As a sports fan, and in particular a fan of the Big East, I have been troubled by a nagging question for a number of years now. I imagine you probably have too.
What the hell is a Hokie, anyway?
I’m referring, of course, to the nickname of the sports teams at Virginia Tech, which, as a football powerhouse and the school that gave us Michael Vick, has put the name Hokies on the map. Continue reading
The rumors started weeks ago, long before any official announcement was made, and soon Internet sports chat rooms were abuzz with the news: The Atlantic Coast Conference was seeking to expand and wanted to steal three schools from the Big East – a hostile takeover, essentially.
Sure enough, in early May rumor became fact when ACC commissioner John Swofford announced that the conference’s schools had voted 7-2 in favor of making the ACC a 12-team league. The move would allow the league to split into two six-team divisions and stage an annual football championship, à la the Big 12 and Southeastern Conference. Continue reading
To the many vocal champions of the Big 12 out in these parts, it may come as a surprise to know that there was a time in the not-so-distant past when the Big East was college basketball. Oh, I know all the Dicks and Diggers have been telling us for some time that the Midwest is the center of the roundball universe, but it wasn’t always so.
Georgetown, behind junior center Patrick Ewing, won the national championship in 1984 after losing in the final game two years earlier to the once-in-a-lifetime North Carolina triumvirate of Perkins, Worthy and Jordan. Continue reading