most of his stops he quickly turned the program around.
Leaving the school to the Final Four in 1993 and eventually winning a national championship in 1996. He made a return trip to the NCAA Final, losing to the Mike Bibby led Arizona Wildcats in 1997.
Not one to let the grass grow under his feet, in 1997, he made his way back to the NBA as the head coach of the Boston Celtics. His tenure in Boston was a troubled one that lasted four seasons and ended with a 102-146 record. During one particular heated exchange with the media the “Larry Bird is not walking through that door” speech was born.
The winning coach’s next stop was the longest of his career, a decade and a half, as he again headed back to the college game and led the University of Louisville to a resurgence. Pitino led the Cardinals to their first Final Four in 19 years, becoming the first men’s coach in NCAA history to lead three different schools to the promised land. Pitino led Louisville to a national championship in 2013 becoming the first Division 1 coach to win a championship at two different schools, although the championship was later vacated due to a plethora of issues and violations.
At nearly every stop, Pitino has been a proven winner and a program transformer but scandals and major off the court issues have sometimes been part of the package.
After a high-stakes game of ‘You’re fired. No, I quit!,’ his run at Louisville came to an end and in December of 2018, he was announced as the head coach of Panathinaikos of the EuroLeague. In the 2018-19 season, Pitino led the team to the Greek Cup victory because, why not?
To add some March Madness to the docket, in March of 2020 Pitino was named the head coach of Iona college. Invariably, the team ranked ninth in the MAC conference but ran the table with four consecutive upsets to eventually reach the NCAA tournament. This feat made the legendary coach the third coach ever to lead five different schools to the Big Dance.
St. John’s billionaire booster Mike Repole has made it a point to bring seven- figure, high level NIL funding to the program in the attempt to assemble a top tier roster. In a massive attempt to return St. John’s to its 1980’s and 1990’s hoops glory, Pitino was named the head coach. Not surprisingly, a turnaround ensued, and that Johnnies are in the 2026 NCAA Tournament making noise.
As the Hall of Fame coach attempts to bring yet another chip to another college program, we want to go back and review his earliest cardboard, where his first piece was actually found…with chips.
During the 1988-89 season, Frito Lay released set of cards issued over two sheets. Intended to be torn away at the perforations, the set includes 15 players, including Patrick Ewing and some of the earliest cards of Mark Jackson and Rod Strickland, along with a card of Pitino.
The dapper coach is shown in his three-piece suit with a bright yellow tie, kneeling down hands clasped, with this full attention on the court. The cards have a thick white border with the old school Knicks logo at the bottom and the subject’s name in a yellow box.
The backs are grayscale, but with a small, red Frito Lay logo in the upper left-hand corner. The player’s name and basic biographical information is found at the top center followed underneath by his stats, separated with playoff numbers below. Pitino’s card offers a brief bio and his coaching record to date.
Collectors know how difficult it can be to cleanly remove a card from a perforated sheet. We’ve all put fingernail scratches, thumb marks and just flat out missed the mark in ripping cards apart, sometimes it’s so bad we end up making our own custom cards. The sheets themselves are a little awkward, as they are five cards across and three cards down, making it a little lengthy. The 15 cards set is accompanied by a 15 cent Frito Lay coupon, which is actually on the sheet directly above Pitino’s card.
With that being said, the PSA population report is almost non-existent, as only 11 total cards from this set have been graded. Three of those feature Pitino and none rank higher than a PSA 8, which stands as a difficult pop one.
Full sheets can be purchased on eBay for anywhere between $40 and $100, but even those are few and far between as there are never more than a handful of listings.
The young NBA coach was also featured in a 1988-89 New York Knicks postcard set. Only a four-card collection, the set also includes All Star center Patrick Ewing, as well as rookie. era appearances by all-time assist great Mark Jackson and the high-flying man of NBA Slam Dunk Contest fame, Kenny Walker.
Pitino is pictured again in his sharp, tailored suit, leaning in towards the court with his bright red tie flowing. The full bleed full color image is accompanied by a New York Knicks logo in the upper left hand corner of the card.
The back of the postcard is, as you might expect, a blank canvas ready to be mailed with a return address in the upper left-hand corner to the New York knacks headquarters at 4 Pennsylvania Plaza in New York, New York.
Who wouldn’t want to add a rookie Patino postcard to their PC pile? Although same see it as an afterthought, they aren’t the easiest pieces to get sent to your mailbox as a quick eBay search generally shows nothing and we’ve seen people on other sites asking for them. We aren’t saying they’re going to make you rich, but it might be worth putting a few aside if you ever come across them, especially the Ewing and Pitino cards. Steiner Sports does have one of the latter listed now, with a personalized Pitino autograph on the back.
If a snack product or postcard weren’t enough for you, you could also get a rookie Rick Pitino sticker when he appeared in the 1988-89 Panini Spanishset as sticker number 34. The coach is shown in a gray suit with his dark tie and his hand outstretched, yelling instructions to a player or yelling at an official.
The sticker design is very basic with a thin white border, which is heavier at the bottom where the sticker number coach’s name and team name is found in brackets.
The card back, written in Spanish, mentions the Panini Basketball NBA set at the top, as well as the card number in a rectangular box. There’s an address listed at the middle of the design and the Panini logo is found near the bottom of the sticker.
The small stickers, measuring 2 inches by 2 and 5/8 inches, are part of a pretty comprehensive 292 item NBA set. Player photos are typically a portrait photoshoot image. Rookie era stickers of John Stockton, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman and others are found in this fun offering. High grade copies of these iconic rookies sell for hundreds of dollars, especially in high grade condition.
So, there you have it, as March Madness is in full effect, you can celebrate by adding any of three rookie year Rick Pitino options to your own bracket for just a few dollars…as long as you can find them.
