Syracuse vs. Georgetown: The oral history, chapter four

Chapter four: An era ends

After 33 years of loving to hate each other, Georgetown and Syracuse are going their separate ways, their fierce bond ultimately riven not by animosity but by the financial demands of big-time football. The Hoyas don’t play it; Syracuse does and now joins the exodus of former Big East schools to leagues with more football clout. As conference allegiances continue to shift throughout the nation, unsettling the once familiar landscape of college sports, basketball fans won’t soon forget a rivalry that for more than three decades delivered heartache and triumph in equal measure — as well as mutual respect.

Gallery

The rivalry: Georgetown vs. Syracuse: As Georgetown and Syracuse prepare to play for perhaps the last time as Big East rivals, here is a look at some of the their greatest games over the past three decades.

Chapter 4: Cast of characters

Jim Boeheim
Syracuse coach, 1976-present. Boeheim won a national title in 2003. He is 37-35 all-time against Georgetown. Only Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski has more all-time wins among Division I men’s coaches than Boeheim’s 911.

John Reagan
Georgetown fan, creator of HoyaSaxa.com, which hosts a popular message board for Hoyas fanatics.

Othella Harrington
Georgetown forward-center, 1992-96. Harrington ranks fourth all-time in total rebounds at Georgetown and fifth all-time in scoring.

John Thompson Jr.
Georgetown coach, 1972-99. Thompson went 26-22 against Syracuse during his term as Hoyas coach. He won the national title in 1984.

John Thompson III
Georgetown coach, 2004-present. The son of John Thompson Jr., Thompson III is 6-9 against Syracuse in his career as Hoyas coach.

Mike Tirico
1988 Syracuse graduate; ESPN broadcaster, 1991-present. Tirico has called college basketball games for the network since 1997.

Mike Tranghese
Big East associate commissioner, 1979-90; Big East commissioner, 1990-2009. Tranghese was the conference’s first full-time employee. While he was with the Big East, Georgetown went to four Final Fours and Syracuse went to three.

Michael Wilbon
Sportswriter/columnist for The Washington Post, 1979-2010. Wilbon was the Georgetown beat writer in the mid-1980s.

More on this Story

• Syracuse vs. Georgetown: The oral history
• Syracuse vs. Georgetown: The oral history, chapter two
• Syracuse vs. Georgetown: The oral history, chapter three
• Syracuse vs. Georgetown: The oral history, chapter four

John Reagan, Georgetown fan, creator of Hoyasaxa.com: “[Former Big East commissioner] Dave Gavitt once said, ‘The Big East is not simply a league of convenience but one of commitment.’ Thanks to the TV networks, that is no longer the case. ESPN built up the Big East, and they helped tear it down. Rivalries are now disposable because of money — the same money that leads Maryland to drop 60 years of games with Duke for the likes of Minnesota and Purdue, or for West Virginia to fly 1,500 miles for a midweek game with Texas Tech instead of a bus trip to Pitt.

“Tomorrow’s conferences are all built on convenience, because there will be no long-term commitments. The mercantile nature of college sports is shredding rivalries for the sake of shifting television rights and for college presidents not to be caught standing when the game of NCAA musical chairs comes to a stop.”

Othella Harrington, Georgetown center, 1992-96; current assistant coach: “It has been an honor and privilege just to have been part of those games. It’s a shame. I’m saddened that they won’t be playing each other on a yearly basis. Now, will they play each other down the line? That’s above my pay grade. No one wants to see great rivalries come to an end.”

Wilbon: “The end of this series, the end of Georgetown-Syracuse, the end of the Big East as we knew it is heinous. . . .

“College sports is important largely for a specific reason: tradition. You know, pro sports people come and go. College sports aren’t about the players. They’re about the coaches, the uniforms, the fans, the buildings they play in, the tournament, the rivalries — that’s what they’ve been selling. These schools and these conferences sold that. They sold it for 75 years and now they want to act like it doesn’t exist. Well, it doesn’t exist any more because they killed it.”

Tirico: “You hate to be the old guy in the corner in the barbershop and say, ‘Things were better when I was a kid,’ but they’re not going to find better in whatever conferences they go to — Catholic 7 or Syracuse in the ACC — they’re not going to find a better rivalry. The history, the legacy — takes 25 years to replace that, and we don’t have time for that in this watered down time of basketball. You may find more lucrative places to land as a conference. You may find better basketball-fits with other institutions. But I don’t think you’re going to find a better rivalry than Syracuse-Georgetown.”