Marin History Museum

Steve Lavin, left, and Brent Musburger, right, March 3, 2007.

Photo courtesy Marin Independent Journal

Steve Lavin is one of Marin County’s most celebrated and accomplished sports figures. Born in San Francisco in 1964, Steve grew up in Marin and was a member of the outstanding Sir Francis Drake High School boys’ basketball team that won a Division II State Championship in 1982. It was coached by the legendary Pete Newell. That team won an astonishing 56 games in a row from 1980 to1982. Incredibly, that same year, Ann Scott’s Drake High girls’ basketball team also won the Division II State Championship.

Steve seems to have come by his basketball skill and determination naturally. His father, Albert “Cap” Lavin was voted San Francisco’s High School Player of the Decade in the 1940s for the St. Ignatius Basketball team and inducted into the University of San Francisco’s Sports Hall of Fame after a stellar three-year career at USF.

“Cap” also taught English literature, poetry and philosophy for 43 years, most of them at Drake High School, and, along with his wife Mary, taught all their children the importance of education and culture. This was especially important to Steve who suffered from dyslexia and dysgraphia as a young child.

"Cap" Lavin. Photo courtesy SFGate

After graduating from Drake High, Steve went on to play for the San Francisco State Gators basketball team, helping lead them to an NCAA Div. II Western Region Championship and a #5 ranking in the country. He transferred to Chapman College for his junior year and was his basketball team’s captain while earning the squad's Leadership Award.

While at Chapman, Steve spent time with Bob Knight’s Texas Tech basketball squad and Gene Keady’s Purdue team. When a position for an assistant coach came up at Purdue Steve was given the job. Three years later he was hired as an assistant coach at powerhouse UCLA which won a National Championship in 1995. Coach Jim Harrick resigned in 1996 and Lavin replaced him as head coach at UCLA.

Steve led his teams to 10 postseason appearances, eight NCAA Tournament berths and nine seasons with 20 or more wins. In 2003, after his first losing season, Steve was fired by UCLA and began work as a broadcaster for ABC and ESPN Sports. In 2010 he was hired as the head basketball coach at St. John’s University where he revitalized the program, leading the “Red Storm” to three 20-win seasons and two NCAA tournaments. Steve left St. John’s in 2015 and has worked as a college basketball analyst for the Fox, CBS and Pac-12 sports networks.

Steve is married to Mary Ann Jarou, an actress and model born in Flint, Michigan.

(This article originally appeared in the Marin History Museum Bulletin, Winter 2020)

Steve Lavin, Basketball Player, Coach, Broadcaster, by Scott Fletcher

Our Mission