On This Date: Kownacki’s Flip Highlights Comeback Win; LaBovick’s Record Hit Streak End; Hawthorn Coaches Final Tennis Match

With the 2020 spring sports season canceled by the COVID-19 outbreak, we at Fordham have decided to dig back through our archives and provide our fans with content on some of the outstanding teams and student-athletes who have graced Rose Hill over the years
 
April 20, 2010 - There have been plenty of defining moments in Fordham Athletics history that will always be looked to and one of those fantastic moments happened ten years ago.  It's simply known as the "Fordham Flip," making Fordham shortstop Brian Kownacki, a household name and an Internet sensation.
 
"The play and video still follows me around today. I know that early in my career, it helped open some doors for me. It is one of many fond memories I took away from my time at Fordham," said Kownacki remembering the play. 
 
Fordham trailed Iona by a 9-1 score after five innings, when a massive rally literally flipped the outcome of the game. The comeback in the eighth was capped off by an incredible effort by Kownacki which would not be forgotten.

 
"I was supposed to be on the bench that night taking an off day. It was a rough start, but we started to chip away at the lead and we could feel the momentum shift as it got later into the game. Looking back I think that play highlights a major team comeback against a local rival and that's what made it special," said Kownacki. 
 
Chris Walker, who had pinch-hit earlier in the eighth inning, came up again and blasted a single to left center with the bases loaded for the go-ahead hit. Matt DeSilva and Stephen McSherry scored easily, as Iona's Anthony Muccio misplayed the ball in center.
 
Kownacki was waved around all the way from first with the low throw coming into Iona catcher James Beck, beating Kownacki to the plate.  Kownacki then leaped completely over the top of Beck without a tag, and landed with a handstand on home plate, capping off a nine-run inning, giving Fordham its first lead of the game at 12-9.  The crowd in attendance went crazy, not just for the comeback effort by the Rams, but the amazing play they just witnessed.
 
"The jump was a split second reaction that I couldn't tell you as to why I did it. After scoring I don't remember seeing the umpire give the safe call but just remember celebrating with my teammates."  
 
The Kownacki leap was then cut as a highlight and sent into the ESPNEWS News Desk for the top plays of the night.  By the end of ESPN's Baseball Tonight's midnight broadcast, there was Kownacki's highlight on national TV, sneaking on as the final piece of the show, as John Kruk, Bobby Valentine and Aaron Boone were all in awe, saying they hadn't seen that before. ESPNEWS also ended their hourly broadcast with the clip, as ESPNEWS anchor and Fordham alum Michael Yam said, "That's how we do it at Fordham."
 
The showings of Kownacki's jump then created a surge of interest across news and sports broadcasts the following morning, as the live morning SportsCenter had re-ranked the top plays, moving the highlight to #1. ESPN's First Take then called to interview Kownacki on their show, which was just the beginning of a week-long media storm around the shortstop.
 
The "Kownacki Kraze" founds its way onto national television appearing on Live with Regis and Kelly, Fox 5's Good Day NY, ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live and Good Morning America, NBC's Today Show, MLB Network's MLB Tonight, and ESPN's Pardon the Interruption, Around the Horn, and SportsNation.
 
Kownacki was eventually brought on for live interviews on Inside Edition, FoxNews' America's Newsroom, the CBS Early Show, the PIX Morning News, and MLB Radio Network's Talkin' Baseball with Fordham alum Ed Randall.
 
The highlight had become a "viral video", was dubbed the "Fordham Flip", and the craze around it continued to grow. MLB Network named the highlight the Play of the Week and April's Offensive Play of the Month, while the Harlem Globetrotters gave Kownacki a "Trotter Tribute" award for a "Globetrottersque play."
 
The highlight earned Kownacki a trip to the ESPY Awards in Los Angeles, where "the Flip" finished second in the vote for the Best Play of the Year ESPY Award, while at Cartoon Network's Hall of Game Awards, he received the Most Viral Player Award for best amateur sports video.
 
"I was not ready for the media aftermath that followed and don't think anybody expected that to happen. Anyone who knows me would agree that I'm very introverted and having a spotlight on me was tough to handle. With that being said I still look back at going around NYC from studio to studio doing interviews and being nominated for an ESPY as fond memories I still cherish."
 
Not too bad for a player who was supposed to have the day off.

 

 

April 20, 2013 – Seven years ago today, Fordham softball's Jamie LaBovick saw a school record hit streak come to an end, one that stretched over a month and lasted 28 games. The tear started in game two of a doubleheader on March 2, against Pittsburgh, in which LaBovick singled in her final at-bat of the day.
 
During the run, LaBovick was on fire, slashing .476/.513/.743 with 50 hits, 38 runs, 21 RBI, 11 doubles, five home runs, and a triple. Meanwhile, the team's top pitcher, too, she went 6-3 in the circle over 10 starts with a 2.89 ERA. Her final hit of the run was a solo home run at Butler on April 14. She sat out the first game of the two-game Dayton series the following weekend and was held hitless in three plate appearances against the Flyers on the 20^th.
 
LaBovick, then a senior, finished her highly decorated Fordham career being named to the First Teams of the Atlantic 10, NFCA All-Region, and ECAC, plus being named to the All-Championship team at year's end, helping the Rams to their second-ever league championship, the first of what has now grown to seven straight since. LaBovick's senior campaign, as a hitter, was one of the best in program history. To this day, her 87 hits remain the benchmark with Amy Van Hoven's 76 in 2015 closest. LaBovick slashed .408/.441/.577 with just six strikeouts and just two errors in the field.
 
LaBovick finished her career just one hit shy of Jocelyn Dearborn's record 257 hits, while reaching the top-10 in several other categories - .323 four-year average (T-7^th), 369 total bases (4^th), 793 at-bats (2^nd), 160 runs scored (5^th). LaBovick started 236 contests and came off the bench in two more, ranked joint fourth and joint fifth, respectively.
 
 

 

April 20, 2010 - Ten years ago it just seemed like an ordinary tennis match. Fordham fell to Lafayette, 6-1, on the Hawthorn/Rooney Courts, with Alex DeRienzo picking up the Fordham point with a straight set win at fourth singles. In reality it was a much bigger loss for the Rams as it would be the final match of a long and renowned career of head coach Bob Hawthorn.
 
Since taking over the coaching reins in the fall of 1956, back when the tennis courts were made of clay and the squash team had to travel daily to the New York Athletic Club to practice and play its matches, Hawthorn had been an institution of learning at Rose Hill, having always been committed to coaching, to his players, to his family, and to Fordham.
 
A 1953 graduate of Fordham University, Hawthorn began his journey at Fordham as a standout on both tennis and squash teams and was inducted into the Fordham Athletic Hall of Fame in 1977. Hawthorn gained Eastern ranking prominence in the 1950s in both tennis and squash.
 
Winner of numerous conference titles over the years, which included three straight MAAC titles from 1983-85, Hawthorn was the first three-time winner of the "Iron Major" Award (1976, 1984, and 1985), given to Fordham's top coach each year. He also had three student-athletes receive the Lombardi Award as Fordham's Male Student-Athlete of the Year under his tutelage.
 
For his loyalty and dedication to the tennis program, the outdoor tennis courts at Fordham were renamed the Hawthorn-Rooney Courts in 1999, a dual honor for Hawthorn and former women's tennis coach John Rooney.