Texas Rangers’ PR man reflects on the man who gave him a chance, John Thompson
One of the more obscure facts in the history of DFW sports is that the long time public relations director of the Texas Rangers was once a radio voice of the Georgetown Hoyas.
John Blake, who has served as the Rangers PR guy for what feels like no less than 719 years, was a part of the radio call of one of the most famous games in the history of college basketball, the 1982 NCAA national title between Georgetown and North Carolina.
Carolina won it on freshman Michael Jordan’s jump shot with 15 seconds remaining, but the game was sealed eight seconds later when Georgetown guard Fred Brown accidentally threw a pass directly to Tar Heels’ forward James Worthy.
CBS play-by-play voice Gary Bender called it by saying, “Oh, he threw it to the wrong man! He threw it to Worthy!”
Several years ago I asked Blake how he handled that call for the Georgetown broadcast. He said, “I think I said, ‘Worthy steals the ball!”
At that time, Georgetown, a small private school in Washington, D.C., was becoming one of the most powerful college basketball teams in America under coach John Thompson.
According to WJLA in Washington, D.C., the 78-year-old Thompson died Sunday.
He was the first Black coach to win an NCAA title in men’s basketball, in 1984. The Hoyas reached the title games in 1982, 1984 and 1985; they lost their two title games by a combined three points.
Thompson’s legacy is far greater than a good run at Georgetown, but rather the young men whose lives he impacted. He was a fierce advocate for Black student athletes, and famously went to war with the NCAA over a variety of issues.
To suggest that his life just impacted Black basketball players at Georgetown is also a miss.
“It’s a very sad day for me,” Blake wrote via email. “Coach Thompson was really my first boss.”
Had no idea.
“In 1977, he put his trust in a 22-year-old to promote Georgetown basketball as the school’s Sports Information Director,” Blake wrote. “My freshman year at Georgetown in 1973 was his second year at the Hilltop and as a student assistant in the Athletic Department and writer for the school newspaper, I had an inside view as he was building what would become a great and formidable basketball program. I got to see the many challenges he faced in trying to do that at Georgetown University and how he overcame the barriers.”
Thompson was hired by Georgetown in 1972, to take over a team that finished 3-23 the previous season.
Blake left Georgetown to work for the Baltimore Orioles in 1979, but he remained with the team as its radio color analyst. It was not uncommon back then for radio voices to double as media relations directors for teams.
If you’ve never heard Blake on the radio, he’s quite good at it.
Just as Blake was on the call for Georgetown’s loss in the title game to North Carolina, he was there in the Kingdome in Seattle when the Hoyas won the championship in 1984 over Hakeem Olajuwon and Houston.
Blake called it “Little Georgetown.” The enrollment is under 5,000.
Thompson remained at Georgetown until he resigned during the 1998-99 season. In between he coached the last all amateur U.S. Olympic team, in 1988, and eventually was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
His son served as the Hoyas’ head coach from 2004 to ‘17.
A physically imposing man, Thompson was well known for his temper, and refusal to be intimidated. He famously once threatened a local drug lord in the D.C. area, and told him to stay away from his players.
“Coach Thompson meant so much to his players, Georgetown, the Washington, D.C. community, college sports, and his influence on society overall,” Blake wrote. “He could be very intimidating and was certainly never shy to voice his feelings and opinions. But his ability to create much needed changes is undeniable.
“I admired him when he fought to make a difference way back in 1973 and throughout his life and while our paths crossed only infrequently in recent years, I will never forget the opportunity he gave me more than 40 years ago.”
People didn’t always agree with John Thompson, but it was hard to find someone who didn’t respect him, and he left this world with an array of grateful people from NBA stars, to John Blake.
