Issue link: https://tmcpulse.uberflip.com/i/646815
t m c » p u l s e | m a r c h 2 0 1 6 10 Q | How much did your father's experience influence what you do today? A | In retrospect, quite substantially. I grew up essen- tially on a college campus, because my dad was the ath- letic director and head basketball coach at Providence College, so my brother and I would go to practices frequently and be around student athletes and around his team. He coached until 1979, which happened to be the first year that they went to the Final Four as well. 1979 was in Salt Lake City, Utah, and it was the infa- mous championship game between Michigan State WITH HOUSTON ONLY A MONTH AWAY FROM HOSTING THE NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL FINAL FOUR, DAN GAVITT, NCAA VICE PRESIDENT OF MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS, SPOKE WITH WILLIAM F. McKEON, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF STRATEGY AND OPERATING OFFICER OF THE TEXAS MEDICAL CENTER, ABOUT THE EXCITEMENT SURROUNDING THE GAMES AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR HOUSTON TO HAVE BEEN AWARDED TWO FINAL FOURS BEFORE THE FIRST HAD EVEN TAKEN PLACE. Q | First and foremost, tell us about where you were born and raised. A | I was born in Hyannis, Massachusetts—it's one of the special places of my life, and we have a family home in the Craigville Beach area and go back every summer. But I grew up in East Providence, Rhode Island, and lived there through high school before I went off to college at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. I then made my way back to Providence, not by any grand design, but that was just the way it worked out after graduation. SPOTLIGHT and Magic Johnson and Indiana State and Larry Bird. Certainly that is cool for me now being involved with the NCAA basketball championships, knowing that my love of it started then, as my dad went on to other things like starting the Big East Conference, his work with the NCAA basketball committee, his work with the Boston Celtics. We always had this connection professionally and passionately about things that we shared and loved—college sports and basketball being at the top of the list—so quite substantially I think he impacted my career aspirations.