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100 Things North Carolina Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die
100 Things North Carolina Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die
100 Things North Carolina Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die
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100 Things North Carolina Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die

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Perfect for UNC fans who think they already know everything
 
100 Things North Carolina Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die is the ultimate resource guide for true fans of the Tar Heels. Whether you’re a die-hard booster from the days of Dean Smith or a new supporter of Roy Williams, these are the 100 things all fans needs to know and do in their lifetime. It contains every essential piece of Tar Heels knowledge and trivia, as well as must-do activities, and ranks them all, providing an entertaining and easy-to-follow checklist as you progress on your way to fan superstardom.
LanguageEnglish
PublisherTriumph Books
Release dateNov 1, 2015
ISBN9781633193512
100 Things North Carolina Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die
Author

Art Chansky

Art Chansky is a veteran sportswriter and author of several books on UNC basketball, including Light Blue Reign and Blue Blood.

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    100 Things North Carolina Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die - Art Chansky

    basketball.

    Contents

    Foreword by Phil Ford

    Acknowledgments

    1. Dean Smith’s First NCAA Championship

    2. Michael Jordan

    3. Psycho T’s Records

    4. The Unexpected Championships of 1957 and 1993

    5. 2005 National Champions

    6. 2009 National Champions

    7. The Luck Involved with Lennie Rosenbluth

    8. Big Game James

    9. Roy Comes Home

    10. How Frank McGuire Came to North Carolina

    11. How Smith Met McGuire

    12. NBA Draft Master

    13. Antawn, the Duke Killer

    14. The L&M Boys and the Class of 1969

    15. The Secret of Silent Sam Perkins

    16. Phil Ford and the Everlasting Heroes

    17. The Clemson Streak

    18. Miller Time

    19. Kenny The Jet Smith

    20. Lawson and Ellington Rise

    21. Felton, May, and McCants

    22. Calendar Boy

    23. The Dean Dome

    24. The Kansas Connection

    25. Age of Argyle

    26. Vinsanity

    27. The 1968 Team

    28. Loyal Assistant

    29. Monster Montross

    30. Sheed and Stack

    31. Roy’s Beginnings

    32. Visit the Carolina Basketball Museum

    33. Franklin Street Celebrations

    34. Golfing Adversaries

    35. Woollen Gym

    36. McGuire Versus Smith

    37. Eat and Drink at Four Corners Grille

    38. Cota the Cutter

    39. Hansbrough Indoor Stadium

    40. Hubert Davis

    41. Scoring Machines

    42. The 1938 Class

    43. Dean’s Roller Coaster to the Record

    44. Championship Reunion

    45. Dean Smith’s Funeral

    46. A Religious Draw

    47. Superstitions and Traditions

    48. What’s a Tar Heel?

    49. Rameses

    50. The Aycock Letter

    51. Brad Daugherty and the 1986 Class

    52. The Unraveling

    53. Five Championships in One Season

    54. The Matt Doherty Debate

    55. Jerseys in the Rafters

    56. Elston, Jones, and the 1974 Season

    57. Ol’ Roy’s Luck with Iowa

    58. White Phantoms

    59. Academic Scandal

    60. From Converse to Nike

    61. Baddour Was Smith’s Pick

    62. Great Scott

    63. UNC and the Olympics

    64. Jimmy Black

    65. Losing Anderson and Hurley

    66. Eat at Sutton’s and Get Your Gear at Shrunken Head

    67. Dean Smith’s Letters

    68. Park and Ride to the Games

    69. The Point-Shaving Scandal

    70. Recruiting Styles

    71. Reese Got His Chance

    72. Roy and the KU Sticker

    73. A Season of Mourning

    74. Smith’s Last Recruiting Class

    75. Deanovations

    76. Rick Fox

    77. Football Stars— Julius Peppers and Ron Curry

    78. Smith Center Seating

    79. Coach K’s Five-Step Program

    80. Tar Heel Testimonials

    81. The Voice of the Tar Heels

    82. The 2005 Duke-Carolina Game

    83. The Beginning

    84. Hansbrough and the Memory Makers

    85. To Build or Not to Build

    86. Steve Bucknall

    87. Madden Takes the Gamble

    88. The Heroes of 2009 Return

    89. Freshmen Eligibility

    90. We’re No. 4!

    91. Multimedia Mess

    92. Dean’s Kansas Roots

    93. Where’s Wayne?

    94. The German Influence

    95. Buddy Baldwin

    96. Tricky Ricky Webb

    97. Dean’s Impact on George Karl

    98. Kirkpatrick and Gammons

    99. Oldest Living Tar Heel

