A look through these pages calls to mind that the story of Georgetown University basketball is not left to McDonough Gymnasium, Capital Centre, or what is known as Capital One Arena. Former players and coaches can look to games far from the Nation's Capital that defined their experiences, and those buildings that housed them: Madison Square Garden (both of them), the Palestra, the civic centers of Providence and Hartford. For others, the visits insides the domes of Syracuse, New Orleans and Seattle will not be soon forgotten.

Fifty years ago this weekend, a Georgetown team not well known outside its own city made the winding 200 mile trek along US Route 48 to the WVU Coliseum in Morgantown, West Virginia, its first visit to the Coliseum and the first game of any kind with the Mountaineers in 39 years. The game between West Virginia and Georgetown on March 8, 1975 not only defined a season, it was transformative.

This was the game that changed the history of basketball at Georgetown, perhaps its most important game ever. Yet, it's largely forgotten.


In the 1920 and 1930's, Georgetown and West Virginia were regular athletic rivals, made possible by the spur route of the B&O Railroad line between Washington and Pittsburgh. The schools met 13 times in football between 1902 and 1939, with West Virginia serving as Georgetown's homecoming opponent seven times. The two schools were regular rivals in men's basketball in the 1930s in the obscure Eastern Intercollegiate Conference, an early attempt at league play among Pitt, West Virginia, Carnegie Tech, Temple, and Georgetown. The Hoyas weren't very good in that era and neither was the conference; the latter folded after the 1939-40 season.

When Georgetown returned to athletics after World War II, schools like West Virginia no longer fit its model, and the end of major college football in 1951 led Georgetown to largely schedule east of I-95, playing amongst Catholic schools in the Philadelphia to Boston corridor. It may have remained that way were it not for the 1974 ACC championship, where the exclusion of #2 ranked Maryland from the NCAA tournament convinced the organization to open the tournament to at-large entries.

This, in turn, led to changes at the sleepy Eastern College Athletic Conference, the loose confederation of 50-odd independent Division I independents throughout the Northeast. Threatened with the loss of opportunities to the tournament, the ECAC announced post-season tournaments in four regions: New England, Upstate New York, Metro New York, and what was left, known as the ECAC South, for teams in Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, and Washington, DC, with an automatic berth available for the champion of each region. The four best teams from the ECAC South would meet on the weekend of March 7-8 in Morgantown for the first ever ECAC South championship.

A year earlier, few sports writers would have penciled in a West Virginia team for the playoff, coming off back to back 10-15 seasons. No one would have predicted Georgetown.

The hagiography that developed around John Thompson told a story of a man that was successful from the first day he walked onto Georgetown's campus. This was not the case. In the fall of 1972, this was a 31 year old high school coach that inherited the ruins of a three win team, a Georgetown program which regularly missed out on local talent and left its coaches to construct rosters from whatever contacts at Catholic high schools in New Jersey the coach could maintain. Thompson wasn't interested in recruiting New Jersey, but he didn't have as many options in Washington, either. The selection of Thompson over DeMatha's Morgan Wootten effectively burned that recruiting bridge, while other coaches had viewed Georgetown poorly as far as player development was concerned. Thompson filled his first teams with those he knew: seven of his first ten recruits were from St. Anthony's HS, where he coached from 1966 through 1972.

Those first two seasons were frustrating to Thompson and to the fan base: a 12-14 season in 1972-73, a 13-13 season in 1973-74. Progress remained slow. Some were beginning to grumble that this wouldn't be happening under Wootten, and the presence of a black coach was not well received in other quarters.

With the St. Anthony's pipeline narrowing, 6-7 Felix Yeoman was the only St. Anthony's grad in the 1974 recruiting class, as Thompson began to cast a wider net. The fall of 1974 welcomed Georgetown's first two recruits from the area's public schools: 6-4 Craig Esherick, a second team All-Met guard from Springbrook HS in Silver Spring, and 5-8 Mike Riley, three years removed from Cardozo HS by way of the U.S. Navy. Baltimore's Ed Hopkins, a center from Edmondson HS standing 6-8, would provide the depth Georgetown lacked for Merlin Wilson, while 6-4 Bill Thomas was added from the junior college ranks.

It took a phone call, or one of many, to introduce Thompson to the recruit who changed the course of the program.

"A persistent alumnus from, of all places, Chicago, is the unsung hero of Georgetown basketball," wrote the Washington Post. Mike Foster (C'54) was not 20 years out of the College when he began to call the basketball office about a prospect Thompson needed to see from Foster's home town in Wheaton, IL. John Thompson wasn't one to recruit from alumni recommendations, but Foster kept making his case and Thompson finally went to visit 6-0 guard Derrick Jackson, a two sport star at Wheaton Central HS.

The Texas Rangers offered Jackson a spot in its minor league system after graduation. Thompson offered him an education, and for Jackson's parents, this sealed the deal. Derrick Jackson became an integral part of the Hoyas' 1974-75 season, one which was a bumpy ride all the way to Morgantown.




