Greatest Upset Never Seen

No one had really heard of Chaminade University-a tiny NAIA Catholic school in Honolulu with fewer than eight hundred undergraduates-until its basketball game against the University of Virginia on December 23, 1982. The Chaminade Silverswords defeated the Cavaliers, then the Division I, No. 1ranked team in the nation, in what the Washington Post later called the biggest upset in the history of college basketball. Virginia was the most heralded team in the country, led by seven foot four inch, three time College Basketball Player of the Year Ralph Sampson. They had just been paid $50,000-more than double Chaminades annual basketball budget-to play an early season tournament in Tokyo and were making a stopover game in Hawaii on their way back to the mainland. The Silverswords, led by forward Tony Randolph, came back in the second half and won the game 7772. Chaminades incredible victory became known as the Miracle on Ward Avenue or simply The Upset in Hawaii and was featured in the national news. Never before in the history of college basketball had a school moved so dramatically and irretrievably into the nations consciousness. The Silverswords victory was more than just an upset; it was something considered impossible. And the teams wins over major college programs continued in the ensuing years. Today Chaminade is still referred to as The Giant Killers-the school that beat Ralph Sampson and Virginia. The Greatest Upset Never Seen relives the 198283 season, when Chaminade put small college basketball and Hawaii on the national sports map.