    100. Tallest Tar Heel

    Sources

    Foreword by Phil Ford

    There are so many great facts and stories to know about Carolina basketball that this book could be titled One Thousand Things North Carolina Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die. One of my earliest Carolina things came when I was 13 years old and in junior high school. My social studies teacher got on me for not bringing in my homework on time. She said, You know, Charlie Scott is a great basketball player at Carolina, and I bet he does his work on time.

    From that point on, Charlie was one of my idols, and I tried to make him my example for what kind of a player and student I wanted to be. And then a few months later, he scored 40 points against Duke to lead Carolina to another ACC championship.

    Something else I will never forget about UNC was when Dean Smith and his assistant coaches came to my home for their recruiting visit. They spent the first 30 minutes talking about everything except basketball, and my mother said, Wasn’t it nice of that school to send a dean down here to see little Phil? Of course, Smith turned out to be a lot more than just my coach; he was my friend and mentor for life. And I am so sad he is no longer with us.

    Making the decision to go to Carolina was the best decision I have ever made in my life. I have so many friends I met in school, in and out of basketball, that I still see today. I have been blessed to both play for the Tar Heels and to coach under Coach Smith and Coach Guthridge and, eventually, Larry Brown in the NBA. The Carolina basketball family is more than talk—it is real.

    When I played in the NBA, other pro players would ask me if all the Carolina basketball family stuff was true. I laughed and said it was. Most of them did not stay in contact with their former college coaches and teammates and did not go back to their campuses during the offseason like so many Tar Heels do. Even today, you never know who will be in the gym during the summer, playing pick-up with current and former players or guys like me who are too old to play but still love to watch and hang out with all the guys who came after me and even a few who came before me.

    One thing I remember at Carmichael Auditorium was that old hand-operated wooden scoreboard at the corner of the court. I wondered why it was there with the big electronic scoreboard overhead. Well, it was all about tradition. Of course, the Smith Center has a very fancy locker room for the players now, but we loved our cramped locker room in Carmichael and how the taller guys had to bend their heads when we ran out to the court through that short locker room door. None of our big men wanted to get cracked in the head before the game even started.

    And I loved the old Blue Heaven so much with the students sitting behind both benches and going crazy. You always heard them throughout the game and when you came to the bench you could see them and hear them call your name. Those were the best days of my life, and I will cherish them forever.

    After pro ball Coach Smith let me come back and be one of his assistants. He was a veteran coach who did not go on the road recruiting until it was time to offer a player a scholarship. But during my first few years, he went out recruiting with me all the time to teach me the ropes. And when he walked into a gym, there was always a great hush that came over the crowd. I was honored to be walking in with him, and it was fun to meet the young men who would someday wear the Carolina uniform.

    Today, I am just a fan and I never miss a home game. It is much harder to be a fan than a player or a coach because you have no control over what happens on the court. As a player you could make a play and live with the consequences. Same thing as a coach. But sitting in the stands, you just have to watch what happens and hope it’s for the best.

    Sometimes I show up at the Smith Center an hour ahead of game time and marvel at how the staff and operations people get the arena ready for a game. Everyone has his or her job, so when it comes time for the team to run out, everything is just right. Someone even is in charge of bringing out the game ball, which reminds me of the story Coach Smith used to tell about his first game at Carolina. He thought he had everything prepared but forgot to assign someone to bring out the game ball, and they could not start the game without it. That may be the only thing he forgot during his Hall of Fame coaching career.

    I hope you enjoy reading these kind of stories about Coach Smith and the other important people, places, and events in 100 Things North Carolina Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die.

