Joseph Richard Vancisin

Joe was more than just a successful basketball coach. He was a true mentor and respected leader for his players who in turn loved and respected him. I was privileged to know him as the basketball P R man at Yale. We also more recently connected as winter residents in Naples, Fl. We send our thoughts and prayers to Joe’s wife Liz and his family.
Sincerely, Jack and Maryann Dolan

I was a former player in Columbia Heights of Joe when I was a youth growing up. From 1951 to 1956, Joe coached us in baseball for 5 or 6 years . I have posted on FB a picture of our 1953 team and Joe is in the back row next to Tom Trench one of my teammates. Joe was so influential on all of us that played for him during that time. I think I became a coach because of him and he treated his players with tough love but never yelled at us for a physical mistake. He kept what he called a...

I covered Joe's Ivy League championship team in 1962, team that was just a missed rebound layup from upsetting Wake Forest with Len Chappell and Billy Packers at Palestra in Philadelphia. Yale lost in overtime after star sophomore Dr. Rick Kaminsky fouled out. The late Billy Madden was captain of that team. Dennis Lynch was sophomore guard opposite Madden. That team next year upset Bill Bradley and Princeton on the road but lost playoff to Tigers for Ivy title and another NCAA Bid. My sister,...

As a young sportswriter and later as a somewhat mature sports editor, I covered many of Joe Vancisin's Yale basketball teams. He was a fine coach, well-informed and invariably cooperative with the media. Much later, the first of Vancisin's two Ivy League championship teams appeared on the cover of my book: "Hoops in Connecticut: The Nutmeg State's Passion for Basketball," published by the History Press in 2011; a segment of the chapter on coaches was devoted to Joe V. My...