Want a crown? Hire Jerry Koloskie!

If you want to win a conference or national title, hire Jerry Koloskie, Class of 1975, onto your athletic department staff.

It worked for University of Nevada-Las Vegas, which won the NCAA basketball crown in 1990, humiliating Duke by 30 points in the championship game. And 13 Mountain West Conference titles.

Jerry Koloskie,
a lucky charm

Only Kentucky, North Carolina and Kansas won more games than UNLV while Jerry was the Running Rebels’ good-luck charm.

To be fair, the success was Jerry-rigged since another Jerry, Tarkanian (aka Tark the Shark) was the UNLV’s towel-chewing coach.

Monongah’s Jerry was with the UNLV athletic department 32 years, from 1982-2014.

After leaving UNLV, where he once was interim  athletic director, Jerry the former Lion was hired as deputy athletic director by the University of Albany in New York state.

Bam!

The Great Danes used Peter Hooley’s 3-pointer to give Albany a stunning 51-50 victory over Stony Brook on Saturday to win the America East tournament title for the third straight year.

The Great Danes (24-8) are 5-0 in the title games, including 69-60 on the road last year over the Seawolves (23-11), who remained winless in four tries in the championship game.

On Friday Albany's women's basketball team beat Hartford for its fourth straight American East title, qualifying for the women's version of March Madness.

Dank, Jerry, you’re a man with the Midas touch! Just having you around brings good fortune to your basketball teams.

Unbeaten Kentucky better watch out for Albany in March Madness. Maybe the Wildcats should hire Jerry into their athletic department!

Jerry's father is John Koloskie, Jr., Class of 1944, widower of Julia Monell Koloskie, also Class of 1944. 

Julia’s brother is the late Raymond “Soak” Monell, whose widow is Elaine Hewitt Monell, Class of 1949, of the Dayton, Ohio suburb of Riverside.

Jerry played baseball for two years at Marietta (Ohio) College before graduating with a bachelor's degree from West Virginia University in 1980.

He and his wife, portrait artist Annette, have three children: sons John and Jim, and a daughter, Megan, as well as a granddaughter, Kayden. Megan Koloskie is a teacher at Somerset Academy Okey-Las Vegas. 

Jerry and Annette met at Iowa State when Jerry was getting his master’s degree.