The longer story of the 1974-75 merits a feature all its own. A team without a senior on the roster for the first time since the 1945-46 season, Georgetown raced off to a 7-2 start, highlighted by wins over Syracuse and Dartmouth in the Kodak Classic and its first win over St. John's since 1948. By early January, injuries set in: Jon Smith's hand, Larry Long's ankle, Mike Riley's foot. Add these to Merlin Wilson's ongoing back problems, and the Hoyas had lost six straight.

A crowd of just 1,022 showed up to see the 8-8 Hoyas host Division III Dickinson College on February 5, 1975, with a pair of unidentified students who hung a bed sheet from the McDonough Gym window that read "Thompson the N---er Flop Must Go". The incident shocked the campus and galvanized the team, who won the next six straight at home by an average of 25 points, with five different players leading the scoring over those six games.

Georgetown ended the regular season 16-9, its best showing in five seasons. In any other season, this would have wrapped up the schedule, since it would have been insufficient for an NCAA or NIT at-large bid. The aforementioned ECAC playoff offered a new opportunity.

Ten independents were assigned to the ECAC South--the 1974-75 season was not a banner year in the region. Villanova sank to a 9-18 record under second year coach Rollie Massimino, Penn State was 11-12, Navy 11-12. The four best teams by record were George Washington (17-9), Pitt (16-9), Georgetown (16-9), and Duquesne (14-11), but with a eye on ticket sales in Morgantown, the ECAC committee chose West Virginia, who had dropped five of six and stood at 13-12, over Duquesne.

The brackets were set: Georgetown-GW in the opener, a backyard brawl between Pitt and West Virginia in the nightcap. The Colonials arrived to the neutral site game as the favorite, having defeated the Hoyas 82-78 nine days earlier in GW's final home game after 20 years at Fort Myer, VA.

Up by as many as 11 midway in the first half, the Hoyas struggled with early foul trouble and led by just three at the half. The Colonials led 39-38 before the Hoyas went to work, behind 18 from Derrick Jackson and a defense which held the Colonials to 37 percent shooting and its leading scorer, Pat Tallent, to 2 for 11 from the field. The 66-59 win, Georgetown's first against George Washington in four years, advanced the Hoyas to the ECAC final the next evening versus West Virginia, a 75-73 upset winner over Pitt.

The Mountaineers advanced to the ECAC final on the strength of 6-7 forward Warren Baker and a paid of newcomers in the backcourt: Earnie Hall, a junior college transfer from Compton, CA, and Bob Huggins, a transfer from the University of Ohio who would later serve as an assistant coach and head coach at WVU. Both would play critical roles in a game that came down to the very end.

A crowd of just 8,027 made their way to the Coliseum on a frigid March evening, with a game time temperature of 20. Neither team led by more than six in the entire game. West Virginia had four starters in double figures, led by Huggins' 14.

Despite a combined 8 for 28 from the field for forwards Larry Long and Ed Hopkins, and Merlin Wilson having fouled out, Georgetown was fighting back. In a game where the officials called the Mountaineers to the line 19 times compared to just four for the Hoyas, WVU finished 11 of 19 from the line, none more so than in the final minute of the game.

Georgetown led 56-52 midway in the second half before West Virginia scored seven straight to lead 59-52 with 4:28 remaining. Derrick Jackson scored to close to 59-58, with Huggins adding two from the line, 61-58, with 54 seconds remaining.

Jackson answered the call again, with a basket to close to 61-60 with 37 seconds remaining. WVU played keep-away until Mike Riley fouled Earnie Hall with 10 seconds to play. A 68 percent foul shooter who was 2 for 2 from the line in this game, Hall missed the front end of the one and one.

Not far away, rookie broadcaster Rich Chvotkin relayed the final moments of the game back to fans in Washington on WOOK-AM: "Hopkins with the rebound, the outlet pass to Bill Thomas, across court to Derrick Jackson, five seconds left...Jackson from the corner, the shot...IT'S IN!"



In what Georgetown later referred to as "the shot heard round the world", Georgetown had defeated West Virginia 62-61 for its first NCAA appearance in 32 years.

"West Virginia may be "almost heaven," but it was paradise tonight for the Georgetown Hoyas as sharpshooting Derrick Jackson sunk a twenty footer with two seconds left on the clock, propelling the Hoyas to a 62-61 victory over the host Mountaineers and a slot in the NCAA tourney for the first time in almost 35 years," wrote Sylvan Sobel in The HOYA.

"I knew we had plenty of time when I got the ball," Jackson told the Post. "It was in all the way, I could feel it."

"I told them if they missed the foul shot to get the ball down the court and let Derrick or Jon shoot," Thompson said.



