1984 was the year when most of the current first-year class was born. While many first-years may like to claim that they have wanted to come to Georgetown since the womb, we would bet that half of them never would have been here if it weren’t for a similar birth that also occurred in 1984?Georgetown’s birth as a major university. That year, the Hoyas won their only national basketball championship on the broad shoulders of a 7-foot center from Jamaica, Patrick Ewing.
Ewing’s impact on this university has not been equaled since the days of John Carroll. Before the Hoya Destroya blew through McDonough Gymnas-ium, Georgetown was a fine Catholic school with a good academic reputation, but not a school recognized as one of the best in the nation. Ewing’s presence on campus turned Georgetown into the “It” school: a school where everyone wanted to apply since not only was it great academically, but also cool enough to beat the crap out of everyone in basketball. And for those who feel that it was Head Basketball Coach John Thompson and not Ewing who had the bigger impact on Georgetown, we respond by saying that Bill Walsh (not Edmund A. Walsh, S.J.) would not have had much of a career without Joe Montana.
Furthermore, Ewing’s success at Georgetown was the primary reason that Georgetown was a dominant force in college basketball in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s and the reason that fantastic players such as Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Mutombo and Allen Iverson graced this campus. Much like Notre Dame and football, Georgetown and basketball became synonymous and inspired the same love ‘em or hate ‘em relationship that many sports fans across the country had with the Fighting Irish.
With Ewing’s retirement from the NBA Tuesday, much of that Georgetown mystique is wearing away. The Hoyas missed the post season last year for the first time after 27 consecutive appearances. Mourning’s kidney problems may quickly force him to follow Ewing out of the league. Mutombo is used as a rent-a-center for would-be championship contenders in the East. The Sixers are blowing up their team again as they have yet to find a group of players who can win with Iverson. Would-be replacements at such as Victor Page, Shernard Long and Anthony Perry flamed out before reaching even half their potential.
Still, the situation is not entirely dire. The Hoyas have an excellent chance this year to surprise many teams in a rejuvenated Big East. Junior forward Mike Sweetney is a bull and would be a top-10 pick in the NBA Draft if he were three inches taller; senior center Wesley Wilson has an NBA body and showed signs of living up to his potential last season.
There are even plans in the works to eventually return home games to their rightful place in McDonough so that there can be higher student attendance and a sincere college basketball atmosphere, unlike the dead feeling in the cavernous MCI Center. With the foundations in place, we can look to a Hoya Renaissance in the near future; now we just have to find our new Patrick Ewing.
