You have a rather well-known nickname from your days here at Hamilton. Would you care to share the story behind it?
My nickname is Hondo. A lot of peoplethink it comes from the John Wayne movie. More people around the country know me as Hondo than as my actual name. I’m an absolutely atrocious basketball
player, but I used to love to play because there are so many similarities to lacrosse, defensively especially.
So I was playing intramural basketball freshman year here, and we had several kids on my floor in Dunham who grew up in Boston. I hadn’t had a basket all season. We were in the intramural tournament …
[ PITARRESI ]
You were always very smooth and elegant, Jon.
… and I was stuck with the ball along the baseline. Lord knows, I had nothing to do with it, I was just trying to find someone to throw it to, and I couldn’t find anyone. So I just turned around and shot it, and it went in. It was my only basket of the year. So that night at the pub, the Boston guys started chanting ‘Hondo,’ from Hondo Havlicek [of the Celtics]. And lo and behold, the name has stuck since 1976.
[ PITARRESI ]
There could be worse nicknames. That's a good nickname.
