It’s been 30 years since John Chaney publicly blasted John Calipari. Here’s what happened after.

John Chaney and John Calipari made one of the most infamous moments in Temple men's basketball history.

Former Temple head basketball coach John Chaney of Temple, right, and former UMass coach John Calipari are known for one of the most infamous dust-ups in college basketball history, one that's now 30 years old as of Feb. 13.Read moreCharles Fox / CHARLES FOX / Staff Photographer

Published Feb. 13, 2024, 3:19 p.m. ET

Thirty years ago today, Massachusetts outlasted Temple in a 56-55 war between ranked teams both at the top of the Atlantic 10.

But it’s the postgame press conference that cemented that basketball game played in Amherst, Mass., into college basketball lore.

Temple head coach John Chaney crashed UMass coach John Calipari’s press conference to berate him for an alleged encounter between Calipari and the officials after the game — one the UMass Daily Collegian suggested years later may not have even happened.

“The guys did a hell of a job,” Chaney yelled during the press conference. “You had the best officiating you could get here, and for you to ride them, I don’t want to be a party to that. I just got my ass blasted down for giving them hell down in West Virginia, and here you get a hell of a job right here today, good job, three class guys, and you pick them out and single them out!”

And then, of course, the most famous part: “I’ll kill you! You remember that, when I see you, I’m going to kick your ass! I’ll kick your ass! Remember that. You’ve got a good team. You don’t need that kind of edge.”

The Daily News headline from the game showed how much the post-game moment overshadowed what was already a high-stakes, competitive game between two top-25 teams: “Owls lose at UMass; Chaney just loses it.”

Despite the frosty interaction, Chaney and Calipari later became friends. Calipari eulogized Chaney at his funeral in 2021. Near the end of the speech, Calipari joked about a conversation he had with Chaney later in life when Calipari was being inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame about the infamous moment.

“I said, ‘Coach, you know they’re going to show that postgame of you coming after me for the next 100 years?’” Calipari said. “He said, ‘Yeah, I know,’ and I said, ‘You understand if you’d have gotten to me, I was a lot younger than you’ — ‘I’d have kicked your ass!’ He’d have kicked my ass. I miss my friend.”