    —Phil Ford

    Acknowledgments

    Thank you to all of the people who have written and/or helped me publish the reams of information on the history of Carolina basketball. Far too numerous to compile a complete list, I am especially grateful to former and current sports information directors at UNC Rick Brewer, Steve Kirschner, and Matt Bowers; journalists Chip Alexander, David Glenn, Dane Huffman, Al Featherston, Scott Fowler, Alfred Hamilton, Jr., Adam Lucas, Barry Jacobs, Larry Keith, Curry Kirkpatrick, Joe Menzer, Ron Morris, Lee Pace, Ken Rappoport, Ken Rosenthal, and Mark Whicker; and broadcasters Jones Angell, Woody Durham, Jim Heavner, and Mick Mixon.

    Thanks to my wife, Jan Bolick, and her son, Ryan Watts, for their support. And thanks to fellow alums and friends who for years have engaged in a running dialogue of our favorite common subject, Tar Heel basketball.

    Hailing from Boston, I remain a staunch Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox fan. Growing up, the college basketball I knew was Providence College and Connecticut, long before their Big East days. When I came to Carolina, the Tar Heels turned me on to big-time college hoops, and there has never been quite anything that compares to Carolina and ACC Basketball.

    I remember meeting Dean Smith for the first time as a sportswriter for The Daily Tar Heel and later as sports editor when I got to ride on the team plane to away games. At the end of the 1970 season, he boarded the bus for the airport, and the Tar Heels began singing Happy Birthday to their coach. No, no, he stopped them, wait till next year when I will be the big 4–0. That was 45 years ago!

    Through those years I worked for and with some of the best people in journalism and broadcasting: my former DTH and The Atlanta Constitution colleague Owen Davis; Durham Morning Herald columnist Keith Drum (whom Smith claimed didn’t know much about basketball until Drum became an NBA scout and could help Smith’s players get drafted); and former Tar Heel player Dennis Wuyick, with whom I co-created The Poop Sheet in 1977 (now known as the ACC Sports Journal). Then, of course, my fraternity brothers, friends, and former Tar Heel players Jim Delany, Eddie Fogler, and Rich Gersten, who have taught me much about this great game and told me more than a few times when I got things wrong.

    It was fun knowing Smith and Bill Guthridge, though outside of their fabled Carolina basketball family no one ever really knew them. Anyone, including writers and broadcasters, who claim otherwise, are not telling the truth. They protected their players to the point of having to joust with journalists who sought to know more than the limited access they were granted. Most of us not connected with the university had to observe and report from the outside looking in, and sometimes that led to more opinion and subjectivity than Smith liked.

    I have been privileged to write four books on Carolina basketball, from March to the Top in 1982 to Light Blue Reign in 2009, and two books on the famed Carolina-Duke rivalry. Working with my Duke counterpart, Johnny Moore, on our first Triumph book, The Blue Divide, was a great pleasure and even more fun.

    Lucky to have lived through the transition from hot type to offset printing to the world wide web, I worked with the late and legendary Jim Shumaker, editor of the former Chapel Hill Weekly, and got in on the ground floor of the Internet with the original GoHeels.com website, which proudly claimed from 1997–2002 to never have been and never will be the official website of Carolina Athletics. Of course, GoHeels is exactly that today, having been sold to UNC’s multimedia rights holder Learfield in 2002.

    The first GoHeels rose to prominence in a time of turbulence at UNC, when John Swofford became commissioner of the ACC, Smith soon retired, and Mack Brown moved on to Texas—all in the span of six months. The Internet in those days, as now, had to fight for journalistic credibility, largely because it gave a voice to anyone who wanted to chime in with blogs, on message boards, and by tweeting out to the world. Not to mention, of course, Facebook.

    Thankfully, respected publishers like Triumph Books still exist and want to print and market books like The Blue Divide and this 100 Things edition and the Duke version written by Johnny Moore. Thanks to expert editor Jeff Fedotin, a self-proclaimed Dukie who, I have to say, seems very partial to Carolina, as well, and Triumph’s Noah Amstadter, senior acquisitions editor. It has been great fun working on both books. Hope you enjoy this one.

    1. Dean Smith’s First NCAA Championship

    The 1981 Final Four helped Dean Smith’s returning players get ready for all the distractions that can occur. After staying in a hotel far outside of Philadelphia in 1981, Smith decided to house the team in the middle of New Orleans’ French Quarter in 1982. With a veteran, conscientious team, Smith knew his players would be ready when the time came. Until then he wanted them to take their minds off the games and be close to their families.

