Thirty years ago today, on April 1, 1985 – that was the headline: “Villanova Wins the NCAA Championship!” It was such an impossible victory that when I called my father to tell him, he thought it was all an April Fool’s joke.
“If you had told me they lost by less than 10, you may have had me,” he said as he laughed into the phone.
My father had graduated from Villanova in 1965 and nobody more than him wanted Villanova to win that game against the invincible Patrick Ewing led Georgetown Hoyas. But, it was impossible, as everyone agreed, including the greatest handicappers in the world. The only way Villanova could win was if a miracle occurred.
My father was located in Paris at the time, running PPG’s European glass division. As a result of time zone issues and the added fact that my father didn’t want to watch Villanova get “blown out” – he never watched the game live.
Instead, I broke the good news to my father, who was 100% certain that I was pulling another April Fool’s gag (as I had gotten him before).
“Oh yeah,” my father asked. “What did Villanova shoot from the floor?”
“Over 78%,” I said calculating from a box score I had kept. My father let out a howl.
“They won, and they shot over 78% from the field?” He kept laughing. The detail hadn’t helped, but only had made the victory seem less plausible. It even sounded implausible to me when I listened to him say it. “Well, I have to hand it to you,” my father said. “Great April Fool’s joke, down to the detail of them shooting over 78% from the field. And the thing is, Jay, I know it’s all a joke – but Villanova really would have to shoot like that from the field to win – and that’s not plausible. I would love to believe you.”
So, I provided him with more details – down to the frantic ending where all Villanova had to do was inbound the ball to secure a 2 point win – and how Grandma had let out a nervous yelp as they did. I even told him that I was going to mail him the VHS tape recording I had made of the game and that he could watch it himself. But, he still refused to believe that Villanova had won the game.
He still didn’t believe it by the time he reached a newsstand to buy a paper either. And, when he reached his local newsstand and read the French equivalent of “Villanova Wins the NCAA Championship!” he was certain that he must be reading the headline wrong, because while he could speak French relatively well, he had a very difficult time reading it. I had to have made it up, and he had to be reading it wrong.
He later told me that even when he confirmed that the headline really did say Villanova had won, for the briefest of moments he wondered how I had planted the newspaper. We had a good laugh over that.
“It really was a miracle Jay,” he said years later. “And I just couldn’t believe it.”
On April 1, 1985, the Villanova Wildcats implausibly defeated the invincible Georgetown Hoyas. The documentary Perfect Upset: The 1985 Villanova vs. Georgetown NCAA Championship chronicles the team – and the little man who inspired that team – Jake Nevin, Villanova’s beloved trainer who was dying from ALS during that championship run.
Although the team had underachieved all year, everyone knew that team was going to be the last Villanova team that Jake was ever going to see play the game he loved. He knew it, and they knew it. It was Jake’s last and only chance to win a national championship – and to go out the ultimate winner. And, at the end of the day, there was no way that those players were ever going to let that beloved, dying little man down – or their excitable Italian coach Rollie Massimino, who my father referred to as “the guy who made good sauce.”
When my father was dying, we watched Perfect Upset together, to relive that game – and the fantastic April Fool’s joke I never played. His vision impaired from one of the strokes he had, he couldn’t make out anything other than moving shapes.
“It’s ok,” he said to me. “My hearing is just fine, and I remember the whole thing like it was yesterday. That was the greatest basketball game ever played. And, that was the greatest April Fool’s joke you never played.”
And for anyone who only read the headline to this story and, for the briefest of moments thought Villanova just won the National Championship, Happy April Fool’s Day!