At the time of this writing, I recently returned from the John Carroll Weekend in Philadelphia, celebrating its 73rd annual awards dinner to recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of six distinguished alumni. In the words of the Alumni Association, "The John Carroll Award recognizes alumni whose achievements and record of service exemplify the ideals and traditions of Georgetown University and its founder."

Seventy-three years is quite a long time for any event, especially at Georgetown. Traditions do not exist on inertia, but take commitment, which has inspired such communities as the Wall Street Alliance and Black Alumni Council. However, without vigilance, it doesn't take much for events to lapse into the ether that is summed up in the phrase "maybe we'll do it next time." After a while, the next time never comes.

Such is the cautionary story about the annual Hoop Club post-season banquet, a tradition that was lost in the urgency of the here and now.


Athletic gatherings at Georgetown have come and gone over the years. From 1925 through 1940, the Varsity "G" Dinner was a signature event, serving as the means for hundreds of alumni and students to gather each year to salute the letterman of the past academic year. Consolidated into a general alumni event by 1941, it was rendered moot by the Second World War. When students and alumni returned in 1946, the dinner had ceased to exist.

Without a support structure, teams often fielded post-season gatherings on an infrequent basis. By the founding of the Hoya Hoop Club in 1976, interest grew in pursuing an annual post-season banquet for the team and its supporters, along the lines of what the University of Maryland had done for years. In 1977, the inaugural Hoya Hoop Club banquet was held at the Twin Bridges Marriott with CBS News correspondent and Georgetown basketball fan Dan Rather as its guest speaker. Within five years, the number of attendees grew rapidly.

The event had the support of the fans, the support of the University, and most importantly, the support of John Thompson, who allowed players to mingle with fans where they would not do so during the season, and took particular care to invite the cheerleaders and the band as his guests, a means to thank them for their support. Over the next decade, the event rotated through various Washington-area hotels (the Shoreham, the Willard, and the Key Bridge Marriott, among others) and grew in both interest and guest speakers. The roll call of speakers over the next decade and a half was a who's who from contemporary college basketball: Dean Smith, George Raveling, Sen. Bill Bradley, Al McGuire, Billy Packer, Dave Gavitt, and P.J. Carlesimo, among others.

While the banquet was nominally an opportunity to present the team awards, it was also the opportunity for Thompson to speak candidly on the season just concluded and to do so, in a simpler, pre-Internet time, without much of any filter. If Thompson wanted to talk, he would talk, and often would go over an hour without notes.

The elder Thompson could be kind and caustic in the same event, once famously razzing one of his players for failing to show up wearing a tie, for instance. The annual turnouts, however, were more about building community for Georgetown basketball among the fans who most closely supported the program. This continued as the event moved to the Leavey Center and through the Craig Esherick and John Thompson III years, with University president Jack DeGioia as a frequent attendee and after dinner speaker.

DeGioia's extended comments at the 2003 banquet set the course for his expectations of the program going forward:

"I am here to say thank you. Four thank yous - (1) to those of you who are here in attendance this evening - the dedicated and committed supporters of this program; (2) to the members of the team, and for your dedication and commitment to what we ask of you; (3) to Coach Esherick and the coaching staff; (4) to the parents and families responsible for the young men who are part of the Georgetown Basketball program.

Basketball is a game. It is not a metaphor. It is not life. But it is a game that reflects and refracts many dimensions of our lives. It can bring us joy and it can bring us heartbreak, it can be fun and, as for the students who play this game for Georgetown, for their coaches, and those who play the various roles in the program, it can be tremendous work. It can be exasperating and exhilarating. We have been through a season which provided us all, at different moments of time with our own moments of truth. Moments when we found ourselves living with those questions that define who it is that we are and to what it is we are deeply committed.

First, to those here tonight who support this program; For the past 28 years I have made my home here at Georgetown. I have served this university in many roles, but one that I have enjoyed that most has been my relationship with this program. It covers all my 28 years. I remember some wonderful moments in McDonough - when one of my classmates - Al Dutch - cracked the starting lineup as a freshman. I remember the first time Craig Shelton entered a game. I remember watching our starting point guard get a little upset with a very tall guy from American University; and I remember when a sharp shooter came off the bench to hit a 60 footer to beat GW at the buzzer.

