Latest / Spiders Sound Off / John O’Connor Reflects on 45 Years of Richmond Sports History

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John O’Connor Reflects on 45 Years of Richmond Sports History · Spiders Sound Off

• 0:06
  Welcome back, Spider fans. We are here with John O'Connor,
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  the legendary sports writer for all things Richmond sports.
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  He's been in the business working at this for 45 years.
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  John, I estimate that you have probably written between 7009
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  thousand articles about Richmond sports.
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  That's both the university and the city throughout your career,
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  given that you've been doing it for 45 years and that means
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  probably over 1,000,000 words dedicated to Richmond sports.
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  So that puts you as the person #1?
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  In Richmond, the first time I've heard that estimated but and I
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  won't question your math. You are You are also the 2024
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  NSMA Virginia Sports Writer of the Year award winner.
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  Congratulations for that. That's got to be super
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  fulfilling for your hard work over the the time you've covered
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  the Richmond sports. So welcome to Spider Sound Off
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  and we're so excited to have you on.
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  We've been trying for a while to get you on and grateful you can
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  spend some time with us today. Well, congratulations on your
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  new enterprise. I've been a faithful podcast
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  watcher slash listener since you started.
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  Oh fantastic. Thank you.
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  Well, I think one thing that, you know, folks who live in
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  Richmond who obviously know who John is, they probably don't
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  necessarily know that you went to U of R.
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  So I, I think we'd love to just almost start back to if, if it
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  go back to, you know, you're an undergrad at U of R kind of, I
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  mean, obviously the school has changed even since we've been
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  there. Like kind of what was it like
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  kind of the early days when when you were at U of R and kind of
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  what are some of your memories from being an undergrad?
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  The school really changed, Tom, I'd say in the mid to late 70s.
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  It was after the the Robins gift that very much upgraded
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  everything from facilities, classrooms, athletics,
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  academics, you name it. Everything was better from about
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  let's say 1974 on. I arrived in 1976 and the school
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  was just starting to grow. And I think though it didn't get
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  bigger in terms of student population, the student
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  population changed dramatically in that when I arrived, I would
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  say nearly half the students were from the Richmond area.
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  It was a, it was a commuter school to many, many, many
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  people, which is hard to believe now because as the 70s wore on
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  in the 80s developed, it became very much a very popular school
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  for the Northeast, as you guys know, and even the Midwest.
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  So it's changed a lot. Academics have changed a lot for
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  the better. It's a much more difficult
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  school to get in and excel in than it used to be.
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  My experience was great. I had a wonderful time.
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  My plan coming to the University of Richmond was to be a sports
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  journalist. I wanted to go someplace where I
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  could be involved in athletics and have a decent sized medium
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  market which would allow me to work while I was in school.
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  And that's what I did. I played baseball at Richmond
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  and at night I I worked at the Richmond Times Dispatch and in
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  the most meaning menial positions back then, and then
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  went to work full time at the Petersburg Progress Index.
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  After graduation, Times Dispatch had a vacancy.
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  I was lucky enough to get the job in 1981.
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  So that's it in a nutshell. I've been here ever since and
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  really have been lucky to A stay in a business that's changed so
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  much and B cover a place like the University of Richmond where
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  you don't have many bad eggs. Tell us, so where did you grow
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  up? What was the what was the
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  Northwest DC? OK, so your DC kid coming to
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  Richmond. We're both, he's a Connecticut
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  kid that ended up in Richmond. And I grew up in the mountains
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  of Virginia. So we all kind of relocated and
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  fell in love with the university.
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  Did you have a favorite professor while you were at U of
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  R or anybody that stuck out as, you know, kind of influencing
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  you and just, you know, taught you something that you remember
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  to this day? I had a journalism professor
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  named Omar Mardan and he was revolutionary back then because
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  he lets you use your dictionary for answering questions and
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  quizzes and tests. And he was very much practical,
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  hands on experience guy rather than studying grammar and stuff
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  like that. And he really encouraged me to
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  work in the field, in the industry I entered.
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  Having that work experience is 10 times more important than
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  doing well in school. He emphasized that.
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  And he was also a part time editor at the Times Dispatch and
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  helped me get a job there and on a part time basis when I was in
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  school. So he really helped me a great
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  deal in terms of getting my foot in the door.
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  What I'm curious, this is kind of like the facts for folks who
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  went to U of our like what dorms did you live in?
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  Like what did you have a favorite dorm or a kind of what?
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  What was it like? Let's see, I was in Jeter my
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  freshman year. I also lived in Dennis.
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  I lived in Marsh. I lived in a suite in Marsh with
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  three, three basketball guys. And then my senior year I was
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  lucky enough to get a single in Jeter.
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  Nice, nice. I know those aren't those aren't
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  the names of the dorms anymore, so I apologize if.
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  I find out we were roughly, we were there when we were there in
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  the early 90s. So what was student, what were
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  the big sports in 76 to 81 or 76 to 80?
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  What were the big sports at Richmond and what was the
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  support from the students like? I would say Richmond at that
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  time was a football school. When Richmond played off campus
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  at UR Stadium, which back then was City Stadium, that was a
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  22,000 seat stadium and they drew darn near, I'd say 15 to 20
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  every game. And remember at that time, when
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  I arrived, they were just leaving the Southern Conference
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  and they had become an independent.
