The Original "Giant Killers" Honored at Halftime

[mojo-spider]

none other than legendary Charles Barkley showed up via the video board with a gracious and humorous congratulatory message during last night's halftime ceremony to honor the original Richmond "Giant Killers" on the 40th anniversary season of their 72-71 victory over heavily favored Auburn in the first round of the 1984 NCAA Tournament...

this win put Richmond basketball on the NCAA map and provided the foundation for the "Giant Killers" moniker that has made the Spiders program one of the few mid major programs recognized immediately by most NCAA Tournament basketball fans...

the team was led by legendary Richmond Coach Dick Tarrant and featured an iron man rotation of Johnny Newman, Bill Flye, Kelvin Johnson, Greg Beckwith and John Davis...I know Newman, Flye, Beckwith and Davis were there last night and it appeared most of the others must have been on the court too...

every Richmond fan owes this incredible coach and team a debt of gratitude for proving that Spiders basketball could do very special things....it was a nice ceremony and really classy that Charles Barkley was willing to send his regards...

I'm sure that every Richmond fan who was following UR basketball in 1984 can remember exactly where they were and what they were doing during this game...here's my story...I was at the Richmond Coliseum with The Sheriff and our kids for an afternoon performance of the Barnum and Bailey circus...there was no cell phone and no internet in those days...I didn't know how long the circus performance would last, but hoped I could get home in time to catch the end of the game on local TV...when I reached the parking lot the game was into the second half...the Spiders had a shocking comfortable lead...as I drove as fast as I could home Bob Black was reporting the start of the Auburn run that you knew would come...I made it to the house and was able to watch the Spiders survive in the final minutes on TV...just think, if there had been another minute in that game the "Giant Killers" may have never happened...it was unreal at the time...

great memories...thanks to the 1984 "Giant Killers" and for all the "Giant Killers" that followed...

Go Spiders!

 

[GKiller]

First.

GKiller aka giantkiller has to be first to reply to this one.

Thx for getting mojo and congrats to the 1984 Spiders, the original giantkillers.

 

[SpiderLaw]

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none other than legendary Charles Barkley showed up via the video board with a gracious and humorous congratulatory message during last night's halftime ceremony to honor the original Richmond "Giant Killers" on the 40th anniversary season of their 72-71 victory over heavily favored Auburn in the first round of the 1984 NCAA Tournament...

this win put Richmond basketball on the NCAA map and provided the foundation for the "Giant Killers" moniker that has made the Spiders program one of the few mid major programs recognized immediately by most NCAA Tournament basketball fans...

the team was led by legendary Richmond Coach Dick Tarrant and featured an iron man rotation of Johnny Newman, Bill Flye, Kelvin Johnson, Greg Beckwith and John Davis...I know Newman, Flye, Beckwith and Davis were there last night and it appeared most of the others must have been on the court too...

every Richmond fan owes this incredible coach and team a debt of gratitude for proving that Spiders basketball could do very special things....it was a nice ceremony and really classy that Charles Barkley was willing to send his regards...

I'm sure that every Richmond fan who was following UR basketball in 1984 can remember exactly where they were and what they were doing during this game...here's my story...I was at the Richmond Coliseum with The Sheriff and our kids for an afternoon performance of the Barnum and Bailey circus...there was no cell phone and no internet in those days...I didn't know how long the circus performance would last, but hoped I could get home in time to catch the end of the game on local TV...when I reached the parking lot the game was into the second half...the Spiders had a shocking comfortable lead...as I drove as fast as I could home Bob Black was reporting the start of the Auburn run that you knew would come...I made it to the house and was able to watch the Spiders survive in the final minutes on TV...just think, if there had been another minute in that game the "Giant Killers" may have never happened...it was unreal at the time...

great memories...thanks to the 1984 "Giant Killers" and for all the "Giant Killers" that followed...

Go Spiders!

Would have been great if the 1984 and 2004 teams had been introduced individually. I was in Charlotte for the Auburn game and in Milwaukee for the 2004 game v Wisconsin during which Dobbins’ shoe malfunctioned.

 

[urfan1]

Agree with above. I was home screaming at our TV, recall as the game ended Barkley charged down the court towards our guys, things had gotten chippy and I feared he wanted to make his point. Instead he congratulated our guys on the win.

 

[Wood Hall]

They keep calling it a first-round game, but then the tourney was 48 teams and we also defeated Rider.

The 1986 team had a chance to get to the Sweet 16 if Johnny Davis had not gotten hurt. I think we lost to St. Joe's by one point in the first round without him.

 

[urmite]

They keep calling it a first-round game, but then the tourney was 48 teams and we also defeated Rider.

The 1986 team had a chance to get to the Sweet 16 if Johnny Davis had not gotten hurt. I think we lost to St. Joe's by one point in the first round without him.

1984 was a strange 53 teams so bottom 10 played each other.
Too bad Northeastern couldn’t have scored 1 more basket.
Impressive group of coaches in the East region.

1986 he was out for a few games, so would we have a different seed?

 

[mojo-spider]

They keep calling it a first-round game, but then the tourney was 48 teams and we also defeated Rider.

The 1986 team had a chance to get to the Sweet 16 if Johnny Davis had not gotten hurt. I think we lost to St. Joe's by one point in the first round without him.

always thought the way the 86 team was playing before Davis' injury was as good as any Spiders team I've ever watched...I agree they had Sweet 16 potential

Go Spiders!

 

[mcspider]

I was looking at the schedule from that 1985-86 team the other day. Wow. While some of those big name teams may not have been good at the time, and I don't remember which were and were not, we had some pretty impressive victories.

Providence, Wake Forest, VCU (2x), Stanford, UVA, Navy (with the Admiral).

 

[gcarter52]

I was looking at the schedule from that 1985-86 team the other day. Wow. While some of those big name teams may not have been good at the time, and I don't remember which were and were not, we had some pretty impressive victories.

Providence, Wake Forest, VCU (2x), Stanford, UVA, Navy (with the Admiral).

They were pretty good!