On Road, He’s USC’s Raveling Salesman : Basketball Coach Follows Busy Schedule From West Coast to East, and Beyond

George Raveling is an avid reader, and if he ever writes his autobiography, it could be called “Running with Raveling.”

Since Raveling became USC’s basketball coach on March 29, he has been on the road as often as Charles Kuralt.

“You have to have track shoes to keep up with him,” said Tim Tessalone, USC’s sports information director.

Said Raveling: “Right now, I’ve got to cover as much ground as I can and talk to as many people as I can. I don’t think there’s anything I can get done by sitting in the office.”

So Raveling is spreading the word about USC in his nonstop manner. He says he puts in a 12- to 13-hour day, starting at 5:30 or 6 a.m. and doing his correspondence before the phone starts ringing.

Raveling says he believes that the only way to sell USC and himself is to communicate with as many people and in as many places as possible. He has always been in demand as a motivational and humorous speaker, and his schedule is more frenetic than ever.

“It’s like opening a new restaurant, or a shoe store,” Raveling said. “You just can’t sit back and assume people will come in and do business. You have to get out and sell the USC story. People have concerns and questions, and you have to be the Pied Piper and tell them about it.”

Enough with generalities; let’s look at specifics since Raveling landed in Los Angeles--running, of course.

“After I was named USC coach, I went to Dallas for the NCAA coaches convention,” he said. “Then, I went to Austin to talk at the University of Texas basketball banquet.

“I was back in L.A. for one day, then I flew to Pittsburgh for the Dapper Dan high school all-star game. On the way back, I stopped in Denver and spoke at a coaching clinic.

“Then, I had to go to Chicago because I’m on the executive board of the American Basketball Assn., the governing body for amateur basketball.

“From Chicago I went to San Francisco to visit Chris Monk, a recruit, before I was back in L.A. to get some office work done.

“Then, I had to speak at coaches’ clinics in Detroit, New Orleans and Dallas.

“I came back to L.A. and visited with Bob Erbst (a November signee from Anaheim Katella High School) before visiting with Chris Monk again.

“Then, I was back in Iowa for the school’s basketball banquet and went on to Seattle for a Pac-10 coaches meeting.

“I returned to L.A. for the next four days, but I had to go back to Iowa City to try and sell my house.

“From there, I had to speak at a Big Brothers convention in Fort Wayne, Ind. Then, I was in Las Vegas to speak at a coaches’ clinic.

“By that time I was totally exhausted and took off to go to Puerto Vallarta in Mexico. I do that once a year. I rent a little villa there and take 10 books with me that I want to read--in solitude.

“I read a lot of self-help and business books because we’re in the people business and I’m always interested in how to better and more effectively deal with people. I don’t read much fiction--mostly self-help, motivational, humor and quote books.”

After relaxing in Mexico, Raveling was traveling again.

“Then, I spent a week in the office at USC, but I also had to speak in Palo Alto and Torrance,” he said.

“While I’m in L.A., I usually have a business luncheon every day with a USC booster. Out of seven days, I’ve usually got a speaking engagement or a business dinner on four days.

“Then, in June, I met with some television people before I went to Oklahoma City to speak at a roast for Abe Lemons. I was back in L.A. at 10 a.m. for a luncheon with the assistant dean of the USC law school.

“That night, Ted Turner had a dinner in Century City, a network-type thing.

“Then, I had to go to Colorado Springs because I’m on the NCAA Drug Council and we had to hammer out some final legislation.

“Then, I was back in the office before I flew to Vancouver, Canada, to speak before a Safeway management group.

“I left at noon to fly to L.A., where I had a dinner business meeting. The next morning I spoke to a freshman orientation group and then had a staff meeting with my coaches that night. “Then, I had a luncheon with some people at Paramount Studios, and I was in Orange County that night for a Cardinal and Gold cocktail party.

“There was another business luncheon with some USC people, and that night I had dinner with some people from an advertising firm that I work with and one that does work for me.

“The next day, a group of prominent black people in L.A. had a cocktail party for me.

“In the middle of June I went to Venice, Italy, for a clinic, and while I was there I looked at a couple of prospective players.

“I stopped in Boston on the way back for the Boston Shootout because California had a team there.

“Then, I was in the office until I took a red-eye last week to Newark, N.J., where I drove to Princeton for the Nike superstar camp.

“There are 125 kids in the camp, and 110 are the best high school prospects in the country.

That brings Raveling up to date, but he said he’ll have a similar schedule the rest of the summer.

He’ll break up the routine--if anything is routine--by taking his son Mark, 14, on a tour of China.

“The Iowa team had scheduled an exhibition tour in China in August, but when I switched and came to USC, my son was broken up about it, at first,” Raveling said. “Then, I said we’d go to China together. So, we’ll go there for a week in August. It will probably be more fun, and we can spend some quality time together.”

Raveling, 49, has been divorced from his wife, Vivian, for 10 years. Mark lives with his mother in Greenwich, Conn.

Raveling would seemingly deteriorate on the spot if he weren’t constantly on the move.

“If you think my schedule is bad, you should see Jim Valvano’s,” said Raveling, referring to the North Carolina State coach. “He makes me look like Mary Poppins.”

Although Raveling is a familiar figure to airport security, he has spent enough time here to get a feel for the city.

“L.A. to me is exciting and educational,” he said. “It’s hard to imagine that any person has more resources at his fingertips than one does in L.A. I love it--the restaurants, entertainment and the news media. I catch myself with a childlike excitement about being in L.A.”

Raveling recently bought a home in Ladera Heights, which he says is a perfect location for him.

“I didn’t want to go to work on the freeway every day, and now I can take surface streets to USC,” he said. “I’m only 18 minutes away and I’m close to the airport, about 12 minutes.”

To say that Raveling is a frequent flier is an understatement. By his own estimate, he has spoken in 12 foreign countries and all but two states--North and South Dakota.

“I do a lot of reading during the dead time when I’m traveling,” he said. “I always carry a shoulder bag with me full of books wherever I go. When I go through the X-ray machines at the airport, the security guards ask me, ‘What do you have in that bag, bricks?’ ”

Raveling said that taking the USC job has revitalized him.

“It’s a challenge,” he said. “I talk to a lot of people, and there is a lot of skepticism among some people whether anyone can make USC basketball into a program of national prominence. That excites me--the challenge of it--and I get more fired up when people are skeptical about it.”

It’s doubtful that the peripatetic Raveling will ever slow down, but he said he does listen to his body.

“When I feel my body winding down, I get some extra sleep,” he said. “I feel like Willie Loman in ‘Death of a Salesman.’ What makes Willie run? What makes George run? I’m like a lot of people out there. I’m just chasing that rainbow.”