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100 Things Virginia Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die

Triumph Books LLC

1. Ralph Sampson

Just before the start of the 1979–80 college basketball season, Virginia had won a long, competitive battle with Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia Tech, and about 50 other colleges for Ralph Sampson, the 7'4" center who had won just about every high school accolade there was to win. "Is one player strong enough to lift a team to the top of the college basketball world?" Ken Rappoport wrote for the AP. "Perhaps — if his name is Sampson."

Rappoport's words may have been a little harsh on the rest of the team. Virginia's 1979–80 team returned three starters from a squad that went 19–10 and participated in the NIT the year prior. One of those starters included Jeff Lamp, who was the ACC's scoring leader at 22.9 points per game.

From his first day on the court as a Cavalier, Sampson proved he was worth the hype of the tremendous recruiting efforts put on by Virginia and other schools while he was still in high school, and Virginia head coach Terry Holland was not shy about the expectations he had with Sampson. "What we're thinking about now is winning the NCAA title," he said shortly after Sampson announced his decision to attend Virginia. "That has to be our goal."

The goal would never be realized during Sampson's time, but the big man, whom his teammates began calling "Stick" because of Sampson's thin frame and stature, would still take the Cavaliers to uncharted territory during his four years. In Sampson's freshman year, he played in all 34 games, averaging 14.9 points, 11.2 rebounds, and 4.6 blocks per game. After jumping out with 12 wins in the first 13 games, the Cavaliers were ranked No. 8 in the country — just the first time since the 1971–72 season that Virginia was able to crack the Top 10. A rocky February finish sent the Cavaliers to the NIT, where Virginia would capture their first ever NIT championship. For his efforts Sampson was awarded ACC Rookie of the Year honors.

Sampson continued to push the team his sophomore year, the most successful season for the Cavaliers in Virginia history. Ranked in the Top 10 the entire season, Virginia climbed its way to its first No. 1 ranking after a 23–0 start to the season, a feat that remains unmatched for Virginia. The Cavaliers upended Villanova, No. 15 Tennessee, and No. 16 BYU en route to the program's first ever Final Four appearance, where they lost to No. 6 North Carolina, a team Virginia had beaten twice earlier in the season, and Sampson's first shot at a national championship would slip through his fingers.

Virginia would open Sampson's junior season with a No. 7 preseason ranking. The Hoos won 27 of their first 28 games, losing only to top-ranked North Carolina. Unfortunately, Virginia would eventually fall in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

All the pieces looked to be in place for a deep NCAA Tournament run for Sampson's senior season. Virginia was ranked No. 1 in the preseason and had an All-Star cast of Craig Robinson, Tim Mullen, Ralph Sampson, Rick Carlisle, and Othell Wilson as its starters with support coming from Jim Miller, Ricky Stokes, and Kenton Edelin. Sampson's senior season was a roller coaster that saw what many dubbed the "Game of the Decade," a showdown featuring Ralph Sampson's No. 1 Virginia taking down Patrick Ewing's No. 3 Georgetown. Two weeks later the team hit a low as the country saw No. 1 Virginia fall to unranked, unheralded Chaminade 77–72 in what many dubbed the "Upset of the Century."

Heading into the ACC and NCAA Tournaments, the team felt more prepared than ever to make a deep run and capture a championship. "Everything we have done," Holland told The New York Times in 1983, "has been predicated on preparing this team for the NCAA Tournament, even if it meant losing games. We did not worry about even a regular season championship. Our goals are much longer range than that. The only thing left for this team is to win a national championship."

It was a goal that would never be achieved. Virginia would be denied both an ACC title and another NCAA Final Four appearance at the hands of North Carolina State, who defeated Virginia 81–78 and 63–62, respectively. Sampson would graduate from Virginia without any ACC or NCAA hardware.

That's not to say he didn't pick up a few accolades along the way. Sampson was a three-time ACC Player of the Year. He was also a three-time National Player of the Year, one of only two individuals to have that claim; UCLA's Bill Walton was the other. The Houston Rockets selected Sampson as the overall No. 1 pick in the 1983 NBA Draft. In the NBA he was named the Rookie of the Year in 1984 and made four NBA All-Star games, earning NBA All-Star Game MVP honors in 1985.

The Times article also recalls a story about Sampson, which spoke to his personality. Just a few days before the NCAA Tournament, he and some old friends were gathered at a restaurant recounting stories from the past year. "You know who has good cheerleaders?" Sampson asked his friends. "Utah. We said, 'We've got to meet these girls.' So we're in the lobby of the hotel, and they want to take a picture, and I said, 'You want to take a picture? Come on.'" As the cheerleaders gathered around him, Sampson pulled teammates Othell Wilson and Doug Newburg into the picture as well.

A team player from start to finish, Sampson had been looking for girlfriends for Wilson and Newburg. It was Newburg who got a Utah cheerleader's address.

