When Ed Spriggs graduated from Northwestern High School in 1974, college basketball was the furthest thing from his mind, since Spriggs never played varsity basketball in high school and chose a job over college. But four years later, while working in a Washington regional postal center, he accepted an offer to enroll at Georgetown, setting the course to become one of the decade's more memorable recruits.

Spriggs started the first three games of his career, picking up 11 points and 17 rebounds. With the reemergence of senior Tom Scates, Spriggs filled in the role of the 6th man, averaging 5.0 points and 4.4 rebounds while playing just 17 minutes a game. He saved some of his best efforts in his sophomore season, with a 14 point, 10 rebound effort against Maryland and 13 points and 10 rebounds vs. Syracuse in the Big East finals. Slowed by a sprained ankle midway in the season, Spriggs still averaged 6.6 points and 4.0 rebounds, shooting 66 percent from the floor.

Spriggs started all but one game in 1980-81, but only once in 1981-82, the season opener. Patrick Ewing had arrived and it was time for Spriggs, now 28, to return to his reserve role. Ed's maturity and game day experience proved to be a great balance to the younger Ewing's exuberance, and he often helped the Hoyas in the middle when Ewing sat with foul trouble. In a mid-season game with Syracuse, for example, Spriggs came off the bench for 14 points and seven rebounds.

With only modest statistics to his credit, it was a recognition of Spriggs' growth as a player that led the Boston Celtics to select him in the ninth round of the 1982 NBA draft. Spriggs moved on to play professionally in Belgium and later as an assistant athletic director at St. Peter's before returning to Georgetown as a member of the basketball staff from 1987 through 2004.