"I don't care how old your child is, if your child is in pain, whether it's physical or psychological, you feel it," she said.His disability has made finding work difficult, Karen Thompson said.
On a January day in 1992, an accident on a central North Dakota farm forever changed John Thompson's life. Roy Williams said it best when paying tribute to the former Georgetown coach, who died Monday at the age of 78.
John Robert Thompson Jr. (born September 2, 1941) is a former American college basketball coach for the Georgetown Hoyas.He is now a professional radio and TV sports commentator.
"That's always been a great thing about it," he said.Readers can reach Forum reporter Heidi Shaffer at (701) 241-5511 It was one of the great high school teams of the 20th century.Thompson moved on to Providence College, which was on the move with Joe Mullaney as coach and had won the 1961 NIT, then a very big thing indeed.
A 2012 photo of John Thompson, 20 years after his arms were ripped off in a farm accident near Hursdfield, N.D. His arms were reattached in a story that made international news. The book became a best-seller in the Midwest, and he hopes to republish it for the 20th anniversary of the accident, Thompson said.Though he regained limited use of his arms, the physical limitations of Thompson's 19-year-old injuries have been more pronounced in recent months, he said.Last year, Thompson began losing some strength in his hands, a problem made worse by North Dakota winters, he said. Big John Thompson was 6-10 and, well, we won’t say. They had one lone NIT appearance to show for the 19 years prior to Thompson’s arrival and they had bottomed out with a 3-23 season in 1971-72.John Thompson took charge, aggressively recruiting Black talent seldom before seen at Georgetown, and creating a program of insularity.
It’s hardly an exaggeration to say that We have never seen anything like the Georgetown program he created and we probably will never see anything like it again, for better or worse. With Ewing on his squad, Thompson took his team to Final Fours in 1982, 1984, and 1985, winning it all in 1984 — making him the first Black coach to win an NCAA title — and losing two epic games by 1 (North Carolina) and 2 points (Villanova).It was during these years that the entire sports world became acquainted with the John Thompson M.O.
They were off and running. But the publicity was positive in many ways, too, he said.
His celebrity helped raise money for United Blood Services and other charities over the years.
To the best of anyone’s knowledge, the situation was settled. But the Big John we knew wasn’t 6 foot 6, weighing 245. On a January day in 1992, an accident on a central North Dakota farm forever changed John Thompson's life.The then-high school senior's arms were severed by a tractor's power intake and successfully reattached in an eight-hour surgery.Today, the 37-year-old works as a real estate agent in Minot, N.D., where he has lived for the past 11 years.Thompson still struggles daily with the results of that accident - both physically and emotionally, said his mom, Karen Thompson, who still lives on the Hurdsfield, N.D., farm where the accident took place. The odds are he and his Hoya teams had gotten under your skin. The then-high school senior's arms were severed by a tractor's power intake and successfully reattached in an eight-hour surgery.
"Coming from a town of 70 people and not knowing anything ... being thrown into the spotlight and being known around the world was just scary," he said. 101 5th Street North, Fargo, Thompson’s Friars team likewise won the 1963 NIT, and became an NCAA tourney team in his senior year, when he averaged 26 points and 14 rebounds a game. He wanted to clear the line so she could call the ambulance as quickly as possible. He had his professional admirers, among them Dean Smith. On a January day in 1992, an accident on a central North Dakota farm forever changed John Thompson's life.
Georgetown would be a force until Thompson’s surprise resignation in 1999.Big John’s 27-year record was 596-239, with 20 NCAA tournaments and four NITs. Patrick Ewing of Cambridge Rindge and Latin was the foremost big-man prospect in America. Of course, many people were already well aware of the soft, human side of John Thompson.“When I was in the Army,” recalled former Boston Mayor Ray Flynn, a PC teammate of note, “my mother called me one day to tell me that John Thompson, who was playing for the Boston Celtics at the time, dropped by our home in South Boston to bring my mom an apple pie. Postgames were a chore for the media, with Mary Fenlon as the unsmiling gatekeeper.
Media relations were testy.