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OT/ RIP John Thompson

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I've been going to some of the Gtown games since I moved to DC the past 4 years and JT attended pretty much every home game. Same spot on the floor in the corner. Would be friendly with people who came up to talk to him before,during and after the games.
 
Hoyacane1620 said:
He was a great coach and a leader of men.

IMO, John Thompson set the standard on how to bring a bunch of inner-city kids , many of whom were lightly recruited by traditional basketball schools, into a small, private, predominantly white academic institution and create a basketball powerhouse. He ran a tight ship and with very few exceptions, made sure those kids got an education in addition to playing basketball. The strength of all his teams was his lockdown defense.

John Thompson coached some great talent and managed diverse personalities: Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning, Allen Iverson, Dkembe Matumbo, Michael Graham, Eric "Sleepy" Floyd to name a few...

I feel fortunate to have been a student during the early days of "Hoya Paranoia" - John Thompson, Lou Carnesecca, (St. Johns) Jim Boeheim (Syracuse) and Rollie Massimino (Villanova) made Big East basketball exciting and relevant.

I was at Syracuse for the last game in Manley Field House , when GTown upset Syracuse 52-50 and John Thompson declared "Manley Field House is Officially Closed" and at the infamous UNC-Georgetown National Championship game in 1982, when Freddie Brown made the errant pass and Michael Jordan had his coming out party,..

Good years...
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What was truly remarkable about the North Carolina/Georgetown game was Freddie Brown's interview after the loss. He kept his composure and he gave an excellent account of himself. That demonstrated what type of mentor Thompson was to his players. Certainly rare then and definitely rare today.
 
What a F-ing yr...Sweet Jesus...everytime you turn around...can't remember a yr with such losses of Good too Great people at such an alarming rate...was just talking about this last night with my GF...
 
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80's & circa early to mid-90's CBK was the best.

$h!t I remember when Big East Basketball was an after school special on ESPN.

And the CBS NBA intro was fiya, CBS should've never sold their rights to NBC...good times nonetheless.

 
Hoyacane1620 said:
He was a great coach and a leader of men.

IMO, John Thompson set the standard on how to bring a bunch of inner-city kids , many of whom were lightly recruited by traditional basketball schools, into a small, private, predominantly white academic institution and create a basketball powerhouse. He ran a tight ship and with very few exceptions, made sure those kids got an education in addition to playing basketball. The strength of all his teams was his lockdown defense.

John Thompson coached some great talent and managed diverse personalities: Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning, Allen Iverson, Dkembe Matumbo, Michael Graham, Eric "Sleepy" Floyd to name a few...

I feel fortunate to have been a student during the early days of "Hoya Paranoia" - John Thompson, Lou Carnesecca, (St. Johns) Jim Boeheim (Syracuse) and Rollie Massimino (Villanova) made Big East basketball exciting and relevant.

I was at Syracuse for the last game in Manley Field House , when GTown upset Syracuse 52-50 and John Thompson declared "Manley Field House is Officially Closed" and at the infamous UNC-Georgetown National Championship game in 1982, when Freddie Brown made the errant pass and Michael Jordan had his coming out party,..

Good years...
Click to expand...

He made the errant pass to James Worthy my friend.
 
He is missed forever! :(

I fell in love with the Hoyas team he was coaching while attending Gallaudet University and I was awestruck by how great they were. I watched a lot of their games on TV and even sometimes I went to GT campus with my friends.
 
Pentagon Cane said:
He was a very good man and mentor to a ton of kids. A true legend here in the DMV. My only knock on him ever was that 1988 Olympic Team had nobody who could shoot beyond 15 feet.
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The reality was that the game had changed and the International professionals had supplanted the NCAA Olympic “draft”. ”Shooters” had less to do with the fact that teams like Lithuania (Remember the tie-dyed), Greece, Spain, Argentina and Yugoslavia (which would descend into civil war shortly after).

Time caught up to the USA back then, it caught up to JT now.
 
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Hoyacane1620 said:
He was a great coach and a leader of men.

IMO, John Thompson set the standard on how to bring a bunch of inner-city kids , many of whom were lightly recruited by traditional basketball schools, into a small, private, predominantly white academic institution and create a basketball powerhouse. He ran a tight ship and with very few exceptions, made sure those kids got an education in addition to playing basketball. The strength of all his teams was his lockdown defense.

John Thompson coached some great talent and managed diverse personalities: Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning, Allen Iverson, Dkembe Matumbo, Michael Graham, Eric "Sleepy" Floyd to name a few...

I feel fortunate to have been a student during the early days of "Hoya Paranoia" - John Thompson, Lou Carnesecca, (St. Johns) Jim Boeheim (Syracuse) and Rollie Massimino (Villanova) made Big East basketball exciting and relevant.

I was at Syracuse for the last game in Manley Field House , when GTown upset Syracuse 52-50 and John Thompson declared "Manley Field House is Officially Closed" and at the infamous UNC-Georgetown National Championship game in 1982, when Freddie Brown made the errant pass and Michael Jordan had his coming out party,..

Good years...
Click to expand...
May he Rest In Peace. Yes he was a tremendous leader of men and the Hoyas were the Canes of College basketball. Both schools were very impactful back then and were ahead of their time. The two teams dominated the Starter jacket sales back in the day. One of John’s closest confidants was a guy named Sonny Vaccaro who was responsible for Nike signing Jordan and most major schools including Gtown back in the day. Sonny was one of the most influential guys in the game and another guy with Youngstown ties. His brother is one of the top oddsmakers in Vegas
 
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