Georgetown's 25 Years at Madison Square Garden--the World's Most Famous Arena

It has been twenty-five years since the Big East Conference took up permanent residence in Madison Square Garden after a year in Providence and Syracuse. The "Mecca of College Basketball" would be the perfect central location for the Conference Championship tournament. My first trip to the Big East Tournament would be in March of 1985. I have never missed a trip to the tournament since then, and I do not ever plan to miss one. Just prior to the 1985 Big East Tournament I had decided to attend the SUNY State College of Optometry at the corner of 24th Street and Park Avenue in Manhattan (it has since moved to 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue). I would be moving to New York City in August of 1985, and would use the week of the Big East Tournament to start looking for an apartment in New York City. Since I was born in Washington, D.C. and attended college at Georgetown, I had never lived outside of the Washington area. I would be staying in Queens with some family friends at 185th Street and Union Turnpike very close to the campus of St. John's University. I was in for quite a week of excitement.

I booked an excursion roundtrip on Amtrak to New York, and was excited to attend my first Big East tournament. I had joined the Hoya Hoop Club during my senior year at Georgetown to have better seats for the games at the Capital Center, and now to have the right to purchase Big East tournament tickets. The Hoyas were the defending NCAA National Champions. The Hoyas had returned the core of their 1984 championship team, but did lose some key seniors like Fred Brown and Gene Smith. Also, their young power forward Michael Graham had left Georgetown leaving a void at that position. Still the Hoyas were an almost unanimous choice to repeat as NCAA champions and started the season as the number one team in the nation. The Hoyas were playing for a piece of history: to be the first team since John Wooden's UCLA Bruins to repeat as national champions. After steamrolling all of its early opposition including some highly ranked teams, Georgetown was upset by St. John's at the Capital Centre in a January game. Chris Mullin put on a dazzling shooting performance as the Hoyas struggled to find their offense. Tempers flared as the game was a very physical Big East contest, as they often were in the 1980's. Billy Goodwin threw a punch at the former Dunbar of Baltimore star, Hoya guard David Wingate, and a brief fight broke out. St. John's would replace Georgetown as the number one team in the nation for much of the regular season until Georgetown avenged the January loss at MSG later in February 1985. Georgetown once again was the number one ranked team in the nation and St. John's was number two. Although I would agree that Georgetown-Syracuse is the greatest rivalry in Eastern Basketball, I would contend that the rivalry between St. John's and Georgetown during the 1984-85 college basketball season has never been matched in the Big East conference. Patrick Ewing and Chris Mullin would split many of the Big East and National Player of the Year honors. Most of the St.John's players were from the New York area. Chris Mullin, Mark Jackson, and Walter "The Truth" Berry were local NYC playground legends. Many of the Georgetown players were local products also like Michael Jackson, David Wingate, Reggie Williams, and Bill Martin. People all over the country rushed to out to buy their Georgetown jackets. It truly was New York basketball against Washington, D.C. basketball.

When I arrived in New York, I took the "E" train out to Queens to be picked up by my friend Richard Mejia. Richard's brother Scott and I used to play basketball together, and often attended summer basketball camp together. They had moved back to New York since their parents were originally from NYC and were graduates of Fordham University. My friends gave me the rundown on New York City and how to look for an apartment. I got my first subway map that totally confused me. I learned about the buses, express buses, the NJ transit, Penn Station, and Grand Central Station. I had remembered my high school Latin teacher, Fr. Byrne, S.J. telling us about the 5 boroughs of New York City: Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and The Bronx. Father Byrne would tell us many a story about New York. I remember him telling us that once you became a New Yorker, you may move away from "The City" for awhile, but that you would always return to "The City." Indeed the legend says that New Yorkers always refer to NYC as "The City." In their minds, there is only one "City" and that is New York. I remember always being annoyed at my Georgetown classmates, who would always insisted that nothing could ever compare to the restaurants and other things in NYC. I try and stop myself today when I start saying similar things, which happens often. During my first few days in New York I witnessed things on a daily basis that I had never seen before. At that time, in the pre-Rudy Giuliani days, there was considerable graffiti on the subway cars and Time Square was not the Disneyland it is today. NYC was not the safest place at that time. When I first got off the Amtrak a NYC cop arrested a large group of people right in front of me. While riding the bus I saw people throwing bricks through car windows to steal car radios. I also saw men in expensive thousand dollar Wall Street suits getting in fist fights over who got to a cab first. New York indeed had the best and worst of everything. I had begun to question my decision to attend school in New York. I was starting to think that I should have chosen Boston or another "safer" city to attend professional school.