"The [post-game] atmosphere resembled New Year's Eve, but this time it was Derrick Jackson who guided the descent of the ball, touching off a wave of joyous celebration which began well before midnight," wrote Jay Rosenstein in The HOYA. "Soon the conquering heroes arrived at the Ramada Inn. Jonathan Smith, Bill Lynn and Ed Hopkins were the first to step off the elevator and run a back-slapping, hand-shaking gauntlet comprised of two hundred alumni, students and supporters. Last, but not least, to fight his way down the corridor was John Thompson, accompanied by the sparkling championship trophy."

The game itself holds some memories at West Virginia as well. Even in defeat, it is remembered as one of the great games in the history of the WVU Coliseum, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2020.

For Georgetown, the thrill of victory soon gave way to the agony of defeat. A week later, tied at 75 with Central Michigan in the final seconds of the first round of the NCAA tournament at the University of Alabama, with the winner to face #2 Kentucky in the regional semifinals, veteran SEC official Reggie Copeland called an offensive foul as Jonathan Smith attempted a game winning jumper from 30 feet. Putting aside the basic physics of how a jump shot could be an offensive foul, Copeland whistled the play after the buzzer, giving CMU's Leonard Drake two free throws with the clock expired to win the game, 77-75.

"I admire this group of guys as much as any group I've ever met," Thompson said at season's end. "They showed that they had what it takes to stick together when things get rough. Some of them may have to sit next year, but those recruits will have some fierce competition on their hands. These guys have tasted the excitement of a tournament now, and once they've got that they'll get hungry and want it more than ever next year."


At the outset, I said that the West Virginia game was the game that changed the history of basketball at Georgetown, perhaps its most important game ever. Here's why.

1. The win helped to secure John Thompson's future at the University. Thompson once alluded to the fact that, had Jackson had not hit that shot, his future at Georgetown, three years into a four year contract, was no sure thing. Had the Hoyas not advanced and simply faded back to the .500 mark in 1975-76, an extension of Thompson's contract may have been in question.
   
   
2. The win opened the door for recruiting. Chris Sortwell, a classmate of Derrick Jackson, wrote about this in 2005. "It is impossible to underestimate just how important that shot was," he wrote. "While it is always dangerous to speculate about the course of history, it is not unreasonable to believe that had we not made the NCAA in 1975 that we would not have been able to beat out North Carolina and Notre Dame for Parade All-American Al Dutch, and without Al Dutch that we would not have made the NCAA in 1976, thus inducing mega-studs Craig Shelton and John Duren to come to the Hilltop the next year. And without the visibility of the close regional final loss in Shelton and Duren's senior year, would we have been able to recruit Patrick Ewing?"
   
   Great programs are built brick by brick. This game, and its impact on recruiting, was the foundational stone upon what followed.
   
   
3. The win helped establish Georgetown as Washington's team. The Hoyas' ascension, particularly in the 1975 and 1976 ECAC wins over George Washington, came at a time when GW posted regular season marks of 17-9 and 20-6 in Bob Tallent's first two years at Foggy Bottom. Instead of a title in one or both seasons, GW didn't make the NCAA tournament for another 18 years. Over that same period, Georgetown had 16 NCAA appearances, six Big East titles, three Final Fours, and a national championship.
   
   
4. The win was a precursor to Georgetown's rise to national prominence. The most impactful decision of the last 100 years at Georgetown University was embracing a need-based, full-need financial policy, which opened the doors among those considering the top universities for admission. Related to this growth was the success of men's basketball, which raised institutional awareness nationwide, and far beyond a parochial base of Catholic high schools. For a high school student in the late 1970s and early 1980s, more people learned of Georgetown through ESPN and CBS than did those reading Foreign Policy or The Economist. As such, everything Georgetown has been able to accomplish as a national basketball brand traces its lineage to that evening, and that moment, in Morgantown.
   
   

Saturday, Georgetown wraps up its regular season at DePaul. In a perfect world (and a glance at your social media accounts confirm it is anything but), this would have been the Saturday for a finale in Washington, not in Chicago. Saturday, March 8, 2025, would have been the fitting opportunity to recognize the 1974-75 team on the 50th anniversary of their championship of Saturday, March 8, 1975.

There were 13 members of the 1974-75 varsity, all of whom graduated--try that in 2025. As far as I can tell, all are still living, with ages ranging from 68 to 73. Many have not been recognized by the University since they graduated and for some, even a few who live within a few miles of Capital One Arena, they have been effectively estranged, when previous outreach was not extended beyond a select few.

John Thompson, assistant coach Dwight Datcher, and academic advisor Mary Fenlon did not make it to 2025. That does not preclude recognizing the players, however. Perhaps there is an opportunity next season--after all, this same group won back to back titles in 1975 and 1976. Perhaps some extra time could engender some teammate-to-teammate awareness and buy-in, as opposed to a generic invitation from a University official. Perhaps, with some interest within Hoyas Rising and Coach Cooley, this could be something. If someone from either school saved the game film and Rich Chvotkin still has that cassette tape with the radio call, all the better.

Until then, some gratitude for a season, a game, a shot... and the team that made it all happen.