Trying to find the greatest GW games of all time is an almost hopeless task. You start with the games that were merely great. Then, you eliminate the games that had little significance besides being memorable (sorry Siena ’99) and games that merely meant the world to GW, but weren’t that dramatically close (regrettably, so long Sun Bowl ’57 and New Mexico ’93). Then, with your gut, you narrow it down to the greatest of the great.

The games that remain represent many things. Some were shocking upsets. Some symbolize great rivalries. (Georgetown in the 1970s, UMass and Xavier in the 1990s, for instance, could each fill their own top 10, but here, they’re limited to one game apiece. For more, see Rivalries of the Century below.)

But one thing they don’t always represent was a great year. The 1995 men’s basketball team has two games on this list, but that team ended up in the NIT. And no effort was made to include every great GW team. In fact, only one of the games on this list involved one of the 10 teams on Monday’s list of the greatest teams. For instance, the late 1930s were some of the most successful years in GW men’s basketball, but when Red Auerbach says that none of the wins really stood out, you believe him.

And not at all by design, you’ll find that unlike the list of the greatest teams, this list skews to men’s basketball. That’s probably because this list is easily the least scientific one – the top 10 most governed by emotion. And for this century at least, it has been men’s basketball that has most captured the emotions of Colonial fans.

And so we’re left with 10 games that meant a lot to Foggy Bottom when they occurred, and still do. These are the games that people remember. These are simply the games that still keep us awake at night.

-David Holt