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  And I can remember watching Maryland play there, watching
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  North Carolina play there, watching West Virginia play
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  there. So there was a very competitive
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  football program at Richmond. They didn't win a great deal,
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  but they were not getting blown out by people at that point.
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  What year did I? I know we went to a bowl game
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  once. What?
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  What was that? Early 70s?
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  Was that before your time? That was before my time.
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  That was Barty Smith. And those fellows back in the
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  late 60s, yeah, they were, they were excellent.
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  They were, you know, they were top 20 team at one point.
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  Was that the Tangerine Bowl? What bowl was that?
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  Correct. That was Buster O'Brien was the
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  quarterback and Walker Gillette was a receiver.
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  Yeah, two of the greatest players ever to be rich.
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  Nice. So you start at the Times
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  Dispatch 1981. What was The Newsroom, the
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  sports room like back then? I know it's changed a lot over
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  45 years, but what was it? What was your first impression?
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  Great amount of activity and great people.
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  The thing that I found both in the journalism side of it and
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  the participant side of it, sports people are good people.
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  I mean they're generally honest people and they're generally fun
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  people, not too serious about things.
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  So I very much enjoyed that at the time, Dispatch being around
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  like minded folks, guys and ladies who were very interested
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  in sports and very interested in having fun and didn't mind
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  working. That's another part of it too
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  because obviously for you know, 45 years I've been working
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  weekends pretty much non-stop and that's just part of the gig.
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  So you got to love what you do. I found that people who were
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  with the Times Dispatch back then, we're very committed, very
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  dedicated individuals and I liked hanging around them.
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  Now, were you on the kind of Richmond beat from the beginning
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  or was you kind of doing other sports when you started at the
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  Times Dispatch? When I started at the Times
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  Dispatch full time, I have covered high schools probably
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  for two to three years right in there.
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  And then I covered small colleges, Virginia State,
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  Virginia Union, Randolph, Macon, Hampton, Sydney.
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  At that point the fellow who was covering the University of
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  Richmond was named Tom Hardacourt.
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  He also covered the Richmond Braves and his goal was to
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  become a Major League Baseball beat writer.
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  So he left Richmond and became a beat writer in Milwaukee
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  covering the Brewers. And when he left, I was lucky
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  enough to get elevated into that position, covered the Richmond
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  Braves while covering the University of Richmond until the
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  Braves left after the 2008 season.
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  Probably a pretty good time to be, you know, elevated to to
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  talking about the Richmond Braves, given the the great
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  number of players that came through there that ended up in
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  Atlanta for well, but I got so lucky Porter in both both of
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  beats because you're right. I was getting in there right
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  before Tom Glavin and Chipper Jones and John Smoltz and Ryan
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  Klesko and Javi Lopez and all those guys were coming through.
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  And at the same time, on the Richmond beat, on the men's
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  basketball part of it, they were really good.
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  That was John Newman, John Davis, Greg Beckwith.
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  They were going to the NCAA Tournament.
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  Bill Fly So Richmond was really occupying a new space in college
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  basketball than it had never been and.
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  How did you find your? It was like, go ahead, John I.
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  Was going to say that that was just the foundation, Tom of of
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  what they've become in terms of more of a national product.
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  So how do you obviously going back then, like you're AU of R
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  alum, he played baseball and now you're covering the team, Like
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  how did you early on learn to balance the kind of fandom side
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  from like you got a job to do? Yeah, well, I was lucky and then
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  that I did work part time all through school and then I did
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  get in the business immediately after school.
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  So I I had a pretty good sense as to you don't cheer in the
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  press box, you don't pull for the guys who were on the court.
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  It was a very different relationship with the University
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  of Richmond once I graduated. So you're young man, you're
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  covering the Dick Tarrant teams of the 1980s.
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  What's your favorite memory or favorite story from that era
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  with Dick? I would say probably the year
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  they beat Syracuse as a 15 seed and Syracuse was the two up at
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  Coalfield House at Maryland, Kenny Wood and that group just
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  really, really did a heck of a job against the team I think
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  that had three or four NBA guys. Just a really good Syracuse
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  team. That game seemed to, as as many
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  of those other NCAA wins did, that to me just sort of
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  validated Richmond in the national consciousness that they
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  could play with less talented players maybe, but a more
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  cohesive brand of basketball. They could beat really, really
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  good teams. That pushed Richmond out on the
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  national stage, I think as much as anything.
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  I remember the headline from the USA TODAY.
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  Back then it was C Yacuse for the for the When do you remember
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  what you wrote for the Times Dispatch?
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  I don't. I don't have that handy, but I'm
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  wondering if you remember what you're.
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  Not do not, other than it probably wasn't real good
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  because that was a late game that night, I think, and I'm
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  sure I had to shove it in before the deadline.
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  So yeah, it was probably just the basics.
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  Yeah, it was interesting. We interviewed it was a month or
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  six weeks ago, Kennywood and we talked about that and what was
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  great to get the players perspective because they you
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  know, you have our this was our freshman year is when we lost to
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  Duke in the first round of the tournament, kind of Kenny
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  Atkinson's year. And our sophomore year was the
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  Syracuse win. And it was very interesting.
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  And I'm putting maybe putting some words in Kenny Woods mouth,
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  but he's like when we went to when we had to play Duke, like
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  we knew that they had like an incredible coach and it was
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  going to be really hard for us to score against I.
