Picture the scene.
It’s 1977 on a crisp late fall day at the campus of Villanova University in Pennsylvania. It seems like any ordinary day — students bustling around campus, many gearing up for some competitive men’s basketball action that night.
At the dining hall, Robert “Whitey” Rigsby, a 6-foot, 4-inch junior guard for the Wildcats, waits in line for his pregame meal to fuel him up right. Next in line is another Robert, this one a senior.
You guessed it: It’s Robert Francis Prevost, aka the newly elected Pope Leo XIV.
So, for the sake of factual accuracy, this is a made-up tale. However, there is a slim chance that it actually could have happened, since Rigsby and Prevost were in school together at Villanova for three years.
The two did not know each other, but Rigsby, a graduate of Archbishop Molloy H.S., Briarwood, and now radio broadcaster for the Villanova men’s basketball team, says it’s surreal to think that he walked the same halls and shared in similar experiences as the pope.
Rigsby grew up in Rosedale playing Catholic Youth Organization basketball at St. Clare, even though he was raised Lutheran and attended public elementary school. He was all set to follow his three older siblings to public high school, but earning MVP honors at Molloy’s Jack Curran Basketball Camp in the summer before eighth grade helped change his path.
With the hopes of someday landing a collegiate basketball scholarship for their son, Rigsby’s parents agreed to send him to Molloy, where he’d develop under the tutelage of the great Coach Curran while also being challenged academically.
“Those four years at Molloy were phenomenal for me,” Rigsby said. “The people I met, the teachers I had. And then Jack Curran was just one of the greatest influences in my life. He was the best.”
Before graduating in 1974, Rigsby was the proud owner of three out of a possible four CHSAA city championship titles in his Stanner hoops tenure. Curran has even been quoted as saying that the 1973-1974 Molloy team was the best he’d ever coached.
“Being at Molloy with Jack Curran and the guys I played with helped me for the rest of my life — and not just in basketball,” Rigsby said. “I was so fortunate to go from New York City public school to Molloy. It was
like I died and went to heaven.”
Sure enough, Rigsby did earn that college basketball scholarship and chose Villanova, where he played for Rollie Massimino. In 118 games across his four years, he averaged 6.8 points and 4.2 rebounds per game. He also became Catholic during his junior year.
Upon his graduation with a marketing degree, Rigsby spent 22 years as a salesman for John F. Scanlan, Inc., selling ventilation equipment. This job allowed him the flexibility to coach, scout, and break into broadcasting.
In 1980, he called his first Villanova game as a color analyst. For the next 45 years till the present day, Rigsby — known as “The Voice of Wildcat Basketball” — has enjoyed this fruitful career that allows him to remain in touch with the game he loves. Since 2000, he’s also served as Villanova’s senior major gift officer, a role in which he fundraises to assist the athletics program.
“I’m selling something I love, and that’s Villanova,” he said. “It comes much more easily to me than selling fans and filters.”
The highlights of his broadcasting career have been calling three Villanova national championship victories: 1985, 2016, and 2018. He’s a member of the Villanova Varsity Club Hall of Fame (1995) and the Archbishop Molloy Stanner Hall of Fame (2019).
Rigsby resides in Spring City, Pennsylvania, with his wife, Becky, a 1979 Villanova graduate. They have seven children: Deborah (Villanova, ’04), Rob Jr. (Villanova, ’07), Frederick (Villanova, ’07), Mary, Matthew (Villanova, ’10), Joseph (Villanova, ’12), and John. Each of his five sons served as Villanova’s men’s basketball ball boy.
When it comes to the new pope, Rigsby is still wrapping his head around the news, which he coincidentally found out as he arrived on a plane to Chicago — the pope’s birthplace. Some anecdotes suggest that this new pope is a sports fan, and there’s even photo proof that he attended Game 1 of the 2005 World Series featuring the Chicago White Sox.
“My guess is he (Pope Leo XIV) went to basketball games while at Villanova,” Rigsby said. “Everyone raves about how good of a person he is, which we would expect from someone who was elected pope. “We have an American pope after thousands of years, and the fact that he’s an American pope from Villanova is amazing.”
If Pope Leo XIV decides to pay a visit to the Americas, of course, we hope the Diocese of Brooklyn is in play — with Chicago a more likely destination.
For Rigsby, though, a papal visit to the Villanova campus would complete this unique, full-circle moment. And who knows, maybe the pope would even be willing to join the broadcast?