Phil Martelli Biography | Phil Martelli
Phil Martelli(full name: Philip Martelli Sr). is an American college basketball coach and the former coach of the Saint Joseph’s Hawks men’s basketball team. He led Saint Joseph’s to seven NCAA Tournaments and six NITs in 24 seasons as head coach.
Phil Martelli Age
Phil is 64 years old as of 2018. He was born on 31 August 1954, in Media, Pennsylvania, United States
Phil Martelli Son
Phil Martelli, Jr., a 2003 graduate of Saint Joseph’s, returns to the University and enters his first season as director of men’s basketball program administration in 2017-18.
He joined the Saint Joseph’s staff after spending the 2016-17 season as an assistant coach with the Delaware 87ers, the affiliate of the Philadelphia 76ers in the NBA Developmental League.
The oldest son of Hawk head coach Phil Martelli, Martelli, Jr., and his wife Meghan have two children, Philip Stephen and Marra.
Phil Martelli Wife
Martelli is married to the former Judy Marra, who played on two national championship basketball teams at Immaculata College. In 2014, Marra was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
His wife name is Judy Martelli
Phil Martelli Playing career
Phil was a point guard for Widener University. As a point guard, he was part of the NCAA Division III Tournament teams in 1974-75 and 1975–76 and set the school’s single-season and career assist marks.
Phil Martelli Image
Phil Martelli Career at Saint Joseph’s
Phil began his career on Hawk Hill with SJU’s 1985-86 NCAA Tournament team. In his decade as an assistant, he was part of the Hawks’ NIT teams in 1992-93 and 1994-95. After 10 years as an assistant under Jim Boyle and John Griffin, Martelli was named the 14th coach in school history on July 20, 1995, and just the third non-alumnus to coach the school.
In his first season as head coach (1995–96), his team reached the final game of the NIT Tournament. In his second year, under the floor generalship of Junior point guard Rashid Bey, and help from Arthur “Yah” Davis and Dmitri Domani, Martelli’s Hawks captured the Atlantic 10 crown and made it into the Sweet Sixteen round of the NCAA tournament.
They would not duplicate that success until landing future Naismith College Player of the Year Jameer Nelson and former NBA players Delonte West and Dwayne Jones. With Nelson as a point guard, he led the 2003-04 Hawks to the greatest season in school history.
The Hawks went 27-0 regular season. The Hawks lost to Xavier in the Atlantic 10 Tournament, and reached the Elite Eight, ultimately losing to Oklahoma State to finish with a record of 30-2.
This is “officially” the deepest run that St. Joseph’s has ever made in the tournament; the 1960-61 team went all the way to the Final Four and won the third-place game, but that run was scrubbed from the books due to a gambling scandal. That year, Martelli was named Naismith College Coach of the Year.
In 2004-05, Phil led the Hawks back to the final game of the NIT, where they lost to South Carolina. During the season, Martelli won his 235th game on Hawk Hill, passing Hall of Famer Jack Ramsay as the winningest coach in school history.
In 2005-06, the Hawks returned to the NIT, eventually losing to Hofstra University. In 2008, Martelli led Saint Joseph’s to its first NCAA Tournament since 2004 with a team led by Pat Calathes and Ahmad Nivins.
In 2014, the Hawks returned to the NCAA Tournament after winning their second Atlantic 10 Championship under Martelli, led by Langston Galloway, Ronald Roberts, and Halil Kanacević. The Hawks went on to lose in overtime to the eventual 2013-14 National Champion Connecticut Huskies in the Second Round of the Tournament.
In 2007, his first book Don’t Call Me Coach: A Lesson Plan For Life was published. Students at SJU often say “In Martelli We Trust” about their beloved basketball coach. He has a weekly show during the basketball season called Hawk Talk which discusses the standing of the university and the basketball team.
In October 2008, Phil signed a contract extension at St. Joe’s through the 2015-16 season. Martelli also surpassed Hawk legend Dr. Jack Ramsay for second among SJU coaches in wins 2008. Martelli has won the most postseason games of any Hawk coach and his teams.
In December 2011, Phil was referenced in an article on SI.com in which former player Todd O’Brien detailed his side of a story about his former coach holding a grudge. O’Brien had applied for a graduate student waiver, where he was allowed to transfer to pursue a post-graduate degree in a field not offered by their original institution, but SJU would not release him to play.
The NCAA denied O’Brien’s appeal and SJU was legally unable to comment on the details of the case. Phil refused to honor O’Brien’s request and kept him in his contract for undisclosed reasons. Martelli was characterized by most reporters as being unreasonable about this for holding a grudge against O’Brien.