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  Think you said they were calling our plays.
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  Yeah. Like they kind of knew, like
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  they had done enough prep to, like, know exactly what we were
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  doing. And he was like when we went to
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  play Syracuse, we knew that they weren't going to know what we
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  were doing. There was a bit of like it was a
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  they were kind. Of a loose.
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  They had some confidence going into that game, but that's
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  certainly kind of I think probably our favorite moment
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  from our four years was we were, it was during spring break, so
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  we were in different places. You weren't on campus for that.
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  But that win over Syracuse? Folks who were there, never
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  going to. Forget people from all over
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  called, you know that just knew it that I knew that I went to
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  Richmond and congratulate me. That was a lot of.
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  Fun. Maybe you guys can identify with
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  this too. I've always thought back then it
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  seemed to me that the players were more integrated into the
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  student body and vice versa. You knew the guys who were
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  playing because it's a such a small school and they were there
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  for four years and five in some cases.
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  And so you, you got to know him so well both on and off the
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  court. It was a much more enjoyable
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  experience than it has become, I'm afraid, it coming in and
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  coming out for some of these guys.
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  It's very much, you know, a mercenary operation just about
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  every division. Oh yeah, I think the pay for
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  play era probably is exacerbating that.
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  But I mean, I, we can attest, I mean, the players were very,
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  very present in classes. You know, you could talk to him,
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  walk into and from classes. Everybody was really
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  approachable. It was a it was a giant family,
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  actually, when you think. About well, Porter's heard me
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  tell the story that I think it was my freshman year, we were
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  both freshmen. We lived in Woodhall and there
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  was a big snowstorm and a giant snowball fight, like in front of
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  Wood, and the basketball team was in the middle of it.
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  So I remember Scott Stapleton slipping and falling and a bunch
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  of freshmen pummeling snowballs at him.
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  But that was kind of the the kind of community that that, you
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  know, when you had four year players, I think it was kind of
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  a little more natural. So I'm curious, you know,
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  obviously you've been covering the Spiders basketball program
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  for a while and through, you know, from Dick Tarrant, through
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  other coaches, Like what do you think's been the kind of the
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  backbone that's allowed Richmond to continue to be a successful
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  mid major? Like we've been up and down, but
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  there's a lot of mid majors that kind of had their one moment and
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  never never had another. And we've had plenty.
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  Like is there something, what's the secret sauce that's kind of
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  kept Richmond relevant from as a mid major?
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  This is going to be a very simplistic answer, but when I
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  look back at the list of coaches that were here, clearly they had
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  great coaches. From Dick Tarrant we go Bill
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  Dooley, who got caught in a tough situation and that people
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  transferred out. As soon as Dick left, Bill
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  Dooley had to sort of start over with a a new freshman group as a
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  rookie coach just didn't work out.
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  John Beeline comes in and takes over.
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  Bill Dooley's senior class wins, beat South Carolina in the
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  tournament. John Beeline leaves, Jerry
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  Wainwright comes in. You can there are some people
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  who aren't big Jerry Wainwright fans, but you look at his
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  records over the years at Wilmington and Richmond and he
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  was pretty good coach. They've had good ones since.
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  John Beeline was a heck of a coach, and I think that
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  Richmond's just picked very well in the coaching department.
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  You can argue about whether Chris Mooney's body of work is
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  great or not so great, but he has won.
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  Not always, but he has. He has won.
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  He has won NCAA Tournament games.
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  So I think Richmond's secret sauce, if there is any, is
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  picking excellent coaches. So across that 4 decade career,
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  do you have a favorite interview or favorite player that you
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  remember talking to? Just somebody that sticks out is
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  like great. They either gave you a great
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  sound bite or they were great interview.
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  I was always a big Eric Ward fan.
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  He was the quarterback of the 2008 national championship team.
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  He was intelligent, witty, insightful, not full of himself
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  in any way. And I really thought he'd have a
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  chance to play in the NFL because of all those things in
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  addition to being a really good quarterback.
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  I was kind of disappointed when he didn't get any sort of shot.
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  I've, I've always, I've always liked Eric.
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  But when I tell you, you know, I can't stress this enough, that
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  over the years I've dealt with all sorts of different schools
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  and, and different athletes. And when it comes to Richmond,
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  you really don't run into knuckleheads, you know, bad
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  people. You've got a couple here.
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  Mean spirited people, you know, it's like William and Mary.
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  It's the same sort of experience for me and it's always enjoyable
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  and you always learn something when you talk to these ladies
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  and these guys and they're almost without exception, very
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  well mannered and helpful. I, I loved Eric Ward and that
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  whole 2008 team. I made it to the national
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  championship in Chattanooga, which was just an amazing
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  experience. So shout out to the football
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  team that that won the national title that year.
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  It was a December day and it was, if you guys remember after
• 18:19
  the game, it was about 70° in Chattanooga.
