Bobby Jones headed to bed on Sept. 4, 1972, expecting a grueling practice schedule the next day. After a standout sophomore season at the University of North Carolina, the future NBA Hall of Famer was in Munich as a member of the US men’s Olympic basketball team, which had just advanced to the medal round.
Jones didn’t get the night of sleep he was expecting.
“We heard gunfire at night and the village had turned into an armed camp by morning,” Jones told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
A little after 4 in the morning on Sept. 5, eight members of the Black September Palestinian terrorist group hopped a fence into the Olympic village and within minutes broke into the hotel rooms where some of the Israeli team’s players and coaches were sleeping. They killed wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg and wrestler Yousef Romano, who attempted to resist, then wounded some of the others before keeping them under armed guard.
