A week from tomorrow is the 28th anniversary of AU's most famous sports moment.
No, it's not the 20th anniversary of our men's soccer team's loss in the NCAA championship game to UCLA in eight overtimes. And no, not the anniversary of one of the volleyball team's myriad of championships.
On Dec. 9, 1977, Kermit Washington, whose number is retired and hangs from the rafters of Bender Arena, threw one of the most vicious punches ever thrown in an NBA game, leaving Rudy Tomjanovich bleeding on the floor and near death. He instantly became a league villain, and struggled to find a home on any league team for the rest of his career.
"The Punch," captured in book and on film, is now synonymous with "Kermit Washington," if you think of anything at all when you hear the name. For many AU students, his jersey hanging from the rafters is nothing more than a symbol of a foggy athletic past.
But Washington is much more than that, especially at a school where athletics have never been a strong suit. He grew up in a tough part of D.C., coming to AU on a whim because the new AU coach found him by accident. While his skills were raw, he had potential and lived up to it. In 1973 Washington averaged 20 points and 20 rebounds a game, something that hasn't happened again in NCAA basketball. He was a two-time academic All-American; this from a sub-par school performance in high school and on the SAT's.
In his senior year, Washington reached first-team All-American status, joining the likes of Bill Walton and Doug Collins. He lead AU to its first postseason birth since it became a Division I school, to the prestigious (at the time) NIT where his team lost to Louisville in the first round.
At the end of his college career, he was drafted fifth by the Los Angeles Lakers, where he played with greats like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. This at a time when AU regularly played teams like Syracuse, Temple, La Salle, and the D.C. schools, not the Bucknells and Lafayettes on our league schedule now.
Yet Washington is not remembered for his greatness, or his opportunism. Instead we only recall the punch thrown in the heat of a fight, when he saw a figure racing toward him from behind, and his natural reaction took over. Since, his life in basketball has been difficult. And to this day, his dream of coaching in the NBA has never materialized.
On any night, you may still see him at Bender Arena, cheering on his Eagles. But most people don't recognize him. To many, he's just another older alumnus rooting for his alma mater.
So when you look up to the ceiling of a half-full Bender Arena during a blowout against Colgate, look at that the No. 24 up there. Don't think of the punch thrown, the lives altered, or the tough roads traveled since.
Think about how for one year the nation was focused on AU for a good reason, and on a good guy, years before his American dream was ruined in the time it takes to throw a hook.
