Doctors Move USC’s Raveling Out of Intensive Care Unit

After spending nine days in intensive care, USC basketball Coach George Raveling was moved into a private room at USC University Hospital on Wednesday.

Raveling, 57, broke nine ribs, his pelvis and collarbone and suffered a collapsed lung when his Jeep Cherokee was totaled in a traffic accident near the USC campus on Sept. 25.

He was placed in intensive care on Oct. 2, after doctors discovered bleeding in his chest cavity.

“George Raveling is recovering very well,” said Demetrios Demetriades, trauma director at the hospital. “He is in stable condition, but there is still a slight problem with the lung bruising due to multiple fractured ribs and underlying conditions from the accident. His recovery is being monitored closely. By next week, we hope to make an evaluation as to when he’ll be released from the hospital.”

With USC scheduled to begin practice for the 1994-95 season Saturday, assistant head coaches Charlie Parker and Jack Fertig, along with assistant Adrian Walters, will coach the team while Raveling recovers.

“Charlie and Jack are great coaches--they should already be head coaches--so I don’t have one ounce of concern about practice going well,” Raveling said in a statement. “Our entire staff will do a great job.”

USC’s first game of the season is set for Nov. 16, when the Trojans play host to New Mexico State in the first round of the preseason National Invitation Tournament.