When the Big East Tournament started, the atmosphere in the Garden was electric. I had heard about the great acoustics in the Garden where many performers had used it to record their live concerts. I had lunch at Applebaum's Deli and met a few of the sportswriters for the New York papers covering college and professional basketball. The Deli was filled and then in a New York minute everyone was gone, racing to the Garden for the tournament. Georgetown was booed resoundingly each time we took the court. Back in the 1980's we were truly the team everyone wanted to beat. We were truly feared and we thrived on this us-against-the-world mentality. Georgetown rolled through the competition to the finals of the Big East Tournament where we would be playing St. John's again. It is hard to understand today, but at that time the Big East final would totally dominate New York. Even with Broadway, and all of the major events going on in New York, everyone was consumed with Georgetown vs. St. John's. The game seemed to almost transcend sport like the Ali-Frazier fight in MSG. Lou Carnesseca would wear his lucky sweater and had dubbed the game: "La Recevinta" the "Rubber Match." Coach Thompson in a stroke of genius greeted coach Carnesseca and displayed a sweater that he had made for himself similar to coach Carnesseca's lucky sweater. After upsetting number one Georgetown early in the year, Louie would always wear his lucky sweater. The playful gesture would prove instrumental in lightening the atmosphere and putting the game back in perspective. Indeed coach Thompson knew that as important as the game was, it was still just one game. The Hoyas were intense the entire game but stayed loose the entire game. They would never tighten up. Georgetown put on a dominating performance to win its second consecutive Big East tournament, and its fourth title in six years. David Wingate did a masterful job guarding Chris Mullin. Patrick Ewing took a long pass from Michael Jackson off the top of the backboard, cupped it with one hand, and through down one of the greatest dunks in Madison Square Garden history. The vaunted Georgetown defense was at its best. The Hoya Nation cheered and partied all night in the Grand Ballroom at the Hotel Pennsylvania to the sounds of Bruce Springsteen singing "Glory Days." I knew then that New York would be a great place to live for me. Indeed to this day I consider New York my second home. When the Georgetown Player of the Century, Patrick Ewing was drafted by the New York Knicks, I felt even more at home. It was a sign that I had made the right decision. New York City will always be home for me. In those days the Georgetown headquarters was located in the Hotel Pennsylvania. Today in 2007, the Georgetown Headquarters is located in the Affinia Hotel at the corner of 30th Street and Seventh Avenue. I understand the Niles Bar and restaurant in the Affinia Hotel has become a hangout for the Georgetown alumni. The Georgetown headquarters is usually open before our games if you have any questions, need to buy any Georgetown apparel, or get a schedule of Georgetown events at the tournament. We also have our Hoya Hoop Club Board meeting on the Friday morning of the tournament. Please come by the Headquarters during the tournament to say hello.

I would continue to enjoy many other Big East tournaments with the Hoyas emerging as the champion. There is something about coming to New York for the tournament that other conference tournaments can never match. I know my ACC friends insist that the ACC first made the conference tournaments popular. While this may be true, hanging out in the Dunkin Doughnuts in Greensboro, North Carolina cannot compare to the atmosphere in NYC's Madison Square Garden on a Saturday night. It is truly like a heavyweight fight. However, recently it has been many years since Georgetown has won the Big East tournament. In this the 100th anniversary year of Georgetown Basketball and the 25th anniversary of the Big East tournament in New York, I am looking forward to another great tournament. I hope for the people attending their first tournament that they will see a great event. However, I worry that nothing could ever compare to the first Big East tournament that I attended. The 1985 Big East Tournament final win against St. John's is probably the greatest sporting event I have ever attended. There are many reasons why I love the Big East tournament. Even though I used to live in New York City and still visit often, it is one of the few times I stay in a hotel instead of staying with friends. It allows me to visit many different friends and colleagues, get away from the office, see a Broadway show, and go to some of my favorite restaurants. It is the only time since college where I am living within a one mile radius of many of my Hoya classmates just like we were still at Georgetown. March Madness and the Big East tournament brings me back to those exciting times where we lived every New York minute on the edge as the "Heart Attack Hoyas." JT III and our coaching staff have done an unbelievable job moving us back in that direction in less than three years. Being a sports fan I am very superstitious like my Generation Burton friend John Hawkes. Some of my routines as I attend my 23rd Big East tournament will include: dinner at Peter Luger's in Brooklyn, pizza at Ray's on 11th and 6th Avenue, a Broadway Show, a trip to Umberto's in Little Italy, a visit to Hop Lee Rice Shop in Chinatown, a movie with famed movie critic Dr. Melissa Wohl, a gyro at Gyro's II across from the Penn Station, a walk down Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, watching a DVD of the Godfather, and Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral. For many of us alumni, we have now experienced life in the real world. Being able to give back to Georgetown has strengthened my lifetime relationship with Georgetown. My college experience and recent involvement in the Hoya Hoop Club have allowed me to meet people and experience things in my life that I never could have dreamed about. The friendships and fellowship that I have experienced every year at the Big East tournament really culminated this year at our 100th anniversary Gala weekend. As coach Thompson mentioned at our Gala, as much as I have given to Georgetown I have received so much more back in return. It is truly Georgetown: The Blue and Gray Forever. In recent years the voices from the fans of UCONN, Syracuse, and Pitt have dominated the Big East tournament. However, the sound that I want to hear echoing down the stairwells of Madison Square Garden and through the streets of New York is: HOYA SAXA! WE ARE GEORGETOWN!!

Thomas A. Wong (C'82)
Vice-President Hoya Hoop Club
Generation Ewing