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  So it's, you're in, you're in Chattanooga walking around,
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  you're on cloud 9. They've just won a national
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  championship and I just don't remember too many sports
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  memories better than that for me at Richmond, where I was long
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  graduated by then. But the other thing I'll say
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  about that is I can say throughout my entire history of
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  meeting fans of opposing teams, those Montana fans were the
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  nicest people I've ever met. They were so kind and they just,
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  they would come up to you and just talk about how great that
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  our team was and how much they appreciated just playing against
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  us. It was like, I would have been
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  apoplectic, kind of driven 24 hours to watch the my team lose,
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  but they were just the kindest people, so I give them a shout
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  out to. You know, Porter, you mentioned
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  that 2008 title game, and I can remember thinking, walking
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  around that stadium before the game, I had no idea there were
• 19:10
  so many Richmond fans. Yeah, yeah.
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  That was such a galvanizing thing, you know, that it does.
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  It really did establish the value of a A solid One AA
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  football program at that point. It it really meant a lot to the
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  school and to the alumni base. And they showed up and they
• 19:30
  showed out that they. Did it, it brings up a topic
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  getting into more of like, you know, we're a year now of being
• 19:36
  kind of in the media and you know, and I've, I've, I've heard
• 19:40
  others talk about this. Want to get your perspective of
• 19:42
  like how much does winning when you're covering A-Team that's
• 19:45
  winning kind of make your job easier than a team that's
• 19:49
  struggling? And, and we've seen it, you
• 19:51
  know, in basketball, obviously that championship year.
• 19:54
  Like what's your experience of band of like where you're
• 19:56
  getting kind of where you're feeling like you're getting
• 19:58
  better stories or kind of more things to talk about kind of a
• 20:02
  winning season versus a a losing season.
• 20:05
  No question. It is a ton easier, Tom, when
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  these guys and ladies are comfortable, confident, feeling
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  good about what they're doing. They're more talkative, they're
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  more insightful, They're more available, which is the number
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  one thing. Obviously, if you're not
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  available, you can't be a very good story.
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  Everybody's in a better mood, from the sports information
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  people to the trainers to the statisticians to the managers to
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  the star players. Much easier to do my job when
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  they're successful. Yeah, I want to give you a shout
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  out. I mentioned this to you one time
• 20:46
  when we were chatting. But there was an article that
• 20:49
  John wrote which is distinguished just like true
• 20:52
  media for from kind of what Tom and I are doing, where you
• 20:55
  talked about Matt Wendling, who is the 6 foot 3 male practice
• 20:59
  player that was having to guard Maggie Dugan in practice.
• 21:02
  And this was the last fall you wrote this article.
• 21:04
  And it was such a unique perspective because like, I, you
• 21:07
  know, I would never have thought to like, go talk to the kid
• 21:09
  who's got to try to keep her from scoring in practice.
• 21:13
  And you realize just how good of a player she was when this is a
• 21:16
  this is AD 3 college basketball player.
• 21:18
  That's that's guarding her saying if she gets you on her
• 21:20
  hip, she's going to be able to turn and score.
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  So it's like, you know, she's, you know, just giving her
• 21:24
  compliments about how good she was.
• 21:26
  So again, you know, great. You've just been you've been a a
• 21:29
  fantastic representative of all things sports.
• 21:32
  Do you have a for younger fans who probably don't appreciate
• 21:36
  the legacy, the 45 years that's that you've seen things change
• 21:42
  in this town. What is something, some memory
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  or something you would want them to know about, like how it all
• 21:48
  got started or maybe a team that you just saw the grit,
• 21:52
  determination, or maybe it's just you know, how good, you
• 21:57
  know, things are compared to what they could be.
• 21:58
  Is there any anything that you would, you know, want to tell
• 22:00
  our younger fans who who maybe don't have the same kind of
• 22:03
  appreciation for the good times that you've seen and Tom and
• 22:06
  I've seen. I have always had tremendous
• 22:10
  empathy for Mike London and and here's why is the William and
• 22:14
  Mary coach who went to the University of Richmond and
• 22:17
  played defensive back there in the late 70s, maybe through 81.
• 22:24
  Those guys who played on those teams were good players.
• 22:29
  But if you go back and look at the schedules again, this was 1.
• 22:32
  Richmond was an independent. The idea in the school's mind at
• 22:37
  that time was to establish a footprint as a major independent
• 22:43
  and sort of grow from there, build a stadium and do big
• 22:47
  things as a major football independent.
• 22:50
  And the path to get there from where they were in the Southern
• 22:54
  Conference was to play a schedule that was just loaded
• 22:59
  with Rd. games. And I'm talking about at
• 23:02
  Wisconsin, at West Virginia, you know, at North Carolina, at NC
• 23:09
  State, at Maryland, go at Wyoming, at you name it.
• 23:16
  They went there and played. And they weren't a bad team and
• 23:19
  they were losing close games. But their legacy is just
• 23:24
  terrible. If you look at those late 70
• 23:26
  records, they're O and 11. They're one and 10 and I just
• 23:31
  felt bad for those guys. That's one thing through all my
• 23:35
  years that I haven't gotten over.
• 23:38
  It's just those were good guys and good coaches and good
• 23:41
  football players. They were just overwhelmed by
• 23:45
  the schedule and I really thought the the school kind of
• 23:48
  did them wrong. I'm hearing an article in there
• 23:52
  somewhere by the way, when you talk this.
• 23:55
  Is the school eventually sort of wised up that Richmond wasn't
• 23:59
  going to be a major independent just because of the size of the
• 24:01
  place and it had no on campus stadium at that time.
