| Abstrakt: |
In the spring of 1972 Georgetown University chose John Thompson, Jr., to be its men's basketball coach. The selection of an African American as coach was a conscious attempt by the university to proclaim its commitment to diversity and its place within a city with a majority of black residents. Thompson's tenure not only played a key role in establishing Georgetown as a model in nurturing racial diversity, but also in making it, for the first time, a national power in basketball, culminating in three Final Four appearances in the mid-1980s and a national championship in 1984. After a stretch at the turn of the century of declining fortunes for the team, his son, John Thompson III, was named coach in 2004 and quickly revived the program as a national contender. For nearly a decade Georgetown remained a top twenty-five team, but a number of factors, not least the NBA's raising of the age minimum for its players, led to a new decline and John Thompson III's firing in 2017. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
