Respect is back. Fear is next.

Those are the words that appeared on the T-shirts of hundreds of Georgetown fans as they stormed the Verizon Center floor on Jan. 21, 2006. Georgetown had just upset the undefeated and No. 1 Duke. It would be another season before the Hoyas would make a run to the Final Four under Head Coach John Thompson III – but after beating the mighty Blue Devils, they could check fear off their list.

Georgetown had returned to national prominence.

After a lackluster start to the decade, Thompson’s arrival and subsequent success established the Hoyas as a team to be reckoned with in the Big East and across the country. The win over Duke epitomized Georgetown’s recent triumphs as well as the iconic class of 2008, featuring fan favorites Tyler Crawford, Patrick Ewing Jr., Jeff Green, Roy Hibbert and Jonathan Wallace.

Off the court, the effects on the university and fan base have been dramatic. The team’s achievements have echoed from Verizon Center back to the Hilltop like a “Hoya Saxa” chant passed across the court. 

**A New Culture**

The image of screaming Georgetown fans jubilantly celebrating on the floor after the Duke upset is now part of Hoya lore, but it doesn’t tell the whole story.

Kurt Muhlbauer (COL ’07), a former president of the student fan group Hoya Blue, remembers arriving the night before the game and sleeping on the pavement outside of Verizon Center. Not many people beyond Georgetown thought the Hoyas could win, but the fact that they had a chance was enough for Muhlbauer.

Just two years before, during Muhlbauer’s freshman year, Craig Esherick’s Hoyas lost their final nine games and posted their worst record since the early 1970s. Georgetown was no longer a national power – or even a Big East power – and many casual fans had lost interest.

A diehard fan, Muhlbauer was encouraged when Georgetown hired Thompson in April 2005. The son of legendary coach John Thompson Jr., he began to draw in fans. In his introductory press conference, Thompson talked about his fondness for the “We are Georgetown” chant, because it emphasizes the importance of the entire community.

“It seemed like there was more of a basketball culture once JTIII arrived and instilled that in students,” Muhlbauer said.

uhlbauer took Thompson’s idea and ran with it. Dissatisfied with the mix of colors in the student section his freshman year, Muhlbauer decided the fans needed a uniform. He designed the now-famous gray T-shirts and, with the help of alumni donations, made them a part of every fan’s wardrobe.

The shirt had Thompson’s favorite cheer, “We are Georgetown,” on the front, and the Roman numeral III on the back in honor of Thompson. For the 2004-2005 season, a paraphrase of a Thompson quote appeared on the back: “Some have forgotten, we will remind them.”

“I thought that when you see big-time college basketball, you see student sections that are all one; they’re united,” Muhlbauer said. “It became part of the tradition of going to games and wearing the shirt.”

As the sea of gray stormed the floor to celebrate the Duke upset, Muhlbauer, then a junior, understood how far Georgetown had come since his freshman year.

“It was just an incredible experience, especially for those of us that were here during the Esherick years,” he said. “Just to see the turnaround from my freshman year – when there was general apathy and no one seemed to care about basketball because we were doing so poorly – to beat an undefeated and No. 1 team.”

Fan support had been rising ever since Thompson took the helm, but the win over Duke pushed it over the top. The next year, student season ticket sales more than doubled to 2,000 packages sold. After the Hoyas went to the Final Four in 2007, student ticket sales swelled to 3,500 – more than half the undergraduate enrollment.

The team’s success and re-established national profile drew in casual fans. Suddenly, going to basketball games was the cool thing to do.

When Georgetown staged a furious comeback to beat North Carolina and earn a trip to the Final Four, students stormed M Street and marched to the White House.

For Muhlbauer, then a senior, the trip to Atlanta for the Final Four marked the pinnacle of a long climb from college basketball obscurity.

“After my freshman year, I was just hoping maybe we would make the [NCAA] tournament one time in my four years,” he said. “We ended up making it my junior year – the Sweet 16 – and then senior year. The whole experience of going to the Final Four was incredible. To end my college experience like that is hard to put into words.” 

**Behind the Scenes**

If Muhlbauer attended Georgetown through the greatest four-year turnaround period, Alfred Bozzo (GSB ’85) was in school for the best four years of Hoya basketball. Bozzo’s time on the Hilltop coincided with the era of Patrick Ewing (CAS ’85), and he saw the team play in three national championship games as an undergraduate.

Now the president of the Hoya Hoop Club, the alumni fan support group, Bozzo focuses on increasing fan presence and alumni donations. Since Thompson was hired – and especially since the Hoyas beat Duke – Bozzo has seen an explosion in donations.

Both the number of donors and the amount of donations have increased fourfold in the past five years, Bozzo said. When Thompson arrived, the Hoya Hoop Club was bringing in a little over half a million dollars a year to support the team. The amount has risen steadily, setting a new record every fiscal year, and was up to $2.4 million last year.

“Those are the things that tell me there is a significant amount of support for the program because of the success of the program, because [Thompson] is running a tremendous program,” Bozzo said. “[Thompson] is looking to build a program. And what you’re seeing from fan support tells me that the fans are buying into his concept for a program.”

The increase in donations helps the program offset the high costs associated with running a high-profile college basketball team, putting the small Jesuit school on the same playing field as other large schools. While paying for expenses like scholarships, salaries and rent at Verizon Center, donations allow Georgetown to do things like fly more charter flights to away games. This allows players to miss less class time than if the team were to fly commercially.

Last year, Tom Napolitano (CAS ’69) and his wife Barbara donated $1 million to endow the first men’s basketball scholarship at Georgetown.

“We should continue to see this [support] because we have a program that people are happy about and are excited about,” Bozzo said. “They want to be a part of it.”

Bozzo, who said he has only missed one home game in the past eight to 10 years and tries to make it to at least half of the road games, compares some of the Georgetown teams of the past few years to the Ewing-led teams he watched in the 1980s because of the high expectations set for the teams.

Still, the fan support may be even better this time around.

“The whole attitude about the team, the spirit about the team and the school is wonderful. When I went to school, we didn’t have JTIII shirts. We didn’t have JT Jr. shirts. Everybody didn’t show up wearing the same outfit,” Bozzo said. “Even in my day, arguably the four best years to be a Georgetown basketball fan and student . we didn’t have 3,500-student season ticket holders. They show up for a big game and they’re making noise, they’re amazing.” 

**A Foundation to Build Upon**

Now in his sixth year, Thompson has revived the basketball culture at Georgetown and brought the program to new heights.

uch of the credit also goes to the class of 2008, which compiled a record of 100 wins and 36 losses over four years. Three players from the class – Green, Hibbert and Ewing – were selected in the NBA draft, and DaJuan Summers made it four players selected in the last three years for the Hoyas.

Thompson has turned his on-court wins into success on the recruiting trail, attracting a number of high-profile recruits to continue the program’s national success.

“I mean at the end of the day, doesn’t everything come down to winning?” Thompson told The Hoya last year. “That may sound cold – that’s reality. At the end of the day, it’s about winning. Now, you take our winning as well as everything else this institution has to offer, and then I think that can separate us.”

As Georgetown looks ahead to the upcoming decade, the Hoyas hold a 6-0 record and are ranked in the top 20. Thompson has the program poised for years of success, and the fan support from students and alumni is at an all-time high.

The turning point came on Jan. 21, 2006 – when the upstart Hoyas and their fans demanded the respect and fear of their peers by defeating the top-ranked team in the nation.”