The Smith Center at 50

In 1993, a rising phenom was in the midst of an All-American season at Kecoughtan High School in Hampton, Virginia, where she and her family moved from the U.S. Virgin Islands after Hurricane Hugo had displaced them four years earlier.

Tajama (Abraham) Ngongba, B.A. '96, was heavily recruited, but thanks to a family connection in the D.C. area, she visited GW. Ngongba went to a game at the Smith Center and was enamored with the building's intimacy.

"I liked the fact that the crowd was right on top of you, the band was right there, the cheerleaders were right there," said Ngongba, who went on to spearhead one of the greatest runs by any athletic team in the university's 200-plus year history.

Ngongba played in a total of six NCAA tournament games at the Smith Center. And she and her teammates were a perfect 6-0 in those games, including an overtime win against Drake that sent the team to the women's program's first-ever Sweet 16, aided by a late full-court pressure defense that allowed GW to climb back from a double-digit deficit.

"The fans just got louder and louder," she said. "You could almost feel them coming onto the floor with us. At first, they were sitting, clapping, but then they were on their feet. The energy was incredible."

From 1993 to 1997, Ngongba led GW to a 103-27 record, four straight NCAA tournament appearances and a trip to the 1997 Elite Eight. She remains the school's all-time leader in points (2,134), rebounds (970), blocks and games played.

At that same time, another GW athlete who called the Smith Center home, volleyball legend Svetlana Vtyurina, B.B.A. '96, M.B.A. '98, was rewriting record books herself. And against Duquesne on Nov. 11, 1995, the Smith Center served as the setting for the crème de la crème of those records. That night, Vtyurina recorded her 2,933rd career kill, surpassing the all-time NCAA Division I career mark.

"It was great because friends came, people from different teams came-it was just an amazing atmosphere," said Vtyurina, whose teams went 118-28 with three trips to the NCAA tournament during her four years at GW. "I was lucky I actually got to do it at home because it could've been anywhere else."

Her career kill total of 3,043 and single-game tally of 56 in a match at Georgetown on Sept. 14, 1995, are NCAA Division I records that still stand today.

Vtyurina's record-setting night bookended a memorable 1995 calendar year at the Smith Center. In February, the No. 1-ranked Massachusetts men's basketball team coached by a young John Calipari marched into a highly anticipated showdown at the Smith Center.

"Anytime you're playing the No. 1 team-especially at home-there's a special buzz," said Bob Chernak, Ed.D. '97, long-time GW administrator and men's basketball season ticket holder. "Even before tipoff, the anticipation is huge."

"Hail to the Buff and Blue" gave way to "Hail to the Chief" as President Bill Clinton and his daughter, Chelsea, strolled into the Smith Center to catch the matchup. Seated behind the basket, the Clintons had a front-row view of GW's 78-75 upset.