• 24:07
  And it's sort of, you know, shifted back to what became one
• 24:12
  AA football and then FCS, which is obviously where Richmond
• 24:15
  belongs now. But those guys were the last
• 24:18
  group that, you know, in in the TV era was trying to make it
• 24:25
  there and just didn't. Nice.
• 24:29
  I I wouldn't have. I would not have thought of
• 24:30
  that. If you had yeah, my, my, my Mike
• 24:33
  London memory, I was I was going and thinking a different
• 24:35
  direction for you. Obviously he was our coach when
• 24:37
  when we won the championship and I think it was the next year
• 24:41
  they, I think it was homecoming. There was like a tent in the
• 24:44
  with the North Court Quad there and there was like alumni event
• 24:48
  and there was lunch and he was there to give a speech.
• 24:53
  He was kind of the key speaker and he was like, you know, he's
• 24:55
  a rah rah, like super motivator. And he was having this like
• 25:00
  great speech. It was like moving and like the
• 25:02
  crowd was just like eating their food and barely paying
• 25:05
  attention. And I'm like, he's not going to
• 25:07
  be here long because like, you know, at the at the time I was
• 25:11
  like, he's going to want something where like he gets
• 25:13
  that reaction back. Now, obviously, as he went got
• 25:16
  to UVA, his time there ended up not being long, wasn't super
• 25:19
  successful. I'm hoping that William and
• 25:21
  Mary, they're giving him the love.
• 25:23
  He deserves it again. It's not like we didn't really
• 25:25
  appreciate him, but at the time, I think we kind of maybe took
• 25:28
  him for granted. He was a, you know, a player for
• 25:31
  us was a a a coach for us. But anyway, I'm hopefully, I
• 25:36
  mean I still root against William and Mary when we play
• 25:38
  them, but I'm hoping he's enjoying his time there for
• 25:43
  sure. Have a good Mike London memory,
• 25:45
  but it'll probably take too long because I'll just say he was, he
• 25:47
  was great at collecting samples for a bone marrow database.
• 25:53
  I know that was one of his causes close to his heart
• 25:55
  because we were, I was at a George Washington away game and
• 25:58
  the story gets a lot longer from here.
• 26:00
  But like, he was very kind to my son, who was very little at the
• 26:02
  time as we swabbed our cheeks to enter our, our, our stuff for
• 26:06
  the bone marrow database. So I just remember, remember
• 26:08
  Mike Linden at that, in that moment.
• 26:10
  But there's a better story, too. Hey, John, I'm curious, do you
• 26:13
  have like a just maybe as a fan, like what's your favorite sport
• 26:16
  to watch if you've watched a bunch here in town?
• 26:18
  Like are you, is there one that it is kind of you love watching
• 26:22
  more than others? You know, top people sometimes
• 26:25
  ask me that. What's your favorite thing to to
• 26:27
  watch? And it always to me is seasonal.
• 26:31
  When hoops is over, I'm ready to watch some baseball.
• 26:34
  And by the end of baseball season, I am really ready for
• 26:36
  football. And it just it goes like that
• 26:39
  annually. I guess I'm just like every,
• 26:42
  everybody's probably like that in a lot of ways, except the
• 26:45
  Super diehards who are, you know, seam heads for baseball or
• 26:49
  anything. I just like watching different
• 26:51
  things in different seasons. So that's been, it's been a good
• 26:54
  job for that. How Well I haven't gotten out to
• 26:57
  the new stadium, Met How from a media perspective, like how how
• 27:01
  have you enjoyed the the new stadium that the Squirrels have
• 27:04
  here in town? Wonderful media.
• 27:06
  To be honest to the media, no big deal, no difference.
• 27:10
  Press box is comparable, but just to see fans spread out but
• 27:17
  not so cramped together, able to stand up and walk around, do the
• 27:22
  ambulatory, the concourse that you know, goes around the whole
• 27:26
  field. And just just being able to lean
• 27:29
  on tables and and watch the game rather than being cramped in
• 27:33
  like sardines is, is wonderful. It's it's a great ballpark.
• 27:38
  Now I want to take you a different direction.
• 27:40
  Like over your time, has there been us a media spot where you
• 27:44
  can remember was like the worst, whether they they had, you know,
• 27:48
  too many media crammed in or you were so far away you couldn't
• 27:51
  see or some some arena again out of town or here where you're
• 27:56
  like, boy, I don't I don't want I'm not looking forward to going
• 27:58
  back there. In the early 2000s, we had
• 28:02
  indoor football at the Richmond Coliseum.
• 28:05
  Coliseum wasn't so bad, but when you went to other venues,
• 28:12
  essentially you were sitting in the stands as a media member
• 28:16
  trying to do your story on a laptop, sitting, sitting in, you
• 28:20
  know, on your lap and in the seats in the stands.
• 28:23
  So that was challenging. Some of those games back in the
• 28:27
  old Yankee Conference days, you know, going to Maine was no joke
• 28:32
  with open press box. New Hampshire, Some of those
• 28:37
  places weren't terribly hospitable in October, November.
• 28:42
  Yeah, yeah, you probably learned that the hard way, that you got
• 28:45
  to bring extra coats the next time.
• 28:47
  You better keep your papers down with your elbows if they're
• 28:50
  going to blow on the field. What's the What's the best venue
• 28:55
  you've ever worked? Your favorite venue you've ever
• 28:58
  worked? Man, that's a great one.