With a win against Morgan State in 2011, Martelli became the all-time winningest coach in Saint Joseph’s history with his 310th victory.
Phil has also lost more games than any coach in Saint Joseph’s history, eclipsing Bill Ferguson’s 208 losses in 25 seasons. He has lost 241 games in 18+ seasons at Saint Joseph’s as of December 8, 2013.
In December 2013, after two disappointing losses to Big 5 Rivals Temple and Villanova several alumni launched a Petition to fire Phil Martelli due to what many consider to be several seasons of mediocre play and a failure to meet the expectation. The website contained a letter to Phil Martelli applauding his achievements and his representation of the university but imploring him to resign.
This website quickly lost credibility when the majority of “signers” were anonymous and worse when the signatures of some well-known long-term SJU supporters were forged onto the site that had no system in place to verify the identity of the signer.
The site was taken down after Saint Joseph’s won the 2014 Atlantic 10 Championship with the season’s second victory over VCU.
Saint Joe’s announced October 29, 2015, that Martelli received another contract extension (though the terms of the deal were not immediately released). On March 13, 2016, Martelli claimed his second A-10 title in 3 years as the Hawks defeated VCU 87-74 in the 2016 Atlantic 10 Championship.
On March 19, 2019, Director of Athletics Jill Bodensteiner announced that the university had let go of Martelli, ending his 24-year tenure as head coach. On June 3, 2019, Martelli accepted a position as an assistant coach at University of Michigan. Read Also Nick Collison
Phil Martelli Salary, Net Worth
The 2003-04 season at St. Joseph’s was fun as the Hawks blew through the A-10 en route to a No. 1 seed in March, with head coach Phil Martelli racking up national Coach of the Year awards.
Unfortunately, St. Joe’s has one tournament appearance and has not finished better than fifth in the A-10 standings since.
Martelli’s 17 years as a coach have produced the 2004 Elite Eight berth and another Sweet Sixteen appearance but has only seen 300 wins.
The St. Joe’s lifer cannot keep up in a dangerous conference and is wildly overrated as a superior coach.
College Basketball Coaching Salaries: Price per Win
The topic of paying college athletes or giving student-athletes the ability to be compensated in excess of their currently-received academic package is a current hot topic for debate. One thing is for certain, coaches don’t have to worry about that.
In their annual story during the NCAA Tournament, USA Today raises awareness on the salaries of the coaches who played in the Field of 68. Shocking no one, Villanova’s head coach Jay Wright is among the top paid.
According to their report, Wright will make just under an estimated $2.5 million for the 2013-14 season. That is based on “the university’s most recently available federal income tax return”. They added that “nearly all of Wright’s income for the 2011 calendar year was in the form of base compensation, listed as $2,451,265”.
But, how far does that money get you? Paying heaps doesn’t guarantee trips to the NCAA Tournament. Georgetown will pay John Thompson III $2.7 million this season and the Hoyas lost in the second round of the NIT Tournament.
But values exist- Brad Underwood at Stephen F. Austin is only making $200,000 this season and delivered 32 wins for the Lumberjacks- that’s only $6,250 per victory. Dayton’s run to the Elite 8 under Archie Miller will only cost the school just under $13k per win.
In Contrast, even though Mike Krzyzewski guided the Blue Devils to 26 wins in 2014, Duke is still paying $372k per win. Kansas and Kentucky are also paying close to $200k per win this season under Bill Self and John Calipari. Georgetown paid $150,000 for each of their 18 wins.
Turning the scope on Villanova, in the pool of coaches in this year’s NCAA Tournament, Jay Wright had the 12th highest salary. However, the school paid the 18th most per victory at $85,839.
Here are how the coaches in the 2014 NCAA Tournament are getting paid and how it breaks down per win.
Phil Martelli Grandson
The NCAA tournament has its first breakout star. And unlike many of the one-and-does who shine in March, this one will have his eligibility until 2032.
Philip Martelli, the four-year-old grandson of St. Joseph’s coach Phil Martelli, stole the show during the TBS telecast of St. Joe’s second-round game against Connecticut. Philip has gained national attention in recent days for standing in aisles and imitating his grandfather’s sideline mannerisms during games.
Midway through the second half, with his grandpa’s team holding a two-point lead, Philip stood for a live interview with Allie LaForce.
The kid’s a natural. Shoot, most adults wouldn’t be that comfortable on camera. He looks like he’s been on TV his whole life — which, at this point, has been about as long as Aaron Craft’s college career.
