(The following is excerpted from a 2009 feature on John Schmitt from this web site.)

As today's college seniors await an uncertain job market, it helps to take a longer view. John Schmitt can relate. His first job out of Georgetown paid only 60 cents an hour.

"General Motors didn't have an office job for me, so I worked in the plant", said Schmitt, who graduated from the College in 1940 and returned home for a job at the local GM plant that summer. "Sixty cents an hour, $24.00 a week," he laughed.

Schmitt's home town was Syracuse, NY and he has been there ever since. In 2009, his family was planning for him to return to visit Georgetown, 70 years after a college career that is still memorable today.

"I wasn't much interested in sports growing up," said Schmitt, whose recall of names and dates is closer to a man two decades out of college rather than seven. In his younger years, Schmitt worked at his father's meat market, and was not introduced to organized sports until the 8th grade. He soon became a standout in baseball and basketball at St. John the Baptist High School, and was drawn to Georgetown by the offer of an athletic scholarship. Over his four years, Schmitt was coached by four legendary coaches in Hilltop athletics: Jack Hagerty, Fred Mesmer, Elmer Ripley, and Joe Judge.

Schmitt's first intercollegiate play sport came about almost by accident. Since freshmen were ineligible in this era, Schmitt was planning to play basketball as a sophomore when he was suddenly called up to the varsity football team in the fall of 1937, despite having not played the sport, since his high school didn't have the equipment during the Great Depression to field a full team.

So why did he play in college? "Well, they didn't have enough recruits that year," Schmitt said. He explained that after three Georgetown starters were injured in a pre-season scrimmage with the city's new pro team, the Washington Redskins, coach Jack Hagerty called up sophomores from other sports into service. Schmitt lettered in 1937 as a running back, but his legacy was on the court and the diamond.

Schmitt was a three year letterman for the varsity basketball team from 1937 through 1940, earning the honor of team captain his senior year. Recruited by Syracuse native Fred Mesmer (C'30, L'32), Schmitt recalled being intimidated by the college game. "Mesmer had a lot of confidence in me," said Schmitt, who soon became a standout forward over his three seasons, recalling opponents as if they were played yesterday: "Penn State, West Virginia, George Washington, Yale, NYU, and Maryland", he said.

In 1939, now under the tutelage of Hall of Fame Coach Elmer Ripley, Georgetown were named EIBC co-champions, and Schmitt recalled a 12 point scoring game in an upset of West Virginia, a fine effort in an era when teams might only score 35 or 40 points a game.

"Elmer Ripley was a very good coach," he said. "He was instrumental in teaching the fundamentals of the game."

A game with Penn State, 70 years ago, brought back clear memories. "Penn State was a very well regarded team due to their zone defense," Schmitt said. To beat the zone, "Ripley loaded one side of the court and we passed and cut to the basket, and got open set shots."

"Beat 'em by nine," he added.

Schmitt's junior season was cut short two weeks later, when he suffered a leg fracture leg in a game versus Yale. He returned later that spring to baseball and batted .400, a record which he looks back fondly. Over his three seasons, the Hoyas were 28-9 (.756), a three year record of performance matched only once by the Hoya nine in the last 70 years.

A hot-hitting center fielder that was quick on the base paths, Schmitt once stole three bases in a single game and attracted the attention of scouts familiar with Joe Judge, the Georgetown coach and former major league star. Scouts from the New York Yankees and Connie Mack's Philadelphia A's showed interest, but the leg injury was Schmitt's undoing. He explained that he powered off his leg while batting, and the injury limited his motion when hitting.

"[Yankees scout] John Hattick offered me a place at a Class D team [in the Yankees' minor league system], but it didn't pay very well," he recalled, and Schmitt completed his baseball career in college, not in the minor leagues.

After Georgetown, Schmitt served only a few weeks on the floor of the auto plant before being promoted to a management position, where he served for 34 years until his retirement from the auto maker in 1974. Reclassified for military service for duty in the Pacific theater in 1945, Schmitt had already married and was raising a family, so the Army chose to release him back to the plant instead, which had converted from producing cars to machine guns for the war effort.

"So that was the end of my military career," he remarked.

Outside his work at GM, Schmitt played in the New York industrial basketball leagues of the 1940's, before the advent of the NBA, and coached various parochial school teams in and around Syracuse, including a state champion team in 1957.

Seventy years has passed since John Schmitt walked across Healy Lawn for his college degree, but the lessons learned over those four years formed a foundation for a lifetime of accomplishment far removed from the playing fields.

"Georgetown taught you how to improve yourself, year after year," he said. It was a lesson well learned.

John Schmitt was not able to visit Georgetown in his last years as he had hoped. Following the death of his wife, Schmitt's health faltered and he passed away in 2012 at the age of 94.