dick armitage

[chinatownfanclub]

i believe armitage, tenet, esherick, and the guy who we liked to refer to as james bond were all neighbors. they all used to sit underneath the basket closest to where the media and the sports promotions staff. russert appeared to disappear about 10 min into the rutgers game unless he moved to a better seat than the one right in front of the 104 sign. i actually ran into mark shields when i was picking up my season tix at the first game. he's a very avid supporter.

[chinatownfanclub]

i agree with the sentiment that we don't seem to be drawing as well this year. Where are all the people who were calling for esherick's head? I'm not sure if the firing turned off some of the more loyal supporters, but i hope they will return with success. i feel like we ought to be able to turnout more than 6,000 people for games.

[HoyaSox04]

Chinatown, you can find a lot of us that were calling for Esh's head in the front rows of the YA section...

That being said, I think its a lot harder to increase alumni and other fan turnout as rapidly as we have with the student turnout. Give it time, Im sure as we continue on the path JT3 has laid, the people will come back in time. Never forget: WE ARE GEORGETOWN. People will remember.

[TBird41]

Jack said:

A few other former MCI regulars I have not seen this year, though it is possible they are in a box somewhere: Joe Lang, John Thompson (Pops), and of course Blake Esherick.

Jack-they showed JT at the UConn game during the highlights on Sportscenter. Plus I saw him at the San Jose State game and I assume he was at Illinois, since he was talking about the student section during his radion show the next day.

[Cambridge]

As someone who signed the petition, and a member of the class whose participation seemed dominated the list (2002) I can say that very very few of my friends, and therefor I can assume classmates, stayed in DC after graduation. I think this was slightly abberation from the normal pattern post-graduation, but due primarily to the tragic job market that greeted us upon graduation.

We left school during the worst economy in nearly 50 years and certainly felt it. It was tough to have watched the two proceeding classes choose between job offers based on the size of signing bonuses, only to become a senior and not even have companies recruit on campus.

I would say that maybe one out of ten people had a job at the time of graduation...as opposed to even the two years previous where that number was closer to 80% -- and I've heard that number is climbing again to near 70%. Of cours, most managed to find employment within 6 months of graduation, but because of this economic uncertainty, many many people, more than probably usual, moved away from DC back home or at least to areas where they had more "connections" -- NY, Boston, SF, in the hopes of landing a job.

That being said, now that the economy has recovered to a degree, I see a fairly sizable migration back to DC by my fellow classmates. I may even join the flood. We'll see.

But I feel that it's unfortunate because we suffered through some of the darkest years of Georgetown bball -- the Esh Era -- and now we're not local so we can't enjoy the historic return.

[SSHoya]

"Can somebody tell me why the Deputy Secretary of State sits behind the scorer's table at every Hoya home game?

The last couple of season he would sit courtside, often bringing tag-alongs Tenet, Condy, and Powell. But did he get hired by the Athletic Department or something? How do I get to sit behind the scorer's table?"

Don't know if this post was tongue in cheek but the timekeeper (who was separated from birth with Armitage) is Dr. John Tuccillo, former economics professor at Georgetown in the 1970s & early 80s. I believe he is C '67.

[TrueHoyaBlue]

chinatownfanclub said:

i agree with the sentiment that we don't seem to be drawing as well this year. Where are all the people who were calling for esherick's head? I'm not sure if the firing turned off some of the more loyal supporters, but i hope they will return with success. i feel like we ought to be able to turnout more than 6,000 people for games.

I think that more definitely needs to be done, but I'm not sure that there's been a big dropoff in attendance.


Last year, the average attendance was 8,431. However, that included a Duke game, with attendance of 20,000+. If you take the Duke game out of the equation, it averages out to 7,646 per game.


This year, in 8 games (which includes Citadel, Norfolk State, and Howard -- and only 2 Big East games, to this point) the average attendance stands at 7,730.


Is it unfair to exclude Duke, and include Illinois? Perhaps... but at this point in the conference season, I think it's too early to say that there has been a big dropoff in attendance.

[SFHoya99]

In pro sports, the attendance boost usually comes the year after success. I make no excuses for petition-signers in DC who do not support, but in terms of local non-alumni (which we must rely on), the boost will come the year after.

[JohnJacquesLayup]

hoyahoyasaxa said:

Armitage and Esherick are squash buddies, and good friends. Freeman got an internship in Armitage's office the summer before his final year this way, and that's how both Freeman and Faulkner got their basketball ambassador jobs. Another good example of the "Georgetown Mafia" in action in the federal government. Gotta love it!