I can remember sleeping on the couch of Fran Connors' future wire, when Fran and John Blake and I drove up to watch Coach Thompson coach an All Star team in Philadelphia that would remind you of a basketball version of Slapshot or Bingo Long. I remember the last time we played at Syracuse in Manley, something that even a well-deserved National Championship won't help them to ever get over. And then the Maryland and Iowa games at the Spectrum in 1980, the creation of the conference, the arrival of some wonderful young men in the 1980's who took the program up another level, New Orleans, Seattle and Lexington, Patrick, Dikembe, Alonzo, Allen and wonderful souls like Joey Brown, Ya Ya and Boubacar, Felix and Charles and Jaren.

I share a few of my own personal impressions with those of you here this evening who have been supporting this program for these past 30 years. I know you have your own memories, your reasons for sustaining your commitment to this program. In a world where the one constant is change, I like to think that this program is like a touchstone an example of what we can do, of what we can be when we are at our best. I have attended this dinner for most of these years. I know who is here this evening. I know who has stayed with us through the ups and downs and the ins and outs. I am here tonight, first to thank you for the constancy of your support and commitment to this program.

To the players: You are heirs to a proud tradition. People often ask me, what makes Georgetown different? What accounts for the success of this university when it's clear you don't have the money or the facilities that other places do? I answer that it is the men and women who are committed to the mission embodied in the tradition of this university. We believe that we live our lives in a tradition. Traditions are not static, abstractions - they are living, breathing, evolving, dynamic sources of life, of energy. This differentiates Georgetown. And this basketball program has embraced the tradition of this university and interpreted it in the context of intercollegiate basketball. What you are part of is not one team in one season. You are not an isolated group with 19 wins in 2003. You are part of a proud tradition that began long before you were born and will continue when your children are ready for college...

Why do we do this? Why does a University like Georgetown invite you in and ask you to compete at the level that we do? For three reasons. First, we want to encourage performance, from young people, at the highest degree possible. We want to do this in the classroom and in the recital hall, in the news room and on the basketball court... we provide hundreds of opportunities for you and your classmates to develop yourselves during your undergraduate years. About 600 of our 6000 students participate in one set of these opportunities - intercollegiate athletics...We provide this opportunity to you because we believe this is a way in which you can fulfill your promise and potential and prepare yourselves for the world's fight.

Second, we seek to create opportunities for the community to come together and celebrate this commitment, this expression of excellence. We want to gather this community around the experience of watching you perform at your very best. A celebration of your gifts, that can bring together an entire community.

Third, it's fun. Enjoy this. For all of us, but especially for you, enjoy this. There is nothing quite like this. You will have other incredible experiences in your lives. Anyone who tells you these are the best years of your lives isn't really telling you the truth. You have incredible adventures ahead of you. But this is special and there is nothing you will experience that is quite like this. What is special about Georgetown Basketball is the authenticity of the program. Even when we were down this season, we were Georgetown. If you put our team out on the court and never put the name of the school on the uniform, it would take just a few minutes before everyone watching would know and would say - "That's a Georgetown team." Intensity of effort, focus, discipline, class, dignity, honor- the integration of the entire experience - there is an authenticity of our program.

So, thank you for representing this university with class and dignity. Thank you for the commitment you make in the classroom. Thank you for your willingness to accept the challenge and responsibility of competing in intercollegiate basketball and for honoring, and extending this tradition of Georgetown basketball.

For the coaches, you accept the commitments we ask of you. And here too, there are three: (1) That each student we offer the opportunity in which to participate in this program - that each will accept the responsibilities entailed - and the first of those is to embrace the education provided here. The first commitment - that our students will receive our education and they will graduate; When I say our education, it means more than that they will graduate. It also means that they are prepared to live lives in which they will be leaders in their communities and businesses, lives in which they will be I husbands and fathers, friends, and citizens. You accept this set of responsibilities that is grounded in our 214-year tradition of Catholic and Jesuit education here on the Hilltop. (2) Secondly, that we do it honestly, that we be above reproach, that we must set the standard for integrity in intercollegiate athletics. And we do; (3) And finally, that we win. We keep score for a reason. Everyone has a better experience when we are winning...

