Legendary Georgetown Coach and PC Grad John Thompson Dies at 78
Monday, August 31, 2020
John Thompson, one of the most successful college basketball coaches in history, has passed at age 78. He transformed college basketball both as a leader of The Big East and as one of the most prominent Black coaches in sports.
As ESPN reported, “Thompson, who led Georgetown to the 1984 national championship, built the program into a juggernaut, taking the Hoyas to three Final Fours in the 1980s while also winning seven Big East titles and leading the 1988 United States national team to a bronze medal in the Olympics.”
His legacy includes the recruitment and development of four players in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame: Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Mutombo and Allen Iverson.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST"This is a person that, when I came to college -- I was 18 -- helped me to grow," Ewing, the current Georgetown coach, said during Big East media day last October. "Even though my mom and dad were always there, he was always a person I could pick up the phone and call if I had a problem or if I had a question."
His national title run in 1984 was the first by a Black head coach.
At Providence College
All-New England 1963 & 1964
New England Player of the Year, 1964
All-American, 1964
Career average 19.2 ppg and 13.4 rpg
NIT Championship team, 1963
First Providence NCAA Tournament Team, 1964
Played for the Boston Celtics, 1964-1966
Coached Georgetown University men's basketball, 1972-1999
Thompson's Hoyas made 24 straight NCAA appearances with one National Championship in 1984
Seven Coach of the Year Awards
Inducted into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame, 1999
