WRAL Sports Fan

WRALSportsFan

Krzyzewski Receives Ellis Island Award

Apr 17, 2007

New York City — Duke men’s basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski was honored at the Sixth Annual Ellis Island Family Heritage Awards on Tuesday.

The awards honored three outstanding Americans with roots in Ellis Island. Forty percent of Americans today can trace their roots to an ancestor who traveled through the immigration portal.

Krzyzewski’s Polish grandfather, Josef Pituch, arrived in America from Austria by way of Ellis Island on March 21, 1906. He made his way to Pennsylvania and later to Chicago, where his grandson was born in 1947.

In his 27 years at Duke, Krzyzewski has become the winningest coach in NCAA Tournament history, has been named National Coach of the Year 12 times and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. He also will serve as head coach of the United States National Basketball Team for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.