I assume Armitage's loyalty to Gtown basketball went away as soon as Esherick got fired.

So Armitage was an Esherick fan and not a Gtown basketball fan? I understand how he must feel, I have refused to follow the team since Drew Hall left.

[lichoya68]

i think tenet and armitage are good friends and friends with jack degioia.. and someone told me that armitage i think lives next to craig who know go hoyas beat nova the 85 celebraters

[kchoya]

Jack said:

A few other former MCI regulars I have not seen this year, though it is possible they are in a box somewhere: Joe Lang, John Thompson (Pops), and of course Blake Esherick.

JT2 seems to watch a lot of games from a luxury suite. Someone below mentioned the UConn game where the TV cameras showed him watching from a box. I know I've seen other games where he's doing the same thing.

[jerseyhoya34]

When Esh was around, JT2 would often watch from press row. I like having him watch from a press box because if he appeared near the floor, everyone would start talking about the father/son thing, which is annoying after a while.

[Joe Hoya]

wsrrules said:

Not sure where his son goes to school, but last year Tim Russert was definitely wearing a BC tie at the BC-Gtown game at MCI.

Tim Russert's son is a freshman at Boston College. My sister is a classmate of his. Guess he was showing some early support last year.

[Big Dog]

Two thoughts:

1) Wasn't it impossible for the Illinois game to pull in 20,000 fans because they didn't open the top of the arena (I thought I read that somewhere) and won't be doing so all season, in which case we should expect attendance to be lower?

2) The Hoyas haven't been on TV AT ALL. That's a HUGE problem in trying to attract local alumni to games. Until the Pitt win, which I think most people couldn't watch, no one even had much sense of what this team was about.

Of course, it seems to the naked eye that they've been getting more and better local newspaper coverage this year, but we shall see.

As for the petition, most of it was 2001 & 2002 alumni, many more of whom live elsewhere. If the Hoyas want to schedule half their home games at Madison Square Garden, I bet they'd do pretty well.

Seriously, they should agree to play home games against Rutgers, Syracuse, UConn, Seton Hall, and St. Johns at MSG. They could offer a New York ticket page to NY-area alumni. I bet they'd average more per game in attendance than playing all those games in DC. And the difference in home court advantage would be minimal. Somebody get on this. Imagine how well-tuned they'd be for the conference tournament.

Note that the Delta and US Airways shuttle flights can frequently be quicker than driving a bus from McDonough to MCI Center.

[Big Dog]

And another thing: Did anybody read a little bit of sour grapes into DFW's post there?

I don't care what State Department big wigs decided no longer to come to our games. The Esherick firing is an UNQUALIFIED SUCCESS. There can be no argument the other way.

By the way, somebody let me know when the first "Esherick to major conference hoops program X" rumor pops up. Oh that's right--it will never happen.

[Big Dog]

Oh wait, my final point.

The statistics about posters who haven't returned isn't necessarily a reflection of loss of interest in the program. I think that underestimates the effect of the change in medium from the old HoyaTalk board to this funky new format. The mere fact of registration was probably too much for some. The inability to see which threads are permeated by wise posters vs. space-fillers has also proved to be a major downside. I think we lost some people in the transition. Doseofreality comes to mind.

[GUHoya07]

No Move to MSG! haha. Student attendance is skyrocketing and it has been really impressive so far. Although the rest of the attendance may not be creating that much of a home court advantage, I think the student section is. It has been mentioned numerous times by newspapers and opposing fans on talkboards as well as by JT on his radio show.

[Big Dog]

That's what I've been hearing and reading everywhere, and its terrific news. Keep up the good work students!

[jerseyhoya34]

I also don't buy into the criticism of the 3900-5000 who contributed to the Save the Hoyas movement for the simple reason that it is probably the first and only time that 90% of them were contacted and asked to participate in anything related to GU basketball. That is a sad story to tell, but most likely the truth. It is high time that the folks in Administration let the HHC raise money outside of the Beltway, where most GU alumni reside.

[FreeNachos]

As for fan support, many of us live out of town...until we reach top 25, we won't fill the place. During the program's hey days (1980s and AI years), many in attendance were local sport fans. We're definitely better this year. But we're not at the level where DC sports fans in general will come down.

Give JT III a couple of years.