11. AU Soccer comes close: Men's Soccer has consistently been one of AU's strongest athletic programs, competing and winning against top-ranked competition. But some credit for this success has to be given to the 1985 team, which barely missed a national championship.
Led by National Player of the Year Michael Brady, now AU's Women's Soccer head coach, the Eagles fell to UCLA in Seattle 1-0 in eight overtimes. The match ended after more than 166 minutes, the longest in NCAA championship history.
10. But this man takes the cigar: Before this cigar-chomping basketball coach was enshrined in Springfield after leading the Boston Celtics to nine NBA titles, he was a guard in Foggy Bottom. Red Auerbach graduated from George Washington with a master's in 1941 before starting his coaching career at a Washington high school. The rest is history.
9. GW football goes bowling: Long gone are the days of football glory in Foggy Bottom, but GW has a gridiron legacy. The crowning achievement came at the 1957 Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas. The No. 17 Colonials edged Texas-El Paso on New Year's Day 13-0 to cap off an 8-1-1 season.
8. Georgetown loses Orange Bowl: Georgetown has a middle-of-the-road I-AA football team today, but this was not the case 50 years ago. The No. 13 Hoyas went to the Orange Bowl in 1941, only to lose 14-7 to Mississippi State. Legendary Georgetown coach Jack Hagerty led the team to an 8-1 record that season.
7. Catholic wins Orange Bowl: Georgetown may have disappointed in the big game in Miami, but Catholic University didn't. The Cardinals staved off Mississippi's fourth-quarter comeback to nip the Rebels 20-19 in 1936. The team went 7-1 that year and was welcomed home from Florida with a parade down Pennsylvania Avenue.
6. Gary Williams: When Maryland takes on AU Saturday in College Park, Md., Terrapins coach Gary Williams will be getting a blast from the past. Williams coached the Eagles from 1978 to 1982, long before he won the national championship with Maryland. He led the 1981 team to a 24-6 record, the best in school history. AU also made its last postseason appearance under Williams with consecutive trips to the National Invitational Tournament.
5. Jim Lynam: Before Williams there was Jim Lynam. Now an assistant for the Portland Trailblazers, Lynam is NBA veteran with more than 20 years of experience as a coach and general manager. He was the boss at AU from 1973 to 1978.
4. Ed Tapscott: The list of people who launched successful basketball careers from AU doesn't end just yet. Ed Tapscott is now heralding the NBA's return to Charlotte, N.C. as the executive vice president of the Bobcats. Tapscott coached the Eagles from 1982 to 1990 and is the most successful coach in AU history.
3. A rivalry no more: The Men's basketball meeting between AU and Georgetown was played almost every year between 1938 and 1986. The Eagles won 90-68 in 1973, John Thompson's first season on the Hilltop. Then Georgetown headed toward big-time basketball in the Big East, while AU was content to stay small. Why was this series discontinued? AU's 62-61 victory over Patrick Ewing and the No. 5 Hoyas in 1982 may have something to do with it.
2. They played like garbage: AU Men's Basketball team played, and lost, four games against Georgetown in a building that was recently used to store the city's trash. Uline Arena, just north of Union Station, was home to several meetings between the Eagles and Hoyas between 1940 and 1960. Now known as the Washington Coliseum, it was built in 1941 and was the site of the first Beatles concert in the United States.
1. A league of his own: Around the same time Kermit Washington was dominating the hardwood at AU, Mark Smith was dominating the diamond. The former Eagles pitcher was a ninth-round draft pick of the Baltimore Orioles in 1977, but his major league debut came in 1983 with the Oakland Athletics. Smith pitched 14.2 innings in eight appearances and had an ERA of 6.75. His final record, however, was 1-0.
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