This Fan Can't Lose

By Arthur Johnson, UMBC Provost
Georgetown University Class of 1966

I have taught at UMBC since 1980 and have served as its provost for the past ten years. I am extremely proud of the university’s progress over its short history of 42 years, especially its impressive academic and research accomplishments in recent years.

I graduated in the 1960s from Georgetown University, which was founded in 1789. I owe much to my alma mater and feel a great deal of loyalty to it. It is one of the finest institutions of higher education in the nation.

UMBC meets Georgetown in Raleigh, North Carolina in the first round of the NCAA tournament. For whom will I root?

Although today’s fans are well aware of Georgetown’s success on the basketball court, I lived through the frustration of a struggling basketball program in the 1960s. Talented players like Jim Barry, Jimmy Brown, Ed Solano, and Chuck Devlin just could not win enough games to make it to any post-season tournament. Georgetown’s basketball success under John Thompson shifted that pattern, and the fact that Thompson’s son is the team’s current coach is the focus of numerous media stories.

The media are reminding us that this is UMBC’s first championship and first post-season experience in men’s basketball. UMBC’s  twenty-one years in division one basketball competition have been as frustrating as were my years at Georgetown.

What gets lost in the hype, however, is that UMBC’s athletic program already knows success at the division one level and is developing a winning tradition. Its men’s teams in soccer,  lacrosse, tennis and baseball and its women’s basketball team have been to their respective dances. Men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams are perennial powerhouses and conference leaders, and male and female members of our track and field teams have given stand out performances in premier meets.

Whatever their sports history, both schools take pride in their primary mission of educating students.  We are academic collaborators on several fronts, and enjoy national reputations in our respective areas of strength. We have cooperated and competed with one another for foundation grants and for outstanding faculty and students. The presidents of both universities like to boast of the academic accomplishments of their students, especially their student-athletes. For example, I am certain that UMBC students, who fill our courses in Latin and Greek, know that “hoya saxa” (the origin of Georgetown’s athletic moniker), translates to “what rocks.”

But what to expect in Raleigh and who to root for? The challenge UMBC faces is aptly illustrated by the difference in size between Georgetown’s 7-foot, 2-inch star, Roy Hibbert, and UMBC’s brilliant playmaker, 5-foot, 8-inch Jay Greene.  UMBC entertained and rewarded local fans while building a regular season record of 23-8 and gave powerhouses Ohio State and West Virginia competitive and exciting games. Expect the same intelligent and talented play in Raleigh from the Retrievers.

As much as I love my alma mater, I have to root for my team of the past 28 years, I will continue throughout the tournament to root for whoever wins Friday. I can’t lose, life is great!