In 1984 John Thompson became the first African American coach to win a major NCAA Basketball Championship. The list of African American coaches to win a National Championship stands at four today. It is a difficult challenge as team would need to win a 68 team tournament. That being said the number of championships would increase if African Americans held more than 18 percent of the head coaching jobs in the major conferences. John Thompson proofed he cared about his student athletes as young men when he stood u to a notorious drug kingpin in the late 80s. Thompson was a fierce competitor. I gained a lot of respect for him as a person listening to his talk show on 980 in Washington DC. He carried himself with a lot of class.
He is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame and the College Basketball Hall of Fame. John Thompson lead the Georgetown Hoyas to a 596-239 record over 27 years. An amazing tenure in the coaching occupation. His teams had 19 seasons where they had more than 20 wins. He coached four Final Four teams.
The Georgetown Hoyas basketball team glory days were the ones coached by John Thompson. Georgetown miss him, Washington misses him, his fans, friends and family miss him.
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