At 6-feet, 10-inches tall, John Thompson certainly was an imposing presence while stalking the sidelines as Georgetown's head coach for almost 30 years. And when the news of his death at the age of 78 came out Monday, the tall tales about "Big John" quickly followed.

"My junior year, we were playing at the Capital Centre, and I hit three or four 'threes' in the first half," remembered former Syracuse guard Matt Roe. "I'm running down the right side of the court, and I probably can't use the exact words he said, but he said, pretty much, 'This guy is not getting another shot the rest of the game.' And, I didn't get another shot the rest of the game."

What You Need To Know


  • Former Georgetown basketball coach John Thompson died Monday at the age of 78

  • Thompson built the Hoyas into a national power during his 27 years there from 1972-99

  • Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim remembers "Big John" as, first, a fierce rival, and later, as a good friend

  • Thompson and Boeheim are both members of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame

Orange coach Jim Boeheim shared his memories of Thompson with a national audience on the Dan Patrick Show Monday, praising his former Hoya nemesis as "bigger than life," and the first African-American role model for college basketball players and coaches. Boeheim says Syracuse-Georgetown was the most bitter rivalry in the game for about 15 years between the early '80s and mid-'90s, above even Duke-North Carolina. And it was only after that period that he and Thompson finally became friends.

"We found out that neither one of us were such bad guys," said Boeheim. "It's ironic that when we won (the NCAA championship) in '03, as I shook hands with Roy Williams, the next person I shook hands with was John Thompson. He was sitting at the radio table and he had a big smile on his face, he was happy for me. We became great friends."

Sonny Spera played guard for Syracuse in the early 1980s when the rivalry was born, and at its most intense.

"As an Orangeman, we hated Georgetown and everything that they stood for," Spera said, "but you had to respect them."

Spera remembers sitting at a Big East luncheon table with Gene Waldron and several Hoyas seated nearby. When Waldron got the group going with a series of jokes and good-natured jabs, the Georgetown players got rowdy. Then, Big John intervened.

"He had a looming demeanor, and his voice bellowed," said Spera. "Thompson saw this, and he stood up, didn't say a word, just stood up, and those guys went silent, sat back down, and hung their heads. They didn't say a word the rest of the luncheon."

Roe says he was there (as a fan) when Thompson famously "closed" Manley Field House. Spera remembers watching from the sidelines when an orange smacked against the backboard while Patrick Ewing was shooting a free throw.

Boeheim recalls the Georgetown giant "tried to intimidate everybody" with his height and his demeanor, "and if you couldn't stand up to that, you were toast." But, the Hall of Famer also says, for Thompson, it was all in fun.

"He would poke us when we'd play Georgetown, and he loved doing that. But, again, there's not really any of us that are unique in coaching. But, he was. He was."