When Rick Pitino canceled his honeymoon to start recruiting for Syracuse basketball

Rick Pitino, then 24, had to call off his honeymoon when Jim Boeheim recruited him to be an assistant coach at Syracuse in 1976. Pitino had just gotten married that same night.

After serving seven seasons as an assistant coach at Syracuse, Boeheim took over as the head coach in 1976 and immediately set out to build his coaching staff. Among the first people he brought on board was Pitino, who had worked as an interim coach at the University of Hawaii.

Boeheim made the drive down to New York City where he met Pitino in the lobby of a Manhattan hotel.

At first, Rick Pitino told Boeheim that he couldn't join the Orange staff right away because he and his new wife, Joanne Minardi, were planning to leave for their honeymoon in Puerto Rico the next day.

"I just got married, so I can’t do it today," Pitino said to the new Syracuse coach (per The Daily Orange).

"It has to be right now," Boeheim insisted.

"Oh, my wife's gonna love this," Pitino responded, agreeing to join Boeheim's staff.

The two coaches went on to negotiate Pitino's salary and discuss the job responsibilities, which included immediately traveling to Cincinnati to recruit a player.

Rick Pitino remembers telling his wife about Syracuse job after wedding

St. John's coach Rick Pitino appeared as a guest on NBC's "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" on March 7 and shared a funny story from his lengthy coaching career.

He joined Fallon to discuss his team's Big East regular-season championship — the first one for St. John's in 40 years — and took the opportunity to reflect on the day he accepted a coaching job at Syracuse, which happened to be on his wedding.

Pitino recalled that he had no job at the time when he got married and said he asked his wife if he could go interview for an assistant coach position at Syracuse.

"I said 'I've got great news — I got a job,'" Pitino said after returning from the interview three hours later, adding that he didn't tell his wife initially that he was interviewing for the Syracuse job.

"I said 'Two problems. One it's Syracuse, New York.' She says 'Upstate New York? Syracuse? With 120 inches of snow?' I said 'Yes, but it's a great job and Jim Boeheim’s terrific.'"

Rick Pitino stayed at Syracuse for two seasons before becoming a head coach for the first time at Boston University. He went on to win national championships at Kentucky and also coached in the NBA with the New York Knicks and Boston Celtics.