He was the president of a professional basketball team, wrote a book, put two kids through Penn State and is now moving on to a new endeavor -- a pirate museum in Key West, Fla.

Pat Croce, a household name for most Philadelphia-area residents as the former part-owner of the 76ers, is opening a museum called "Pirate Soul" with co-owners and children Kelly and Mike Croce.

Mike Croce (senior-real estate) said his first reaction to the news of his father opening a business in Key West was sheer enthusiasm.

"I was so excited. Starting [a business] in Key West is the coolest thing; it means more time there," Mike Croce added.

Kelly, a 2001 Penn State graduate, will take on the demanding role of chief operating officer of the museum.

"I am doing everything, basically," Kelly Croce said.

"Dad's the visionary about what the next steps are, and I keep the puzzle pieces together," she added.

Pat Croce said he is opening this type of attraction because of the way he has run his professional career -- like pirates.

"My business attacks like pirates. After stepping away from the 76ers in 2001, I always wanted to do something with pirates," Pat Croce said.

His extreme fascination with pirates not only left him with a large collection of pirate memorabilia, including treasure chests and weapons, but Pat Croce also sports three tattoos of a scull and cross bones and other pirate depictions.

Kelly Croce, after leaving a public relations firm, began a job hunt that led her home.

"I was in the car with my dad, and he was telling me about how he wanted to open the museum, and by the end of the night I had a job," she said.

Mike Croce said he is looking forward to getting more involved with the museum when it opens.

"My sister will be heavily involved, while I'll be more working at home as a side thing," he said.

"Hopefully he'll want to make shirts at the retail store, and I could help them design stuff."

Pat Croce said that the new endeavor will offer visitors more than just a museum.

"It will be a great museum, a Disney-quality attraction. We'll have a theme retail shop and a bar and tavern restaurant," he said. "We want to take you back 300 years, on a crazy island. You'll travel through history into a time where you will see real treasure and weapons."

Although pirates and 300-year-old sea-faring ships may not attract all sorts of people, the beautiful location in Florida may.

"Key West is perfect. It's a Caribbean island in the continental U.S.," he said.

Kelly, who was a student in the College of Communications, said she will be "basically cleaning up the mess [my father's] making," while providing what she hopes will be the best pirate museum in the country.

Mike Croce also said he is beginning to adopt some of his father's pirate obsessions.

"He started to get me into it. I even got a tattoo with him, the one with the scull and cross bones on my wrist," he said.

Although starting a new business may seem difficult to many because of finances or lack of knowledge in the field, the Croces are nothing less than confident in their newest undertakings.

"Everything [my dad] does, he does right somehow. He just has a good mind like that," Mike Croce said. "I know it will work out, because he loves it so much."