Finally, I want to thank the parents and guardians, the families who are here this evening for entrusting your sons to us. We take our responsibilities seriously here. We believe that those here tonight that you entrust - especially our coaches - have a special responsibility. You should expect women and men of the highest moral fiber and the most skilled in the game. I have been associated with the Georgetown Athletic program for 28 years and I can say without hesitation that the women and men that we bring in here to coach meet that expectation...On behalf of everyone here at Georgetown, thank you."

The banquet was about having fun, too. In a 2015 article at Casual Hoya, Roey Hadar (F'17) wrote about his experience as a student attendee running into John Thompson at the event:

"Some Pep Band members and I stayed around looking for photo ops with players and chances to schmooze. I snapped a picture with Hoyas star guard D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera and teased him about his decision to declare for the NBA Draft and then return. Jabril Trawick and I took a picture together after I took one with him and a Pep Band member. I got to meet "Big Coach" John Thompson, Jr., who looked at me and asked "I haven't met you, what's your name?" I said, "Hi, I'm Roey"... He replies, "Hi Roey, I'm John," and I respond with some bravado, "Pleasure to meet you, John." With his usual serious demeanor he cautions me, "Now I don't like young people calling me John, call me Coach." I've never been happier to be corrected, and nodded in the affirmative, "Sure thing, Coach!" He brought me in for a handshake & hug. It was awesome."

The banquets continued through at least 2016, but by the start of the 2017 off-season, John Thompson III had been fired and the banquet appears to have been skipped, lacking an active head coach. The event had declined in interest as the Hoop Club membership did, a mid-week event date was increasingly inconvenient to all but the most local of fans, and the University was quietly pushing back on funding sport-specific dinners like this. Concurrent with the arrival of Patrick Ewing, the Hoop Club banquet gave way to a "Men's Basketball Reception". Promotion was limited, and attendance reflected it. The reception was held for two seasons, but was cancelled during COVID in 2020 and 2021. In 2022, a reception was held in Gaston Hall, where, sans food and beverage, the two seniors on the squad received commemorative jerseys in a brief program, with Ewing showing up to the ceremony with what appeared to be a broken arm. In true Georgetown fashion, it was never explained. If there was even going to be a reception in 2023, Ewing's subsequent firing and the build-up to Ed Cooley's hiring rendered it moot. No event has been held in the years since.

Also missing: awards. For reasons never fully explained (this is Georgetown, after all), John Thompson III stopped issuing annual awards early in his tenure. The Raymond Medley award, presented since 1977 to the player or manager judged to be a model student athlete by his performance on and off the court, was last presented in 2006. The Mary Fenlon Scholar Athlete Award ended in 2007, and the Francis "Reds" Daly Award, presented since 1955 for the most valuable player, was summarily ended after 2008.

Putting aside the sarcasm that it's difficult to justify an awards banquet with no awards, the overall basketball community is left with a generation of what-ifs as to the end of season recognition due its players. We can presume, but will truly never know, whether an Otto Porter, a Jessie Govan, a Mac McClung or a Jahvon Blair would have been given the recognition due from the fan base that events like this once did.

And with that, something went missing in the fabric that is Georgetown basketball.


Yes, it's a different era. A player in the transfer portal may be more interested in arranging a visit to Ole Miss or Michigan State than showing up to accept the Raymond Medley Award, and as far as some in the University might suggest, if someone wants to have dinner with Ed Cooley, a six figure check to Hoyas Rising is the way to do it. The Hoya Hoop Club no longer holds elite status within the University nor the fan base which once supported it. But as the John Carroll Awards were more than watching six alumni and a faculty member receive a medal, events like the banquet performed three vital community-building functions: recognition, appreciation, and celebration.

Don't underestimate the power of celebration. It's why the biggest takeaway from those who attended John Carroll in Philadelphia (after enjoying the weekend's events, of course) was how many said they were already looking forward to going to next year's event in San Juan, PR.

Men's basketball doesn't have to go to Philadelphia or San Juan for its supporters to celebrate the end of a season. For now, however, they have no place to go.