Pat Croce graced the cover of Success magazine as the first person to ascend from the training room to the boardroom of a professional sports team. His remarkable success as a physical therapist and pioneer in the sports medicine field to the colorful leader responsible for the resurrection of the Philadelphia 76ers as a NBA championship contender has been defined as one of the most amazing stories in sports history.

Through his business savvy, dynamic personality, and emphasis on customer service, Croce created Sports Physical Therapists, a sports medicine empire of 40 centers in 11 states, into a top-ten finalist for the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Following the sale of his company, Croce focused his entrepreneurial spirit and indestructible positive attitude on the purchase of the NBA’s last place team, the Philadelphia 76ers in 1996. During his 5-year tenure as President, the team rose from worse to first in the NBA standings and broke franchise records in attendance, revenue, merchandise, and consecutive wins on the way to the NBA Championships against the Los Angeles Lakers in 2001.

Croce has served as a commentator on the NBA on NBC and the Summer Olympic Games, hosted a nationally syndicated daily show Pat Croce: Moving In for Sony Pictures Television, and performed as a panel judge on ABC’s American Inventor. In development Croce has a major motion picture with Paramount Pictures about the terrifying exploits of Blackbeard and a social media game True Pirates with Powderhouse Productions.

Croce continues to fill requests as a nationally-renowned motivational speaker, and is the author of the New York Times bestseller, I Feel Great and You Will Too!, the motivational tome 110%, the business book Lead or Get Off the Pot!, and the historical pirate book Pirate Soul. The Pirate Handbook is scheduled for release in 2011.

Croce is the founder of the world-renown St. Augustine Pirate & Treasure Museum. He was the proud recipient of the “Entrepreneur of the Year” Award, featured on the cover of Inc magazine as “The Dale Carnegie of the 21st Century,” and honored with A&E Biography’s “Community Hero” Award. He runs Pat Croce & Company with equity and management interests in the fields of fitness, automotive, technology, and hospitality.