This feature appears in the 2017 Maui Jim Maui Invitational Tournament program.

On the surface, there was nothing about top-ranked Virginia's contest against Chaminade on Dec. 23, 1982, that was of interest to the Washington Post's Michael Wilbon, who had traveled to Honolulu to cover the University of Maryland's appearance in the inaugural Aloha Bowl on Christmas Day.
 
In fact, a 24-year old Wilbon, just a few short years removed from his college graduation, got set up on a blind date on Christmas Eve.
 
"If the date had been on the same night of the game, I would have missed the game," he recalled this past October, nearly 35 years after what is universally recognized as the greatest upset in college basketball history. "I would have gone on the date. It [the game] wasn't important."
 
As it would turn out, the health of one of the county's top players would be the deciding factor in bringing Wilbon to the Blaisdell Center for the matchup between the Cavaliers and Silverswords – and his courtside seat to history.
 
Virginia was wrapping up a long road trip that took the team across the Pacific Ocean, where it played a pair of games against Houston and Utah in Tokyo. On the way back to Virginia, the Cavaliers stopped over in Honolulu for a game against Chaminade, which at that time was a NAIA program in just its seventh year of existence.
 
The intrigue for Wilbon grew as questions surrounding the health of Virginia's National Player of the Year Ralph Sampson, who had been battling the flu during the team's long road trip, lingered.
"Ralph was staying next door to me at the Hyatt on Waikiki Beach," Wilbon said. "I could hear Ralph. He couldn't do anything; he couldn't even talk."
 
With Sampson's status in doubt, Wilbon called his editors to let them know he'd be covering the game.
"My sports editor says to take the night off," he said. "I go, 'I can't. Virginia is playing against this little school called Chaminade. And Ralph Sampson has the flu and he might not play. So we got to cover this game in case Virginia was to lose without Ralph.'
 
"So I get to the game and it was almost a disappointment when Ralph could play. Because now you don't have any drama."
 
With Sampson in the lineup, rendering any perceived pregame sizzle moot, Wilbon got to know a little bit about who exactly these Silverswords were. "I knew nothing about Chaminade until I sat down and started reading when I got to the gym," he said.
 
Tony Randolph, who hailed from Washington D.C. and played against Sampson growing up, and Tim Dunham were the cogs of the 1982 Chaminade program. The Silverswords, which finished with a 28-3 record the season prior, went 9-1 in their first 10 games, including a win over Division I Hawaii just a week earlier.
 
But as the fourth-ranked team in NAIA, Chaminade had lost to Wayland Baptist in its game leading up to the matchup against Virginia. "There was no foreshadowing," Wilbon said.
 
So when the ball was tipped at the Blaisdell Center around 7:40 p.m. local time on Thursday, Dec. 23, and the hometown Silverswords were going step for step with the nation's best program for the first 20 minutes, everything changed.
 
With the score tied 43-43 at halftime, "I freak out and call my editor," Wilbon said.
 
He ducked into a nearby athletic department office to call his editors, urging them to hold him space for the Dec. 24 edition. A five-hour time difference, it's well past 1 a.m. in Washington. "Just wait," he pleaded.
 
It's a back and forth start to the half before Virginia surges to a 56-49 lead. Answering with a run of its own, Chaminade rallied to tie the game, 58-58, with just under nine minutes to play.
 
With deadline looming, Wilbon hustles back to the phone to call his bosses.
 
"We heard Virginia go up seven points," Wilbon recalled the voice on the other end explaining, "and we closed the paper." The Dec. 24 edition of the Washington Post would not have any mention of the events to come.
 
Back inside the Blaisdell Center, the energy in the arena began to escalate. The 3,383 fans in attendance sense what's unfolding.
 
Chaminade and Virginia traded buckets for more than seven minutes before Mark Wells' baseline layup with 1:37 to play gave Chaminade a 70-68 advantage, a lead it would never relinquish en route to the 77-72 victory.
 
Randolph was the difference in the game, scoring 19 points on 9 of 12 from the floor. He held his own against Sampson, the NBA's No. 1 overall pick in 1983, who finished with 12 points in 38 minutes. The entire Virginia offense shot just 39 percent from the field and was turned over 25 times. Dunham had 17 points and five steals, Earnest Pettway had 13 points and eight rebounds and Richard Haenisch had nine points, three blocks and three steals.
 
While the euphoric Silverswords basked in their victory on the court, surrounding Haenisch as he sat on the rim and cut down the net, the unbelievable reality of what just transpired set in as Virginia coach Terry Holland met with reporters outside the locker room.
 
"That I remember so vividly," Wilbon said of the postgame media session. "I don't know who asked the question, but someone asked Terry Holland, 'Is this the greatest upset in the history of college basketball?' Then I just looked down because I thought he was going to go into a Bob Knight rage.
"I looked up, and he just nodded affirmatively. I remember that more vividly than anything that happened in the game."
 
"Yes, Virginia, there is a Chaminade" was the banner headline in Honolulu the following morning, and the news would make its way to the mainland, where all the major news outlets would cover the historic upset, albeit several hours later.
 
Now nearly 35 years since that historic night, a reflective Michael Wilbon will forever remember Dec. 23, 1982. Nothing blind about that date, and one that will live in basketball immortality.
 
"I've covered thousands of events and it's one of the most memorable," he said. "Being there helped drive home the point about how big it was."