March 13, 2015
On Thursday, while Philip Stephen’s 5-year-old classmates were studying the letter T (his favorite T words are turtle and taxi), he attended the A-10 tournament at Barclays Center, dressed in a custom suit created by the tailor of St. Joseph’s Coach Phil Martelli, Philip Stephen’s grandfather.
Phil Martelli’s grandson is a fixture at Hawks games, where he mimics the coach’s motions, like rubbing his hand under his chin or standing with his arms folded. Phil Martelli, who has won 375 games, is Philip Stephen’s idol. And since Philip Stephen’s family moved in with Phil and his wife, Judy, in 2011, the grandson has mellowed the coach and provided a salve for family sadness.
“I’ve noticed a little bit of a change in him,” Judy Martelli said of her husband. “One of the game days, I had to laugh because he was playing hide and seek. That would have never happened when our children were growing up.”
Since 1995, when Phil Martelli was hired at St. Joseph’s, he has had certain steadfast habits, like working out at the same time and laying out his clothes in a particular way.
His wife, who played on the Immaculata College team that won the first women’s basketball national championship, in 1972, knew to stay away from him before games.
One day, Philip Stephen entered Phil’s room as he was preparing for a game. Judy chased after him, but Phil allowed his grandson to stay. Philip Stephen sat nearby, memorizing how his grandfather tied his shoes and what order he put his clothes on.
“From that day, he did exactly the same thing in the same order,” Judy Martelli said.
For St. Joseph’s second-round game against St. Bonaventure on Thursday, a 60-49 loss that ended the Hawks’ season at 13-18, Philip Stephen, one of five grandchildren, wore a pink tie (as his grandfather did) and a pink handkerchief, given to him by his father, Phil Jr., an assistant coach at Delaware.
Philip Stephen rode with the team on the bus to Brooklyn on Wednesday, and on the trip from the team hotel to the arena before Thursday’s game. He brought along a drawing that spelled out various A-10 teams and a dry-erase board, so he could concoct plays while his grandfather did the same on the bench.
Before the game, while watching his favorite players, including DeAndre’ Bembry and Chris Wilson, warm up, Philip Stephen held court on a variety of subjects.
The boy calls his grandfather Tug, which stands for The Unnamed Grandfather — the grandchildren originally could not think of a proper nickname. Philip Stephen wants to become a construction worker one day.
Philip Stephen, who plays basketball in a Y.M.C.A. recreational league, was also adamant that he preferred his grandfather’s St. Joseph’s Hawks to his father’s Delaware Blue Hens.
“They’re my first favorite team,” he said. “Delaware’s my second.”
At last year’s A-10 tournament, Philip Stephen became a star after television cameras captured him in action. In the days afterward, he was interviewed during St. Joseph’s N.C.A.A. tournament run and on various television newscasts.
Although he now speaks eloquently and with precision — as when he tells his grandmother when he has to use the bathroom — Philip Stephen was not always so loquacious.
Judy Martelli said that when he was 2, a family pediatrician questioned his verbal capabilities, but soon after he started speaking in more complete sentences and with a bigger vocabulary.
Since then, Philip Stephen’s words have often helped heal the family.
In 2013, over a five-week span, Phil’s sister and sister-in-law died. This past year, both of Judy’s parents died.
“They bring a smile to your face,” Judy Martelli said. “The kids would be there and say things to you like, ‘Nanny’s in heaven now.’ It just makes you feel a little better, put things in perspective.”
Phil Jr.; his wife, Meghan; and their 2-year-old daughter, Marra, did not attend Thursday’s games. So Philip Stephen sat with his grandmother, eating french fries in between the folded-arm poses.
During timeouts on Thursday, Philip Stephen danced to St. Joseph’s fight song and yelled, “Miss it!” to Bonnies on the free-throw line. After a jump-ball call that Phil Martelli thought should have been a foul on St. Bonaventure, Philip Stephen extended his arms in disbelief.
After the game, the grandson followed the coach into the interview room, both having removed their suit jackets. Philip Stephen shook the hand of St. Bonaventure Coach Mark Schmidt and congratulated him on the victory.
“His parents deserve a lot of credit for the way he’s been raised — and the players don’t blink,” Phil Martelli said of his grandson’s presence around the team. “I appreciate that.”
Phil admitted that before Philip Stephen and family moved in, he often put his team first and his family second, but now the dynamic is balanced.
“I wasn’t crazy about how aggressive I went at some of the players,” he said. “He and his sister take the edge off game day for me.”