An injury in the 1986–87 NBA season cut his promising career short, though Sampson would stay in the league until 1991. Sampson was not inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame until 2011, five years after it was founded. His No. 50 jersey has been retired at Virginia. "He changed the whole game, the whole game," said former Duke forward and current ESPN analyst Jay Bilas. "It was like playing against your dad in the driveway. You had no shot. I held him to 36 points and thought I did a pretty good job."

2. 1995 Florida State Game

They're gonna say no! They're gonna say no! Virginia won the football game!

With those words Virginia football radio play-by-play announcer Warren Swain exemplified the sheer emotion behind the Cavaliers' biggest win ever.

On November 2, 1995, the Florida State Seminoles were the No. 2 team in the country at 7–0 and in their fourth season as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference. They'd never lost an ACC game, going 29–0 in conference play since the 1992 season. Virginia was 6–3 and ranked No. 24 with their three losses coming by a combined seven points. Two of those losses came by one point on the final plays of the games at Michigan and Texas.

An over-capacity crowd 44,300 made for a raucous atmosphere. Two decades later longtime ESPN sideline reporter Dr. Jerry Punch recalled that it was a setting comparable to football powers like Nebraska and Alabama.

Virginia and Florida State went back and forth over the first portion of the game. The Cavaliers twice answered Seminoles touchdowns with one of their own, and both involved legendary running back Tiki Barber. The first came on a long end-around run, and the other was a short pass from quarterback Mike Groh. Virginia took a 17–14 lead on a Rafael Garcia field goal early in the second quarter on a drive set up by a blocked James Farrior punt.

A memorable 72-yard touchdown pass later in the second quarter from Groh to Pete Allen would end up being Virginia's final touchdown of the game. Allen made the catch over FSU defensive back Samari Rolle, who fell down while trying to make the play. As Rolle tried to get up, he inadvertently tripped up teammate Sean Hamlet, who also fell to the turf. With 15 yards of space between Allen and the nearest Seminole, Allen strode into the end zone comfortably for the score.

It didn't take long for the Seminoles to respond, as Florida State quarterback Danny Kanell threw a 38-yard touchdown strike to E.G. Green just 52 seconds after Virginia's big play to cut the Cavaliers' lead to 24–21.

Virginia closed out the half with a field goal, held the Seminoles scoreless in the third quarter while securing a field goal of their own, and struck first in the fourth quarter with yet another field goal. Florida State's potent offense found no answers until 6:13 remaining in the game when the Seminoles found the end zone to bring the game to 33–28 in favor of Virginia.

With less than three minutes on the clock and a chance for Florida State to drive for the win, Kanell launched a long pass down the middle of the field. Virginia's Percy Ellsworth made an athletic grab at the Cavaliers' 45-yard line and returned the interception about five yards before sliding to ensure that the pick wouldn't be negated by a turnover. The Scott Stadium crowd went berserk as the potential for a program-defining win shifted to a probability in a flash.

Virginia, however, didn't make this one easy on their fans. Their ensuing drive quickly stalled after three plays, and FSU was given one last chance to make the miracle happen. With 21 seconds left and fans congregating at the bottom of the hill on the east side of the stadium ready to storm the field, Kanell completed a pass that went for more than 30 yards and got the Seminoles to the Virginia 12. A penalty for having 12 men on the field against UVA moved Florida State inside the seven-yard line with nine seconds left. The Virginia defense almost sacked Kanell, but he threw it away just in time to leave four seconds left on the clock. That gave FSU one last play to move the ball just six yards into the end zone.

Virginia fans began to storm the opposite end of the field, thinking the game was over. But they were quickly told, with the assistance of the Virginia bench, to get off the field so the game could be finished. When they did, the final play began with a direct snap to legendary FSU running back Warrick Dunn, who danced around and through the line. Finding a seam, he lunged toward the goal line. For a brief moment — loss then a heartbeat — the world stood still for Virginia fans. Did Dunn, or more importantly, did the football break the plane of the end zone? Virginia's Anthony Poindexter and Adrian Burnim were there to make the tackle, but were their efforts enough? The ESPN commentators called the touchdown but quickly realized that the Cavaliers had done what many though was impossible.

Pointdexter and Burnim had stopped Dunn just inches shy of the goal line. Virginia just handed Florida State its first ever ACC loss.

To this day Warrick Dunn swears the ball passed the line.

Thousands of fans rushed the field in a fit of exuberance, having witnessed what they thought was a minor miracle. In the process FSU became the highest ranked team that Virginia had ever defeated. Rugby Road was alive all through the night as the town celebrated an occasion that is still talked about more than 20 years later.

3. 2014 ACC Tournament Champions

With what sounded like the entire Charlottesville area in attendance at the ACC Tournament, Joe Harris and the Virginia Cavaliers came together in mid-March of 2014 in Greensboro, North Carolina, to engineer perhaps the most magical weekend in the previous 38 years of UVA athletics.

For 19 years the UVA basketball team hadn't even reached the semifinals of the ACC Tournament. Whether it was for a chance to keep NCAA Tournament hopes alive or a chance at a higher seed in the NCAA Tournament, Virginia simply couldn't get over that hump. After a reasonably comfortable win in the quarterfinals against Florida State, the Hoos, the top seed in the tournament for the first time since 1981, got the first monkey off their back to reach the semifinals.

