Georgetown coaching legend leaves sizable impression
John Thompson Jr., the Hall of Fame basketball coach who led Georgetown to national collegiate prominence and became the first African American coach to take a team to the NCAA championship, died on Sunday. He was 78.
His death was announced in a family statement released through Georgetown. The statement did not say where he died or cite a cause, but CNN said a family source said that he died at his home in Arlington, Va., having experienced multiple health problems.
When Thompson was named Georgetown’s coach in 1972, the Hoyas were coming off a 3-23 season and had been to only one NCAA Tournament, losing in the first round in 1943.
A burly 6-10, Thompson, who starred for Providence College before backing up Bill Russell at center on two NBA championship teams for the Boston Celtics, was an imposing figure on the sideline, his trademark white towel wrapped around his shoulders, in his 27 seasons at Georgetown.
Coaching the Hoyas to 20 appearances in the NCAA Tournament, Thompson built teams around centers Patrick Ewing, Dikembe Mutombo and Alonzo Mourning and guard Allen Iverson by emphasizing strong defensive play.
“Georgetown University, the sport of basketball and the world has lost someone who I consider to be a father figure, confidant and role model,” Ewing, who will be entering his fourth season as Georgetown’s coach this fall, said in a statement. “He changed the world and helped shape the way we see it. He was a great coach but an even better person, and his legacy is everlasting.”
On Instagram, Mutombo wrote, “He was my mentor, great teacher, hero and a father figure to so many us who got the chance to play for him,” adding, “Under Coach Thompson, I learned a lot about the game of basketball, but most importantly, I learned how to be a man in society.”
Thompson’s Hoyas won the 1984 NCAA championship with an 84-75 victory over Houston.
The Hoyas reached the NCAA final again the following season but were upset by Villanova.
Thompson’s Georgetown teams won 596 games and lost 239. They captured seven Big East titles. Thompson also coached the U.S. 1988 Olympic team to a bronze medal
His oldest son, John Thompson III, coached at Georgetown for 13 seasons.
Thompson was a vigorous advocate for affording
Black athletes greater opportunities to pursue college degrees.
He walked off the court just before the opening tipoff at a home game against Boston College in January 1989 to protest an NCAA proposal to deny athletic scholarships to freshmen who didn’t meet certain academic requirements. He did not coach in Georgetown’s next game, against Providence, leaving the coaching to his assistants. The rule, he said, was biased against disadvantaged students. Opposition from Thompson and others led the NCAA to modify it.
Thompson ran the program on his terms, with the player protective methodology dubbed “Hoya Paranoia.”
“A lot of things we did was attributed to paranoia, but it wasn’t,” Thompson said during the 2017-18 season — Ewing’s first as head coach. “It was the decisions we made as an educational institution. And in Patrick’s case, it was because of his talent and the demand being so much higher on him.”
Thompson kept a deflated basketball in his office to help his players realize that they need to prepare themselves for life after their athletic careers. Georgetown has said that of the 78 players who played four seasons under Thompson, 76 received their degrees.
Thompson resigned as Georgetown’s head coach in January 1999, citing personal issues. Later that year, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
He was a basketball commentator on television and radio after that. In 2000, he established the
John Thompson Charitable Foundation, which awards grants to organizations that enhance children’s lives.
John Thompson III, hired as Georgetown’s head coach before the 2004-05 season, reached the Final Four in his first season, but his teams never made it beyond the first round afterward. He was fired in 2017 and succeeded by Ewing.
Thompson bristled when the news media referred him as a racial pioneer for his coaching achievements. When he became the first Black coach to take a team to the Final Four in 1982, he was asked about his feelings concerning that achievement at a news conference.
“I resent the hell out of that question if it implies I am the first Black coach competent enough to take a team to the Final Four,” the Associated Press quoted him as having said. “Other Blacks have been denied the right in this country; coaches who have the ability. I don’t take any pride in being the first Black coach in the Final Four. I find the question extremely offensive.”