He added: “Some of the things are small things. Like when I came out of the locker room, I said, ‘How are you doing?’ and he said, ‘I’m not doing good because we don’t play tomorrow.’ You’re trying to do this for more than just the players in the locker room.”
As Phil, his wife and their grandson walked toward the St. Joseph’s locker room and eventually the team bus, Philip Stephen peppered his grandfather with questions.
“Is there a team meal?”
“Yes,” the coach replied.
“When’s your first game next year?” Philip Stephen asked. “Are you still going to be a coach?”
“Yes,” Martelli answered. “I am.”
Phil Martelli Father
Hawk Hill won’t be quite the same without Pops Martelli, Phil’s dad. Mike Jensen. Philip E. Martelli, father of the St. Joseph’s basketball coach.
St. Joseph’s had just beaten Davidson. A news conference had broken up, his son doing the talking. Pops wasn’t in the room, but out in the narrow hallway outside the Hawks’ locker room, the first person anyone saw, leaving the news conference or the locker room.
Even going the other way, anyone who saw him stopped and pivoted, stepped toward him. That was one of Philip E. Martelli’s great gifts. He drew people toward him, just with a familiar grin, a few words. Everyone’s first step was toward him.
It really had little to do with being the father of the coach.
“I used to measure my team in a lot of ways in how they interacted with my father, and how they interacted with little kids,” said Martelli, the Hawks coach since 1995.
The son was talking the day after his father died Wednesday at age 87. Around Hawk Hill, they all called the father “Pops,” and he was always around games or practices. There would be times Phil Martelli would see his father in the stands during a practice and he’d be gone before they even talked.
“My father retired from DuPont the day I got the [head coaching] job at Joe’s because he knew what he was going to do,” Martelli said.
A Bartram High graduate and Air Force veteran, Pops had worked at DuPont as a chemist assistant in Grays Ferry for 42 years, missing one day of work. A sure sign of how often he’d be missing on Hawk Hill.
Bob Hughes, now the coach at Rosemont College, showed up in 1999 as a freshman manager.
“He had a certain cadence, how are you doing?” Hughes said. “Thank you. He always emphasized the thank in ‘thank you.’ Everything about him encapsulated what it meant to be at St. Joe’s. I sat right near him on the bus on the road trips. It was always about you with him, it was never about him.”
And it was never about his son, Hughes said. The father never judged, Hughes said, where you fell on the program’s totem pole, from Jameer Nelson to walk-on to manager.
“It was an incredible gift,” Hughes said. “He gave it not just to me, but to the hundreds of people who have gone through the program.”
Back in those days, St. Joe’s had some funky travel arrangements, Hughes said. For the St. Bonaventure game, the team would fly to Buffalo and the team bus would go up and meet the players, drive the two hours down to Olean, then be there to drive back to Philly right after the game.
“Pops used to ride up to Buffalo with Pat the bus driver,” Hughes said. “He’d take the ride and keep Pat company.”
“My father is a simple, simple man and we’re now chartering,” Martelli said. “The last couple of years he didn’t travel. The last time was 2017 to the A-10 tournament, we flew to Pittsburgh. But all those years, if we were flying commercial, getting up at 5 a.m., he was right there.
If he got a middle seat, he got a middle seat. He never asked for anything.”
The son is a coach. He can be edgy. Losses don’t sit well. Martelli said his father was different from almost anyone he knew. “There was always a joy. … Even in the toughest times, there was always this thing in his eyes.”
Martelli said he has been overwhelmed by the outpouring he has received, including from players from way back. He didn’t quite realize the extent of the independent relationship his father had forged with so many of them.”It’s chilling,” Martelli said. “Just now, I just hung up from Bernard Jones, from my first team. I bet I’ve talked to him two or three times in recent years. It goes on and on.”
Phillip Edgar Martelli of Landsdowne is survived by his children Phil Martelli (Judy), Marianne Martelli, Rosemarie Kehoe (Tommy), son-in-law Larry Phillips (the late Pattiann), Stephen Martelli, Christine Castagna (Joe), and Lisa Haney (Bill). He was the loving Pop to 17 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren.
He was predeceased by his wife of 64 years, Mary Jane, as well as his children Michael James Martelli and Pattiann Phillips. Phil was also predeceased by his brother Thomas Martelli.
Friends and relatives are invited to pay their respects from 8 to 10 a.m. Monday at St. Philomena Church, 41 E. Baltimore Ave., Lansdowne. A funeral Mass will follow Monday at 10 a.m.
