When the story of Georgetown's recruiting in the 1960's is written, much of it involves the loss of local talent. An entire series of its own could be paid to the exodus of local players Georgetown did not (or would not) recruit, preferring to focus on Catholic high schools in the New York area where its coaches had more familiar recruiting relationships. Particularly noticeable: the absence of African-American recruits.

"Washington in just the past few years has turned out an unproportional amount of top-notch Negro basketball players starting with Elgin Baylor, and including John Thompson, Ollie Johnson and John Austin, all of whom went on to star at Catholic colleges, three of them, Seattle, San Francisco and Boston College being Jesuit schools," wrote The HOYA in 1965. Of these four, one name is an enduring symbol of Georgetown's recruiting in the 1960's, and how it changed in the 1970's.

Born to a working class Washington family in 1941, John Thompson grew up in segregated housing in Anacostia before moving to northwest Washington in the early 1950's. As a child, he struggled in school and was labeled as uneducable by teachers, only to find that his poor eyesight was the cause for his struggle in the classroom. By the age of 14 he ended up earning a scholarship to Archbishop Carroll High School, the first integrated Catholic high school in Washington. Under coach Bob Dwyer, the Carroll Lions became the greatest high school team in Washington basketball history.

Joined by Walt Skinner, Ed [Monk] Malloy, Tom Hoover and George Leftwich, the Lions won 55 straight games from 1958 to 1960 and 105 straight overall against private schools dating back to the 1956-57 season. Four of the five Carroll starters in 1959 were named to the Washington Post first team All-Met selections, three of the top five in 1960. Thompson, who had taken over the starting center position following Tom Hoover's graduation in 1958, was a two-time All-Met selection and was named a second team Parade All-America selection as a senior.

A prolific scorer and rebounder, Thompson received scholarship offers from St. John's, Syracuse, Boston College, St. Joseph's and Notre Dame, but not Georgetown. If the official reason was that Thompson was an average student at a average high school and Georgetown did not accept students from average schools, the other reason was more than apparent: Georgetown was an all-white school.

"It would have been difficult for him here," said former Georgetown coach Tommy Nolan, who chose not to make an offer in the spring of 1960. "Maybe I was just a little too idealistic, but I didn't want him to get hurt."

One school that felt differently was Providence College, to which Thompson's parents were impressed by the school's Dominican teachers. It also received a seal of approval from Thompson's basketball mentor, Boston Celtics coach Red Auerbach. Playing at Providence would allow Auerbach to exercise territorial draft rights which would set up Thompson to play for the Celtics after graduation. Thompson committed to the Friars and pursued an degree in economics, graduating in 1964.

"[Thompson] was was one of the top players ever at Providence College," wrote the school following his death in 2020. Averaging 25.4 points on the freshman team and 19.2 on the varsity, "Thompson is one of only seven players in the history of Friar basketball to score more than 1,000 points and register more than 1,000 rebounds. He helped lead the Friars to the 1963 NIT title after he averaged 18.9 points and 14.0 rebounds. He was named to the 1963 NIT All-Tournament Team and earned All-New England honors. As a senior, Thompson earned First Team All-America accolades after he averaged 26.2 points and 14.5 rebounds. In addition to All-America honors, he also earned New England Player of the Year, All-East, ECAC All-Star, and East-West All-Star accolades."

In his senior season, PC won 15 of its final 17 games and earned its first ever NCAA tournament invitation with a 20-5 record. Two days after the regular season finale, Thompson scored 18 points in a 77-66 loss to Villanova (23-3), which what was practically a home game for the Wildcats at The Palestra. At graduation, Thompson held the school's career records for points, scoring average and field goal percentage, and was second all time in rebounds.

Despite the collegiate accolades, the Celtics chose not to exercise a territorial pick, and drafted him in the third round. A backup in his rookie year behind All-NBA center Bill Russell, Thompson was moved to the third string behind Russell and rookie Mel Counts in 1965-66, seeing action in just 10 games with a 3.2 points average. The team initially voted not to give him a share of the NBA championship bonus, but reconsidered when Thompson confronted the players in a team meeting to demand his share.

Left exposed in the 1966 NBA expansion draft, Thompson was picked up by the Chicago Bulls but opted to retire instead, weary of the travel and mindful of his family, with his first son to be born later than year. He returned to Washington to become basketball coach at St. Anthony's HS, beginning a run of success that rivaled his days at Carroll: 122-26 in six seasons.

John Thompson had a publicized falling out with Bob Dwyer, his coach at Carroll. In his 2020 autobiography, Thompson recalled a incident where Dwyer had told a white recruit that he wouldn't see any playing time if he signed with Georgetown.

"The young man called me up for advice and I told him what I felt was best for him," Dwyer said. "I told him if he wanted playing time in college, not to go to Georgetown or a school with a similar program. People who know me know that I tell it like it is, for better or worse. This characteristic does not always make one too popular, but after all, I was giving the young student the best advice for him."

Although Dwyer apologized, Thompson never attended any Carroll team reunions, and wrote that he would hold the grudge to his death.

It is the greatest of ironies, of course, that the man most closely associated with Georgetown basketball was turned down by the school a decade earlier. John Thompson had played numerous games on GU's campus as a high school student, and even appeared in the school's 1960 yearbook during a game Carroll beat the Georgetown freshmen. Its coaches knew of him for years. But a black man from Washington wasn't welcome in 1960, and as such the doors at McDonough Gymnasium were closed on what a player of his talent would have meant to the Hoyas' program, and to the University as a whole.

Twelve years later, the doors were opened. And this time, John Thompson held the keys.