Biography

Call 1.800.966.1380 to contact John Calipari booking agent, publicist, manager, pr firm, representative and management company if you would like to hire John Calipari for a speaker appearance, autograph signing, endorsement deal, tradeshow, convention, VIP meet and greet, licensing deal, print advertising, social media marketing campaign, television commercial or corporate event. Here you can find John Calipari speaker & appearance fees, booking costs, availability and schedule information. Contact our booking agency for more details. Basketball coach, John Calipari, was born on February 10, 1959, in Moon Township, Pennsylvania. Since 2000, Capilari has been the head coach of the University of Memphis men's basketball team. Calipari lettered two years at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington before transferring to Clarion State, where he graduated with a Bachelor's degree in marketing. He played point guard at Clarion during the 1981 and 1982 seasons, leading the team in assists and free throw percentage.

From 1982-85, John Calipari was an assistant at the University of Kansas under Ted Owens and Larry Brown. From 1985-88, he was an assistant coach at the University of Pittsburgh under Paul Evans. From 1988-96, he was head coach at the University of Massachusetts. From 1996-99, he was head coach and Executive VP of basketball operations for the NBA's New Jersey Nets. During the 1999-2000 season, he was an assistant coach for the Philadelphia 76ers under coach Larry Brown, before moving on to his current position at the University of Memphis. He was inducted into the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame in 2004.

John Calipari won over 73 percent of his games as a collegiate head coach. He's won over 74 percent of his games during his tenure as the head coach at the University of Memphis.

But John Calipari, who completed his seventh year at Memphis in 2006-07, has an even higher winning percentage in another area of collegiate athletics -- graduating student-athletes. Since stepping foot on the Memphis campus, 12 of 15 seniors that have played for Calipari earned their bachelor's degrees.

To Calipari, college basketball is more than wins and losses. It's about the student-athletes. It's always been that way in his two collegiate coaching stints at Memphis (2000-present) and UMass (1988-96).

When John Calipari was hired to return the Memphis basketball program back to national prominence in the spring of 2000, Calipari did not talk in terms of wins only. He talked about improving all the areas -- academics, facilities, community involvement -- so the program would have a solid foundation and build from there.

Calipari had the experience necessary to do just that. His first collegiate head coach position was from 1988-96 at UMass, which was one of the worst NCAA Division I basketball programs in the 1980s.

In one of college basketball's best reclamation projects, Calipari led the Minuteman program to numerous wins, conference titles and NCAA Tournament appearances. His passion to build a program helped accelerate the construction of the Mullins Center, UMass' basketball and hockey facility. Calipari's desire also reached out to eastern Massachusetts and Boston and brought fans back to Amherst, located in the picturesque Berkshire Mountains, to watch a national powerhouse basketball team.

Calipari also encouraged his players to work toward earning their degrees, and many did graduate. He reached out to former UMass players and coaches, creating a bond between his squads and those of the past.

John Calipari is doing the same at Memphis. Although the Tiger program wasn't as far down as UMass was when Calipari arrived, even the most loyal Memphis basketball supporters would admit their beloved Tigers had fallen on hard times in the mid-to-late 1990s. From 1993-94 through 1999-2000 (seven seasons), Memphis posted only two 20-win campaigns (1994-95 and 1995-96), and the Tigers had consecutive losing seasons in 1998-99 and 1999-2000.

The Tigers' fortunes had taken a nosedive from where they once were. But, in seven short years, Calipari has not only revitalized the Memphis program itself, but also re-energized a city's love affair with Tiger basketball -- a relationship that is the very fabric of the Memphis community.

The Tigers have captured their fans with intense and competitive play under Calipari's tutelage. In Calipari's seven years, Memphis has won 181 games, posted seven-straight 20-win seasons and earned seven-consecutive postseason bids. For numbers close to that, a Tiger fan would have to look all the way back to the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Calipari's 181 victories and 25.9 wins per year are the most by a Tiger mentor in his first seven seasons. And the last time the Memphis program had seven-straight 20-win seasons was from 1987-93. The current run of seven-straight postseason berths under Calipari is a first in Tiger history.

Calipari won his 100th game as the Memphis head coach midway through the 2004-05 season, and he reached that milestone the second fastest of any Tiger mentor. That same season, Calipari became one of only seven coaches in NCAA Division I history to win 300 or more games in their first 13 years. Calipari joined Roy Williams, Everett Case, Denny Crum, Jim Boeheim, Tubby Smith and Nolan Richardson in that elite group. Calipari hit the 300-win mark in February of 2005 when his Tigers upset No. 9 Louisville 85-68 in Freedom Hall.

John Calipari and his wife, Ellen, have two daughters, Erin Sue and Megan Rae, and a son, Bradley Vincent.