Hall of Fame
In 1989, Mr. Bob Rukavina was named Pitt-Johnstown’s head men’s basketball coach and over the last 34 years he has built his Mountain Cats into a nationally-recognized program and one of the top teams in the NCAA Division II Atlantic Region year after year.
After the Mountain Cats saw just four winning seasons between 1969 and 1987, Mr. Rukavina has completely turned the program around.
Mr. Rukavina, Pitt-Johnstown’s all-time winningest men’s basketball coach with a current record of 546-368 overall record, has guided the Mountain Cats to four NCAA Regional Tournament berths and nine 20-win seasons, including four in a row from 2005-2009, and back-to-back in 2019-20 and 2021-22.
In 1996-97, Mr. Rukavina led Pitt-Johnstown to a 21-6 record and the program’s first ever NCAA Regional Tournament appearance, before going a program-best 24-5 record and earning second consecutive NCAA Tournament bid a year later. That season, the Mountain Cats advanced to the East Regional Semifinals and suffered a one-point loss to eventual Regional Champion Fairmont State (W.Va.) College.
After earning the Independent Coach of the Year Award and coaching Chris Gilliam, the Independent Player of the year in 2005-06, Mr. Rukavina and Pitt-Johnstown became members of the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC) in 2007. That year, Pitt-Johnstown went 23-8 record and won the WVIAC regular season title with a 17-3 conference record. Rukavina, the 2007-08 WVIAC Coach of the Year, also led the Mountain Cats to their third NCAA Tournament appearance. In 2008-09, Pitt-Johnstown won the WVIAC Tournament title and advanced to its second straight and fourth overall NCAA Tournament.
Pitt-Johnstown then joined Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) to begin the 2013-14 season, where Mr. Rukavina, the PSAC West Coach of the Year in both 2015-16 and 2018-19, has guided the Mountain Cats to seven consecutive conference tournament berths, and five trips to the conference quarterfinals, including three straight from 2019, 2020, and 2022. The 2022-23 season will mark the eighth straight trip to the PSAC Tournament for the Mountain Cats.
In 1998-99, Pitt-Johnstown finished the regular season ranked fifth in the country. The Mountain Cats also tied the school record for wins in the regular season, duplicating the 23-4 mark set in 1997-98. Pitt-Johnstown posted an 87-23 record (.791 winning percentage) between 1996 and 2000. 1999-00 also marked the program’s sixth straight winning season.
His squad led the nation in field goal percentage in 2008 and 2010 and was the best three-point field goal shooting team in all of college basketball in 2012-13 and 2013-14.
In his tenure, Pitt-Johnstown has had four players lead the NCAA in statistical categories on six different occasions. Several his players receive accolades ranging from All-American (John Paul Kromka), All-American Honorable Mention (Chris Gilliam) to All-Region performers. Nine former Mountain Cats have continued their basketball careers at the professional level in various countries.
Academically, well over 90% of his student-athletes have earned their degrees, a statistic that will stand up to nearly any institution in the nation.
In 2004, Mr. Rukavina was selected to be an instructor with former NBA Coach of the Year Jack McKinney at the MedQuest Coaching Clinic in Beirut, Lebanon, and prior to that, he coached an all-star team that traveled to Madrid and Vigo, Spain in the summer of 1998.
Mr. Rukavina, a 1985 graduate of Indiana University (PA) with a degree in Health and Physical Education, his wife Sharon, and son Nicholas, a current Pitt-Johnstown student, reside in Lower Burrell.
“I have spent well over half of my life here at Pitt-Johnstown, and I am truly honored to join such an elite group of athletes and coaches in our Hall of Fame,” Mr. Rukavina said.
