RealGM

Sad, sad news.

John Thompson was my hero.

2020 = trash.

Rest in Power coach

RIP John Thompson

https://ognsc.com/2020/09/02/legendary-coach-big-john-thompson-passes/

John Thompson Jr. passed away this week at the age of 78. He was a disciplinary basketball coach that got the best out of all his players and molded them into men. He was the first black coach to win a National title.

Thompson coached at Georgetown from 1972 to 1999 and led the Hoyas to the 1984 NCAA championship with Patrick Ewing. He compiled an all-time record of 596–239 and reached three Final Fours in his 27 seasons as a coach.

Thomson played collegiately at Providence College then went on to play for the Boston Celtics backing up Hall of Famer Bill Russell. He played on NBA title teams in 1965 and 1966.

...

In 1985 three of the final four teams in the NCAA tourney were from the BIG EAST- Villanova, Georgetown, St Johns were joined by Memphis. He was inducted into the Naismith Hall of fame in 2006.

Thompson retired from coaching during the 1998–1999 season. His son, John Thompson III, went on to win 278 games as a head coach from 2004 to 2017.

The absolute MOST CCJ RELEVANT game Big John Thompson ever coached occurred just a couple months before I left the DC area (what seems ATM like for good) to enter into military service. The year was 1987. Here's a recap of that 1986/87 Hoya team:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986%E2%80%9387_Georgetown_Hoyas_men%27s_basketball_team#Season_recap

The 1986–87 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team represented Georgetown University in the 1986–87 NCAA Division I basketball season. John Thompson, coached them in his 15th season as head coach. They played their home games at the Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland. They were members of the Big East Conference and finished the season with a record of 29-5, 12-4 in Big East play. They shared the conference regular season championship with Pittsburgh and Syracuse and won the 1987 Big East Men's Basketball Tournament, defeating Syracuse in the final game for the fifth Big East Tournament championship in Georgetown men's basketball history. They advanced to the East Region final of the 1987 NCAA Tournament before losing to Providence. Nicknamed "Reggie and the Miracles," the team was ranked No. 4 in the season's final Associated Press Poll and Coaches' Poll.

Mon., Feb. 16, 1987*
No. 13 Bowie State W 87–51 19–4
McDonough Gymnasium (2,950)
Washington, DC

I was at that game! IIRC, Bowie started out the game with the first 4 points. Then they got blitzed by Reggie Williams ... and the miracles. Bowie State College (now U) actually played Georgetown back during their heyday.

John Thompson was one of the all-time greats, and, arguably, did more for marginal academic qualifiers than any other NCAA coach in an era of big-time NCAA labeling and hypocrisy. Proposition 48 claimed a lot of athletes and stigmatized inner-city and socio-economically disadvantaged black young men. I love what Thompson did for Patrick Ewing and Allen Iverson, when other college coaches and their representative universities might have shunned them.