In the last St. Joseph’s home game of this man’s life, the Hawks, in the middle of a tough season, pulled out a two-point win over Massachusetts.
“The toughest losses or the biggest wins, he made sure to thank every player, manager, coach,” his son said. “That day, he was the last person in the hallway, with my sister. She said, ‘Come on, Dad. We have to go.’ He said, ‘I haven’t seen Troy Holston yet.’ ‘’
The Hawks player hadn’t taken a shower yet. But Pops was out there waiting for him.
“He came out wrapped in towels,” Martelli said.
Pops was good to go.
Players coached by Martelli who were drafted and/or played in the NBA
- Jameer Nelson (2004, 20th overall) – NBA teams: Orlando Magic, Dallas Mavericks, Boston Celtics, Denver Nuggets, New Orleans Pelicans
- Delonte West (2004, 24th overall) – NBA teams: Boston Celtics, Seattle SuperSonics, Cleveland Cavaliers, Dallas Mavericks
- Ahmad Nivins (2009, 56th overall)
- Dwayne Jones – NBA teams: Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers, Charlotte Bobcats, Phoenix Suns
- Langston Galloway – NBA teams: New York Knicks, New Orleans Pelicans, Sacramento Kings, Detroit Pistons
- DeAndre’ Bembry – (2016, 21st overall) – NBA team: Atlanta Hawks
Phil Martelli Coaching tree
Numerous assistants of Martelli have gone on to become coaches at other programs.
- Matt Brady, former head coach at Marist College. Former head coach at James Madison University
- Monte Ross, former head coach at the University of Delaware
- Mike Rice Jr., former head coach at both Robert Morris University and Rutgers University
- Doug Overton, assistant coach for the New Jersey Nets
- Brett Sullivan, former assistant coach for the Lynchburg Hornets], played a bunch of noon hoops
Phil Martelli Career highlights
- Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year (1997, 2001, 2004, 2005)
- Naismith College Coach of the Year (2004)
- Associated Press Coach of the Year (2004)
- 2004 Rupp Cup
- 2004 Chevrolet Coach of the Year
- 2004 Henry Iba Award (USBWA)
- 2004 NABC Co-Coach of the Year
- Head coach, Saint Joseph’s University (1995–2019)
- Head coach, 2005 USA Basketball Under 21 World Championship Team
- NCAA berths: 1997, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2008, 2014, 2016
Phil Martelli News
10 Candidates to Replace Phil Martelli at Saint Joseph’s
Adopted:https://herosports.com
Published: on March 19, 2019
10 Candidates to Replace Phil Martelli at Saint Joseph’s Will Saint Joseph’s look across town? Or head south to Baltimore?
Saint Joseph’s has fired longtime head coach Phil Martelli.
“Following a comprehensive evaluation of the [Saint Joseph’s basketball program] will make a leadership change and immediately start the search for a new head coach,” the program tweeted on Tuesday morning, confirming earlier reports.
Martelli went 444-328 in 24 seasons and led the Hawks to seven NCAA Tournament appearances, including the 1997 Sweet Sixteen and 2004 Elite Eight. However, he won only 41 total games over the last three years.
With Martelli out, who might Saint Joseph’s target as their next head coach?
It’s the first major hire for first-year athletics director Jill Bodensteiner, who arrived in Philadelphia last summer after two decades at Notre Dame. She could look across town at Kyle Neptune, next in line from Jay Wright’s Villanova coaching tree.
Neptune is a Brooklyn native who’s spent his entire career in the northeast, including six years on Joe Mihalich’s staffs at Niagara and Hofstra. He’s been mentioned as a potential candidate at Fordham should the Rams fire Jeff Neubauer.
Bodensteiner could at least triple the salary of NC Central head coach LeVelle Moton, who’s delivered four tourney appearances in the last six years and was a candidate for the East Carolina job last year.
UPDATED: 2019 Coaching Change Tracker
Colgate’s Matt Langel is an interesting name, as is former Colgate assistant and current Bucknell head coach Nathan Davis. A former Penn (alma mater) and Temple assistant, Langel led the Raiders to their first tourney berth in 23 years, while Davis has two tourney appearances in four seasons and is averaging 22 wins per year.
Other current mid-major coaches to watch UMBC’s Ryan Odom, Fairleigh Dickinson’s Greg Herenda, Georgia State’s Ron Hunter, Lipscomb’s Casey Alexander and Radford’s Mike Jones. Also, former La Salle and Villanova assistant (two stints) and current 76ers’ assistant Billy Lange could be an under-the-radar name.