• 29:04
  As a young reporter, I went to cover Wayne and Mary at Virginia
• 29:09
  Tech, and to me, Lane Stadium was about as nice as it got.
• 29:14
  This was early 80s, you know, 8182.
• 29:17
  Back then, I just could not believe the majestic quality of
• 29:23
  a stadium that big. And the press box looked like a
• 29:27
  string of apartments put together.
• 29:30
  It was wonderful. And to be honest, I don't get to
• 29:33
  any huge great venues anymore, which is fine with me, except
• 29:38
  when Richmond plays its annual, you know, FBS game.
• 29:43
  Occasionally I go to North Carolina or someplace like that,
• 29:46
  but I just remember Lane Stadium impressing me as way nice when I
• 29:53
  when I was in my early 20s. Did you get to interview
• 29:57
  Belichick at at UNC? I did not, did not go down there
• 30:03
  last year. I also cover William and Mary.
• 30:06
  I try to keep my eye on Virginia Union, Virginia State, and that
• 30:11
  weekend I was otherwise occupied, but I have been down
• 30:15
  there on other occasions. OK, this was going to take.
• 30:19
  You're going to have to rack your brain for this one.
• 30:21
  She can only pick one. What is the greatest individual
• 30:25
  performance across any sport for a Richmond Spider that you've
• 30:28
  ever seen? Could be football, baseball,
• 30:31
  basketball, any sport. Best individual performance that
• 30:35
  you've ever seen? I don't know that I've seen
• 30:38
  anybody have such a dominating impact on the game as Maggie
• 30:45
  Dugan did it they against Davidson this year.
• 30:48
  That was special recency bias, obviously, but 48 points is 48
• 30:52
  points right or whatever she got that's and it was as if they
• 30:58
  just had she could do anything she wanted to that that that day
• 31:01
  just was incredible. There was.
• 31:04
  A moment where she hit a three and I think there was a time out
• 31:07
  and she had this like smile on her face, like, I don't know how
• 31:10
  this is happening in a sense, like because she knew she just
• 31:12
  couldn't miss. The team came to celebrate.
• 31:14
  That was a it was a great moment.
• 31:15
  Luck. Luck.
• 31:16
  That's not a very good answer. It's so.
• 31:18
  It's so new. It is, but it's it is a good one
• 31:21
  because I mean, it was a special game, so and you know, she
• 31:23
  deserves her props, but if there's another one, you can
• 31:25
  have it too. Man.
• 31:28
  So I you know. What I've seen, I saw Sean Casey
• 31:31
  do some stuff out of the field. It was pretty impressive.
• 31:35
  I mean, a big, you know, a, a sort of a lumbering left-handed
• 31:39
  hitter who would just spray line drives everywhere.
• 31:43
  And great hitter. He had a great MLB career, too.
• 31:46
  Oh, yeah. He he was just so much better
• 31:48
  than the pitchers who faced him at this level that it was fun
• 31:52
  watching him play. So one thing and maybe is we
• 31:56
  kind of kind of wrap this thing up a bit like, you know, we'll
• 32:00
  get a little bit selfish here and like look for some advice.
• 32:03
  So one of the things I'm sure you've heard it like 100 more
• 32:05
  times than we have in our in, in our short career is this, Hey,
• 32:10
  you're not, you know, criticizing enough, you're not
• 32:12
  being tough enough. And it's like this balance of
• 32:16
  like being straight, being honest, but you don't want to
• 32:20
  lose, you don't want to burn every bridge.
• 32:22
  So then all of a sudden you don't get the inside information
• 32:27
  like what's your been experienced there?
• 32:29
  What's your advice to these kind of these knuckleheads here as to
• 32:32
  like how to balance that? You want to be truthful and
• 32:36
  honest, but you still want to be able to interview the coach next
• 32:39
  week. Like what what?
• 32:42
  What have you learned over your career and how do you balance
• 32:45
  that? Well, my my title is staff
• 32:48
  writer. It's never been columnist.
• 32:51
  And I remind people that as a staff writer and as a writer
• 32:54
  reporter, your job is to tell what happened and leave to the
• 33:01
  columnist the opinion making. I've never been in that job.
• 33:06
  I have no interest in being in that job.
• 33:08
  So I try to write what I see. OK, that's fair.
• 33:15
  Last question for you, John. So when you're not covering
• 33:18
  sports or watching sports, what do you love to do?
• 33:20
  What is your what is your thing outside of your profession,
• 33:23
  outside of your your your love for sports?
• 33:26
  That that John? Well, I've got six sons, so I've
• 33:30
  been kind of busy here with them.
• 33:33
  They're, you know, they've got kids now.
• 33:35
  And so I'm a granddad times 5 with A6 on the way.
• 33:40
  So that's kind of what I've been doing here in the last couple
• 33:43
  years. But as they were growing up, I
• 33:46
  tried to attend as many events of theirs as I could.
• 33:52
  They were involved in sports and involved in other things and
• 33:57
  that's kind of what I did when I wasn't working is went to my
• 34:01
  son's sporting events or other events.