The Cavaliers had last reached the finals of the tournament in 1994, when they fell to North Carolina. Before reaching the finals this year, though, they would have to face Pittsburgh, a team the Cavaliers had barely escaped earlier in the season, needing Malcolm Brogdon to hit a three for the win with virtually no time left on the clock.

In the semifinal neither Pitt nor Virginia was able to create much separation throughout. Stout defensive play, which featured a famous triple-block from Virginia's Anthony Gill, Justin Anderson, and Darion Atkins, staked the Cavaliers to a 47–44 lead with two minutes left. Pitt's Josh Newkirk missed what would have been a game-tying three, and a big-time layup from Brogdon with a minute left made it 49–44 in the Hoos' favor. With time running out and Pitt not going away, Gill hit two clutch foul shots with 8.5 seconds left to make the score 51–48. Pitt's James Robinson pulled up for a three from the corner with about three seconds left, but the 6'6" Anderson got a fingertip on the ball, and it went well short and into the arms of Gill. A Pitt foul and an intentionally missed Virginia free throw later, and the Cavaliers had finally fought their way back into the ACC finals to face Duke.

For Duke it may have just been another game for yet another ACC title, but for Virginia this was a big opportunity to cement this year's team in the history books. For both teams their brightest stars came out to shine. Duke's Jabari Parker, who would be the second overall selection in the 2014 NBA Draft three months later, scored a team-high 23 points. Brogdon also led the Cavaliers with 23, going 7-of-17 from the floor. But it was senior Joe Harris who earned sweet redemption for the Cavaliers, who had lost to Duke earlier in the year 69–65.

Harris made a driving layup and was fouled with 7:42 left. The normally reserved guard pumped his fist and shouted as the play directed the lead — and seemingly the momentum — back to the Cavaliers. A Parker turnover created by Akil Mitchell getting his hands dirty in the low post led to a fast break opportunity for Virginia. Just shy of the center line, London Perrantes spotted an open Harris calling for the ball from the left wing. Perrantes sent a behind-the-head pass to Harris, who turned toward the basket and fired in one smooth motion.

A flawless arc took the ball through the bottom of the net, and with two minutes left, the Virginia bench erupted as the Hoos gained a 64–57 lead, which would prove too great for Duke to overcome. The shot that had gone against Virginia in so many ways over the intervening years since UVA's first conference title in 1976 was true, and the Cavaliers immediately sensed a championship. The killer instinct that was a trademark of that team was displayed, as a defensive stop on the other end further drove a stake into Duke's hopes.

After a Brogdon layup, the Hoos made six of their final eight free throws to ice the win. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski decided to stop fouling with 15 seconds left — a sight that Virginia's loyal fans had been aching to see. Justin Anderson and Joe Harris embraced in victory, Bennett and Krzyzewski shook hands, confetti flew, and both Greensboro and Charlottesville swelled with euphoria. At 3:12 pm on March 16, 2014, Virginia players, administrators, coaches, and fans could savor victory in a way that had eluded them for 38 long years. UVA had lost the ACC title game in 1977, 1982, 1983, 1990, and 1994.

Harris would be named tournament MVP. He was just the second Virginia player, along with Wally Walker, to receive the honor, and Brogdon, Gill, and Mitchell would appear on either the first or second All-Tournament team.

4. The 1990 Game vs. Georgia Tech

Coming off an ACC Co-Championship and a 10–3 season in 1989, the 1990 Virginia Cavaliers picked up exactly where they left off. Ranked No. 15 to start the season, the first time the Cavaliers had been ranked preseason, Virginia rattled off seven straight wins. In a season where the top team in the land consistently struggled to hold on to its No. 1 ranking, Virginia climbed the rankings to the top. By the time they were facing No. 16 Georgia Tech (6–0–1), the Cavaliers were in their third straight week at the top of the college football world.

The big contributing names on Virginia's roster that season included junior quarterback Shawn Moore, junior wide receiver Herman Moore (no relation), sophomore defensive end Chris Slade, and sophomore running back Terry Kirby. Tight end Bruce McGonnigal, also a critical part of Virginia's dangerous offense, had ruptured his spleen and was not able to play.

Georgia Tech's playmakers included quarterback Shawn Jones, running back William Bell, linebacker Calvin Tiggle, and the unexpected hero, kicker Scott Sisson.

It was homecoming weekend for Virginia. The night before the game, vandals broke into Scott Stadium and burned a portion of the turf. The morning of the game, the Georgia Tech athletic director called his head coach, Bobby Ross, saying that the game may get canceled due to the turf conditions. However, the Virginia grounds crew was able to patch up the burned portion using leftover artificial turf from Virginia's baseball infield.

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Excerpted from 100 Things Virginia Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die by Brian Leung. Copyright © 2016 Brian Leung. Excerpted by permission of Triumph Books LLC.
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