Mike Tranghese always had a place to escape to.

No matter what went right or wrong, the Big East commissioner could pick up the golf clubs that seem to permanently reside in the trunk of his car and head to his local country club. The constancy and routine of the game were simple, soothing and comforting.

Nearly every day, either before of after work, Tranghese would head to the driving range. On weekends he’d play at least 18 holes. And when the country club didn’t provide enough of an escape, he’d find a course that did. He’s played America’s top courses, including Augusta and Pebble Beach. His office is adorned with two giant posters of his favorite courses. And when even those didn’t provide enough distance from his everyday concerns, Ireland and Scotland’s majestic masterpieces provided a challenge.

Tranghese has been overseas five times on golf trips, playing at Turnberry and St. Andrews with a group of eight that includes Syracuse men’s basketball coach Jim Boeheim, Maryland basketball coach Gary Williams, former Boston Celtic John Havlicek and the Big East’s first commissioner, David Gavitt. The group plays 36 holes a day on their European excursions. Tranghese has even adopted a golfer’s mind-set, stoically facing the good as well as the bad.

Last summer, though, even his beloved hobby couldn’t clear Tranghese’s mind. Bunkers and lakes weren’t major hazards when compared with the defections of Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College to the Atlantic Coast Conference.

‘I didn’t get too play much, and when I did, I wasn’t very good,’ Tranghese said. ‘I was occupied in my thoughts 24 hours a day. It wasn’t going to affect just me. It was going to affect all the people in the office. It wasn’t fun going to work.’

Tranghese was affected off the course as well. Gavitt is one of Tranghese’s closest friends and still lives near the conference’s Providence, R.I., headquarters. While Gavitt knew Tranghese was busy last summer, he would call once a week to check in and offer support. When he looked at Tranghese on television, he saw tired eyes and sagging shoulders. When Gavitt talked to him on the phone, he heard a weary voice.

‘Mike was beaten down pretty good by all of it,’ Gavitt said. ‘Everything was done so publicly, and no one came out looking very good.’

In 1990, the Big East brought Miami into the conference to appease the football schools, and Tranghese was hailed as a genius. Pundits across the country claimed he’d saved the conference by providing the Big East with a perennial national title contender. Thirteen years later, when Miami bolted, bringing Virginia Tech and Boston College with it, Tranghese was criticized for lack of foresight and allowing the situation to deteriorate so rapidly.

But Tranghese and the rest of the Big East officials sensed the impending disaster. Tranghese said the only way to keep the Big East intact with Miami would have been to entice Miami to stay by bringing in a comparatively powerful football program. He said the Big East discussed the possibility with a number of other programs, but in each case the teams showed no inclination to switch conferences.

When the Big East decided not to extend an invitation to Penn State in 1981, Tranghese warned that the conference would someday regret it.

‘I learned a long time ago, you never get too high and you never get too low,’ Tranghese said. ‘You don’t have to be a genius to read the tea leaves.’

Syracuse director of athletics Jake Crouthamel said Tranghese doesn’t get enough credit for his fortune-telling.

‘One of the things that’s not well known about Mike is that he always felt strongly that football was the issue for the Big East,’ he said. ‘We started as a basketball conference, but he always saw football as the key. He realized before most that football was pulling the wagon.’

It was difficult for Tranghese to face the onslaught of attention. He’s never been comfortable in the public spotlight. During his first few years as commissioner, Tranghese bragged to his co-workers about never having his picture printed in a newspaper, so they sent the Providence Journal a photo, asking them to run it.

‘If I could avoid having my name and picture in a newspaper again, I’d be a happy man,’ Tranghese said.

When Connecticut won its national championship this year – beating a team from the ACC in a very satisfying finale – Tranghese dodged the cameras during the postgame celebration, venturing on the court to congratulate UConn’s head coach Jim Calhoun after he was certain the attention was centered elsewhere.

And as much as Tranghese hated the focus on the conference expansion, he hates to talk about one thing even more.

‘He’s not really looking forward to this interview,’ Big East Associate Commissioner for Communications John Paquette warned. ‘He doesn’t like talking about himself.’

He’s spent much of his life aiming to center publicity on others. Besides captaining the golf team at St. Michaels College, Tranghese served as sports editor for the school’s paper. After graduating, he worked as the sports information director at Providence, developing a strategy that would net two Friars – point guard Ernie DeGregorio and power forward Marvin Barnes – All-America honors during his first two years on the job.

At PC, he also met Gavitt. When Gavitt was selected as the Big East’s first commissioner, he brought Tranghese along with him.

‘At that age, being as young as I was, you can’t pay for that experience,’ Tranghese said. ‘There was a special level of excitement. Not too many people know this, but Dave was more of a figurehead for the first three years.’

But Tranghese’s career didn’t begin by riding Gavitt’s coattails. It began with him running the conference.

Gavitt symbolized the strength of the Big East in his imposing credentials – he was an Olympic coach, a Final Four coach with Providence and later the Boston Celtics’ general manger. But during his first three years as commissioner, beginning in 1979, he also served as Providence’s athletic director and rarely made it to the conference offices.

Gavitt may have set the conference’s course, but it was Tranghese that did the paddling. Gavitt and Tranghese brainstormed the idea of a Monday ‘Game of the Week,’ which later turned into ESPN’s Big Monday and placed as many games on television as they could.

Tranghese’s expert manner in handling members of the television media led to numerous job offers, but he was content to remain in Gavitt’s shadow and ensure the Big East’s future.

‘Dave had the vision to create the Big East,’ Boeheim said. ‘But Mike was there to do all the nuts and bolts work.’

Tranghese was one of three employees during the conference’s first year, along with Gavitt and a secretary. The Big East now consists of 17 workers, and Tranghese’s skill in fielding a capable staff is among his most lauded qualities.

Associate commissioner Tom Odjakjian used to work as a programming coordinator at ESPN, and Stan Wilcox has a legal degree and an intricate knowledge of the NCAA’s compliance rules.

‘He’s surrounded himself with capable people,’ Crouthamel said. ‘He knows a lot of people in the industry. By industry, I mean in the electronic media industry, the commissioner industry and the athletic industry.’

Tranghese was, and still is, the first to arrive to work, settling in at 8:30 a.m. Those first three years, his tasks ranged from the most meaningful to the most menial. He’d begin the day by stuffing envelopes, pausing to take a call from NBC’s director of programming. After running off some photocopies and marching the envelopes off to the mailroom, he’d check in on a couple of athletic directors.

Last summer was Tranghese’s busiest since those early days. He debated stepping down as commissioner when the football and basketball schools appeared ready to separate. He fought both public relations and courtroom battles against the ACC.

‘That day had to come, it had to happen,’ Boeheim said. ‘He’s had to face some tremendous challenges in keeping this league together, especially with this latest excursion into the unknown. To get through this and still have a league like ours, Mike’s proven himself to be the best of all college commissioners at balancing the needs of basketball and football.’

With the sporting needs balanced for the time being, Tranghese hopes to spend the summer getting himself balanced as well.

Said Tranghese: ‘I just hope I’ll have a lot more time to play (golf) this summer.’

Published on April 26, 2004 at 12:00 pm