• 34:04
  That's also awesome. I'll tell you as we kind of kind
• 34:06
  of end this, you know, as the fans know, like you're often
• 34:10
  asking those first few questions when it's a Moody presser and
• 34:15
  what we've learned. I, I will kind of, I'll use
• 34:17
  Porter as an example. Like there are times where
• 34:18
  porters go, I got these five questions I want to ask and I
• 34:20
  think they're amazing questions. And then John asked questions
• 34:23
  and porters like he, like my amazing questions were one that
• 34:26
  John had, which is, you know. You have to tell you that it was
• 34:30
  never my intention to be at the head of the line there.
• 34:34
  It got to a point several years ago where I was the senior
• 34:39
  writer covering University of Richmond and it's sort of the
• 34:43
  sports information folks would sort of motion my way as to
• 34:47
  let's get this thing going start.
• 34:50
  And that's the reason generally that I asked the first question
• 34:54
  because I think it's expected of me at this point.
• 34:57
  I don't. Mind it is funny to.
• 34:59
  Pass along that honor if you guys know.
• 35:02
  What's great is it's made me actually have to think harder
• 35:04
  because I, I come up with 10 questions and I'm like, I know
• 35:07
  O'Connor's going to ask eight of these 10.
• 35:09
  So I have to, I have to find that 9th and 10th one that I
• 35:11
  don't think you're thinking of to try to, you know, to be able
• 35:14
  to have something, you know, intelligent to say.
• 35:17
  So it's made me a little bit better just having, having to,
• 35:19
  to go after you, which is fine. I, I've learned a lot just
• 35:22
  watching you operate. I mean, I'm just doing this as
• 35:25
  a, as a first year kind of thing and you're a pro at it.
• 35:29
  So I've gotten a got a great appreciation for what you've
• 35:31
  given the university and what you've given the people who want
• 35:34
  to hear about the university in the, in the, in the, in the
• 35:38
  media all these years. So I thank you for your service
• 35:40
  and. Hey, before we go, tell me what
• 35:42
  you guys think of the basketball roster now that it's done.
• 35:46
  That's a great question. So we were just talking like we
• 35:49
  have to do a men's transfer portal show.
• 35:52
  So we're trying to come up, come up with some schedules in terms
• 35:55
  of when are we going to release what next.
• 35:57
  I think we're going to be better.
• 35:58
  Oh yeah, what what I like, I mean, this is obviously there's
• 36:01
  been a lot of talk of us spending more money than last
• 36:03
  year and there's probably no surprise that we have whatever
• 36:05
  the number is. I like when I was thinking over
• 36:09
  like even pre portal, like our transfers, we haven't had a lot
• 36:12
  of, when we've had transfers come from, let's say the, the
• 36:15
  bigger conferences down, they usually been the players who
• 36:19
  didn't really do anything at their bigger school.
• 36:22
  And now they've come to Richmond.
• 36:24
  And so I'm very interested to see like we've got players who
• 36:28
  have who have performed at bigger schools and maybe they
• 36:32
  weren't, you know, they're not going pro early and they're not
• 36:35
  going to Duke, but they still had like really good years And,
• 36:39
  and because of money, they're, you know, that's driving them to
• 36:43
  Richmond. So I'm, I'm hopeful that we've
• 36:45
  got kind of experienced players who have scored and they haven't
• 36:49
  all come from, you know, we've obviously got some, some Butler
• 36:51
  kids, but we've got some other kids that maybe fit more of the
• 36:54
  TJ Klein mode of kind of moving up because they were very
• 36:58
  successful. I also like the other thing I'd
• 37:00
  say is like most of those players, they're not finished
• 37:03
  products. So they're not, I mean, we do
• 37:05
  have, I think one graduate, but they're not, I think last year,
• 37:08
  like our best players were these kind of graduate players who
• 37:10
  would you kind of almost knew what you were going to get.
• 37:13
  And you, I mean, not that they're still young, so they're
• 37:16
  still developing, but I think we've got some of these like
• 37:18
  these rising juniors who could become stars because they're,
• 37:23
  you know, they've had a good sophomore year, but there's
• 37:25
  still a lot of potential. So but yes, are we going to win,
• 37:30
  be better and win 17 or 18 games?
• 37:32
  Are we going to be better and now be, you know, a 24 game
• 37:35
  winner? I think there's a wide range of
• 37:38
  outcomes that are possible. Tom's our sound guy, John, I'm
• 37:40
  the I'm the basketball analyst between the two of us.
• 37:42
  So I just let him ramble on. I think the two things that and
• 37:47
  I haven't really dug deep yet that that are apparent to me.
• 37:49
  One, we're a lot longer. We have we have length on the
• 37:53
  perimeter, which is not typically a hallmark of the
• 37:56
  last, you know, 10 Mooney teams. I think that's going to serve us
• 38:00
  really well, especially defensively.
• 38:02
  You're going to be guarding the two and the three with guys who
• 38:05
  are 66 instead of, you know, somebody who's sub six feet
• 38:08
  potentially. So that that's one huge change.
• 38:11
  I I think overall to the defensive chops of these of the
• 38:17
  kids that Chris is bringing in this year seem to be better
• 38:21
  than, you know, past recruiting classes or past transfer portal.
