Hoya File Photo John Thompson and Allen Iverson, two of Georgetown’s most noteworthy figures.

For many fans, the return of the Georgetown men’s basketball team to the national spotlight has revived memories of the Hoyas’ glory days. From the turn of the 20th century into the early 21st century the Hoyas have compiled a long and illusterous history.

The Georgetown men’s basketball team was effectively born in 1906, playing a four-game season under no official head coach. They were 2-2, competing against Virginia and George Washington.

In 1953, the Hoyas made their first postseason appearance, losing to Louisville in the National Invitational Tournament to cap off a 13-7 season under Head Coach Harry Jeannette.

They didn’t return to the postseason until 1970, when Georgetown Head Coach John Magee’s Hoyas went 18-7 and lost 83-82 to Louisiana State in the NIT. One year later, Magee would spend his last season on the Hilltop leading the Hoyas to an abysmal 3-23 1971-72 season. Although that team did suffer 44- and 40-point losses to Marquette and St. John’s, respectively, it also lost five games by five or fewer points.

The next season saw the beginning of the historic John Thompson era. Thompson turned the program around almost immediately, going 12-14 in 1973 and 13-13 in 1974 and, in 1975, leading the 18-10 Hoyas to win the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Southern Division Tournament, which granted them their first-ever NCAA tournament bid. They lost in the first round to Central Michigan, 75-77. They followed it up with a similar season in 1976, going 21-7 and losing to Arizona in the first round of the tournament.

The Hoyas went to the NIT for the next two seasons, but in 1979 made it back to the NCAA Tournament with a 24-5 record. They lost by six to Rutgers.

1979-80 was the inaugural season of the Big East conference. The initial members were Providence, St. John’s, Syracuse, Seton Hall, Connecticut, Boston College and Georgetown. The Hoyas won the first conference tournament, beating Syracuse 87-81. They made it to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament but lost by one point to Iowa. In 1981, they lost to the rival Orangemen in the Big East tournament and were done after the first round of the NCAA tournament.

1982 began a streak of the greatest seasons in Hoya history. Eric Floyd led the Hoyas in scoring, while future NBA All-Star Patrick Ewing grabbed the most boards. Georgetown won the Big East tournament and made it past Wyoming, Fresno State, Oregon State and Louisville to face North Carolina in the championship but lost, 63-62.

In 1983, the 22-10 Hoyas lasted only two rounds in the NCAAs, falling to Memphis State 57-66, but, of course, they would make up for it just one year later.

The 1984 championship season was the best in Georgetown history and certainly one of the greatest in all of NCAA basketball. The Hoyas went 34-3. Their three losses came to De Paul (63-61), Villanova (65-63 in double overtime) and St. John’s (75-71). Ewing led the Hoyas in scoring (16.4 ppg) and rebounding (10 rpg). They beat Syracuse in overtime to win the Big East tournament, and had another close game in the first round of the NCAA’s, beating Southern Methodist by one point. But they got past UNLV, Dayton and Kentucky to face the defending national champs and the “Phi Slamma Jamma”-era Houston Cougars in the final. The Hoyas fought to an 84-75 victory to bring home the school’s first-ever national championship.

The Hoyas posted an even better record the following season, going 35-3. Their two regular-season losses came at the hands of St. John’s, by one point and in the very next game, to Syracuse, by two points. Hoya Michael Jackson had the most assists in Georgetown history with 242. They handily won the Big East tournament and entered the first-ever 64-team NCAA tournament. They soundly defeated Lehigh, Temple, Loyola, Georgia Tech and St. John’s before facing Villanova in the championship. They lost that game 64-66, and have not been back to the Final Four since.

Ewing had begun the legacy of great post players flourishing at Georgetown, and Dikembe Mutombo and Alonzo Mourning continued that tradition in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The farthest they made it in the tournament, however, was losing to Duke in the 1989 Elite Eight. And in 1993, the Hoyas failed to even make it to the NCAAs and instead lost to Minnesota in the NIT.

They rebounded a bit in 1995 as Allen Iverson came to the Hilltop, but he left for the NCAA after sophomore year, when he scored the most points ever in a season (926) and the Hoyas failed to make it past Massachusetts in the Elite Eight.

Two years later, the Hoyas found themselves in the 1998 NIT, losing by one point to Georgia Tech. The following season would be Thompson’s last, as he resigned in January, citing “personal problems.” Craig Esherick took over and endured two seasons that ended in trips to the NIT before last year’s trip to the Sweet 16.