Hokie ClubLes Henson made the mostremarkable shot in Virginia Tech history on this date, Jan. 21, in 1980 when heconnected on a length-of-the-court shot against Florida State at TullyGymnasium in Tallahassee, Fla. That shot enabled the Hokies to win the game79-77, and today marked the 31st anniversary of the shot.
Florida State wanted MickeyDillard to take the final shot, but Dillard threw it to Pernell Tookes, whomissed badly with about five seconds left. Henson picked the ball up in thecorner and gave it a heave – and it fell threw, giving Tech the win.
Henson shot the ball left-handedin those days because, as a kid, he suffered a badly broken right arm. So hegrew up shooting left-handed and stuck with it through college. Butinterestingly, he made the heave with his right hand.
Mark Carlson, the Florida StateSID at the time, measured the distance of Henson’s heave the next day, and itmeasured 89 feet, 3 inches. Henson’s heave was named the Shotof the Decade for the 1980s by CBS.
“It was so amazing that peoplestill talk about it,†Henson said in a February, 2005, story in Hokiesportsthe Newspaper commemorating the 25thanniversary of the shot. “When some people find out who I am, they’ll tell mewhere they were the night it happened. It’s funny. Once I even had a guy tellme he was at Cassell Coliseum, and I told him I was glad he was there, but thatI was at Tully Gym.
“It was almost like when MartinLuther King died or [John F.] Kennedy. I think people try to associatethemselves with it.â€
Here is a video of the shot.