Mike Tomlin opened up his remarks Monday not by wrapping up the Pittsburgh Steelers’ just-completed practice but by saying “rest in power to the legendary coach John Thompson.”
Thompson, the longtime basketball coach at Georgetown, died Monday at 78. As a native of Virginia in the vicinity of Georgetown’s Washington, D.C., home, Tomlin said he grew up idolizing Thompson.
“Just as a Virginia boy growing up in the ’80s, I had the Georgetown Starter jacket,” Tomlin said. “I was a Hoya. I think it also was just impressive the impact he had in the lives of the young people that he worked with.”
John Thompson, the imposing Hall of Famer who turned @GeorgetownHoops into a “Hoya Paranoia” powerhouse and became the first Black coach to lead a team to the #NCAA men’s basketball championship, has died.https://t.co/nRlTCfVtjA
— Tribune-ReviewSports (@TribSports) August 31, 2020
Tomlin called Thompson a “blueprint idol (and) mentor to many, including myself.” Tomlin said when he first became coach of the Steelers he would call in to Thompson’s long-running D.C.-based radio show any time the Steelers were about to play at the then Washington Redskins or the nearby Baltimore Ravens.
They eventually became close enough Tomlin could call Thompson on a personal level.
“You’re wise to seek wise council,” Tomlin said.
“As I got older and got into the profession of coaching, particularly here in Pittsburgh, he was a mentor if you will, a guy that had been there and done that. I just appreciated the time when I had the chance to visit with him and glean some of his wisdom.”
Thompson, the first Black coach to lead a team to the NCAA men’s basketball championship, coached Georgetown from 1971-99. No details were disclosed as a cause of death.
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