Re: Top 25 Sports Stories Over The Last 25 Years
Indeed this should have been in the list, just incredible to think about it.
VIRGINIA WAS 8-0, WITH THE TOP ranking in the country and dreams of sun, surf, and sanity, when it touched down in Hawaii to play Chaminade.
The last thing they needed was a tough game. It was a few days before Christmas 1982 and the Cavaliers had already dismissed two top teams and their legendary centers. All-American Ralph Sampson had gone for 23 points, 16 rebounds, and seven blocks in a 68-63 win over Patrick Ewing and Georgetown. Against Houston and Akeem Olajuwon, Sampson sat out with an intestinal virus and dehydration. No matter. The Cavs made persona non grata out of Phi Slama Jamma, 73-62.
What the Cavs now needed was some Hawaiian hospitality, and it seemed as if Chaminade would all but hand out fresh flower leis and serve them frosty drinks in hollowed-out pineapples.
The NAIA school had an enrollment of 800--or about as many students as Virginia had in the brass section of its band. Chaminade had only taken up intercollegiate basketball seven years earlier, and had to share its campus with the bigger St. Louis High School.
A week or so before meeting Virginia, Chaminade beat Division I lightweight Hawaii, a victory coach Merv Lopes called "monumental." But the Silverswords were deflated after losing to Wayland Baptist in the days leading up to the Virginia game. Lopes said he would consider it a moral victory if his team could stay within 20 points of the Cavs.
As bleak as things seemed for Chaminade, it did have one thing neither Georgetown, nor Houston, nor anyone else had: Tony Randolph. It wasn't like this guy was Ewing or Olajuwon or even Sam Bowie with a busted leg; at 6'7", he barely came up to Sampson's armpit. But Randolph proved to be the Silverswords' secret weapon.
Randolph had played against Sampson growing up in Virginia. He played at Robert E. Lee High School, a bitter rival of Sampson's Harrisonburg High. He was a tough kid, forced to grow up quickly after his parents died when he was in elementary school.
After graduating high school, Randolph went to Panhandle State in Oklahoma, but soon transferred to Chaminade to be closer to his brother, who lived on the island. Brought together again by one weird coincidence, Randolph knew Sampson's game cold. He knew when Sampson was likely to shoot, when he was likely to pass, and when he was likely to adjust his jock.
Randolph set the tone early for the Silverswords, bumping and thumping Sampson just as he had back in the day. The Silverswords were up 7-0 and the Cavaliers didn't know what hit them. They were forced to scramble and find that mythical switch to turn on the intensity. They found it, and took their first lead 10 minutes into the game.
Over the course of the game, however, Chaminade showed that it was not about to curl up into a ball and let Virginia dunk them. Randolph mauled Sampson at every opportunity on the defensive end, and when the Silverswords got the ball, Randolph lured Sampson away from the basket. Sometimes Sampson went with him, opening the middle. When Sampson stayed home, Randolph knocked down jumpers.
The Cavaliers thought they had broken the Silverswords' will early in the second half. After a 43-43 halftime deadlock, the Cavs took a seven-point lead.
But Chaminade stayed close, and when guard Tim Dunham flushed one in Sampson's face, the Silverswords went up, 64-62. The teams traded hoops until finally Randolph and Chaminade took a 70-68 lead with a minute and half to play. The Cavaliers' fate was sealed. Virginia began fouling the Silverswords, but Chaminade hit its free throws. In the final 46 seconds, Mark Wells made three, Dunham made two, and the impossible became reality. Final score: Chaminade 77, Virginia 72.
Randolph (19 points, five rebounds) had stood his ground against the mighty Sampson (12 points, 17 rebounds) and came away the hero of the game.
Afterwards, Randolph told one reporter: "I grew up with Sampson and knew him well. They were our archrivals in high school. I was worried that he might have changed, but he didn't, except that he was a little more physical. I knew I couldn't handle him inside, so I took him outside. He was letting me have that 19-foot jumper."
Within hours, the mainland was waking up to one of the biggest upsets in sports history. Said Lopes: "Chaminade did an amazing thing here tonight. Man can do amazing things. They go to the moon and they can do anything, and that's how I feel about it."