• 38:24
  So I I think the defense is going to be much improved and if
• 38:29
  the offense can take some small strides forward, we could be a
• 38:33
  formidable team. I think the latest analysis that
• 38:37
  I saw had us after all the moves around one O 7 in the Bartorvic
• 38:41
  rankings, which you know, is kind of, you know, on the cusp
• 38:45
  of post season. That's like almost sort of NIT
• 38:48
  ish. It gives you with some good
• 38:50
  coaching. You could be, you know, in the
• 38:52
  NIT or you could be in the NCAA tournament.
• 38:54
  It's just you're you're better than you know, 1617180, which
• 38:58
  you have to kind of get lucky if you're if you're sitting there
• 39:00
  coming out of the portal. So I think.
• 39:03
  That you reminded me of. You know, it's funny, when Chris
• 39:06
  got to Richmond in 2005, you can look back at his recruiting
• 39:09
  classes. Nobody was under 6/5.
• 39:12
  His idea was to switch on all screens and you'd never get
• 39:16
  burnt because you always had a decent sized guy.
• 39:20
  And that Kevin Anderson really changed the whole dynamic of
• 39:25
  what they wanted to do. And as you know, there's been a
• 39:28
  bunch of smaller guards since he was there and it's really, it's
• 39:33
  unbelievable. They seem to be going back to
• 39:35
  that now. Yeah, I think you can have one
• 39:38
  really small guard on the court at the same time.
• 39:40
  It's just when you start to run with more than one, these teams
• 39:42
  are so big. I mean, they're just so big.
• 39:43
  It's just with a switching defense, it creates matchup
• 39:46
  problems and. Yeah.
• 39:47
  The one thing that too like John, you're around me.
• 39:50
  Those teams like what Mooney hasn't had in a while, I'm not
• 39:53
  sure we have it now, is like when Kevin Anderson was there,
• 39:55
  we had Darius Garrett who was like a defensive first player.
• 39:59
  And then that was followed soon with Nelson Nidota, who again
• 40:03
  was like a defensive first player.
• 40:05
  And like when's the last time we've had someone that people
• 40:08
  were worried about their shot getting blocked every time they
• 40:11
  took it to the hoop like that. We.
• 40:14
  The small guard I think worked when you had someone like that
• 40:16
  you could bring off the bench or have in the middle.
• 40:18
  We really haven't had that inside defensive stud in a
• 40:22
  while. Hope maybe one of these guys can
• 40:25
  turn into that, but a lot, a lot to be determined.
• 40:29
  To me, there's also some good stories about some of these
• 40:32
  transfers that, you know, maybe they missed time due to
• 40:35
  something that leads to pretty significant upside potential.
• 40:39
  And so I think there is upside from that one O 7 forecast that
• 40:44
  Bartorvic hit us with just recently from from where that
• 40:48
  stands. If we can get, you know,
• 40:50
  McCaffrey to take a huge step forward, things like that, we
• 40:53
  could be, we could be a lot better.
• 40:54
  So I'm, I'm optimistic. I am, but I have to we haven't
• 40:57
  really done our research for the portal episode yet.
• 40:59
  That I think is going to be the maybe the first episode of
• 41:01
  season 2. So we're going to we're going to
• 41:03
  start cranking on that soon. Hey, one last addendum to the
• 41:06
  the memorable games. Darius Garrett 13 blocks against
• 41:11
  UMass and was just, that was pretty strong.
• 41:14
  Yeah, it was a good one for sure.
• 41:16
  Well, John, thank you so much. We love having you.
• 41:19
  I'm sure we'll ask again at some point as we get into this season
• 41:23
  and we can really, really dig deep into hopefully a great out
• 41:27
  of conference record and and we'll see how the A10 season
• 41:31
  goes. But a a lot to determine.
• 41:33
  But again, John loved having you here.
• 41:34
  Yeah. Thank you so much.
• 41:35
  For joining us appreciate the. Time, appreciate, appreciate all
• 41:38
  you've done for the university and for the media community in
• 41:41
  Richmond. Thank you so much, and we'll see
• 41:43
  you around the Robin Center. Look forward to it.
• 41:46
  Thanks, John. Well, that was a fun interview
• 41:51
  with John. It was great to spend some time
• 41:53
  with him a little, kind of, not totally during business hours.
• 41:58
  Well, you know, I mean, I'd, I'd say 45 years is a great run and
• 42:02
  I don't care what career you're in in the media industry.
• 42:04
  That's that's impressive stuff. So you know, John has has he's
• 42:09
  if Bob's the voice that has told the spider basketball story,
• 42:12
  then John is the pen that has written the the articles.
• 42:16
  So poetic. Porter it is, you know, it's a
• 42:18
  little bit of poetry to end it. But you know, we love, we love
• 42:21
  the people who have, who have told the stories and brought the
• 42:23
  stories to us over the years because, you know, we've been
• 42:25
  fans as long as, you know, really longer than anything else
• 42:29
  we've done related to the program.
• 42:31
  Yeah, that's right. Well, we will be keeping our
• 42:35
  eyes on the news, our eyes and ears on the news coming up.
• 42:39
  It seems like the men's roster is done.
• 42:40
  There's some holes to fill still on the women's roster.
• 42:44
  So we'll see kind of when we come next that we've kind of
• 42:47
  been debating, is this the end of Season 1 or does it something
• 42:50
  else come up? So when it's Season 2, you'll
• 42:53
  know. But until then, this is Tom.
• 42:56
  And this is Porter. And this is spiders sounding
• 42:59
  off. See you.