    Smith was concerned that most people expected top-ranked Carolina to easily beat Houston in the semifinals. Even though the Cougars were unranked, they had All-American Clyde Drexler and a great young center named Akeem Olajuwon (later Hakeem). Ironically, Smith got even more worried after the Tar Heels jumped out to a 14–0 lead because Smith believed that the other team relaxes, begins playing better, and could eventually go ahead. UNC didn’t let up, but Houston started making some shots it had been missing, and Carolina missed some that would have put the Tar Heels further ahead.

    Sam Perkins played a sensational all-around game, hitting 9-of-11 shots and all seven of his free throws and grabbing 10 rebounds. Jimmy Black’s defense on Houston point guard Rob Williams was a big factor, but Carolina couldn’t stop Lynden Rose, who wound up with 20 points. Smith called for the delay game at the six-minute mark, and if Houston had not continued its great offensive rebounding, it would have been an easy win. Smith cited James Worthy’s driving dunk out of the Four Corners as one of the most spectacular plays he had ever seen, and his team advanced to the championship game for the second straight season—the first team to do that since UCLA in 1972 and ’73.

    Smith was well aware that society measures success through winning and losing. Having lost to Indiana the year before, his team had to defeat Georgetown to have a successful season in the eyes of many people. He didn’t feel that way but wanted to win very much for his players, all of his coaches, and for all friends of the university, who wouldn’t have to answer all those questions anymore about their coach not winning the big one.

    Georgetown coach John Thompson, one of Smith’s assistants on the 1976 Olympic team in Montreal, was a close friend of the Carolina coach. Thompson’s adopted son, Donald Washington, played at UNC for two years in the early 1970s. Smith considered Thompson a remarkable man who did so much for basketball and for Georgetown, an excellent coach, and a motivational leader who would have his team ready for the championship game.

    As much as Smith was concerned with their freshman center Patrick Ewing, he was even more worried about the Hoyas’ leader Sleepy Floyd. He hadn’t played well against Louisville in the semifinals, but Smith knew Floyd was a great competitor who would be looking forward to facing Worthy again. They had played against each other for the state championship while attending rival high schools in Gastonia, North Carolina.

    The contest was intense. Georgetown never led by more than four points. Carolina’s biggest lead was three. The momentum swung back and forth, and the pressure inside the Louisiana Superdome made it difficult for some fans to breathe. Floyd’s short jumper hit the front of the rim and hung in the air before dropping through, giving the Hoyas a 62–61 lead with just under a minute to play. Would the Tar Heels lose again in their seventh trip to the Final Four under Dean Smith?

    They brought the ball across midcourt and began to set up their offense for the last shot. Smith jumped up and signaled for Black to call a timeout with 32 seconds remaining, and the team huddled around its head coach. Part of the lore about Smith’s coaching was his composure in such situations, and his assistant coaches said they never remembered him so cool, in so tight a squeeze. The pressure was there. I could feel it all the way down the bench, recalled assistant Eddie Fogler, but I honestly don’t think he did.

    Smith calmed the players, reminding them plenty of time still remained in the game. He told them to look for the first good shot and to cover the backboard. If the shot missed and Georgetown got the rebound, he said to foul them right away. That would stop the clock and force Georgetown to make two free throws or give Carolina another shot for at least a tie. Smith could make 30 seconds seem like an eternity to opponents.

    Smith figured the Hoyas would surround Worthy and Perkins (who had already combined for 38 of the team’s 61 points) with a zone and make the Tar Heels beat them from outside. He looked at his freshman, Michael Jordan, before the huddle broke. He seemed to know Jordan would get his first chance at immortality. Knock it in, Michael, he said, tapping Jordan on the knee.

    Sure enough, Black’s skip pass over the Georgetown zone went to Jordan on the left wing; the skinny kid, who went on to become the greatest player of all time, went straight up and, indeed, knocked it in. Georgetown threw the ball away in the final seconds, and Carolina won 63–62 for its first national championship in 25 years—since McGuire’s Miracle and the undefeated 1957 team.

    2. Michael Jordan

    As hard as it is to imagine, Michael Jordan grew up a David Thompson and N.C. State fan. He actually rooted against Carolina as a grade schooler. And until his junior year at Laney High School in Wilmington, North Carolina, the UNC coaches weren’t that inclined to change his mind. Then the young Jordan became Magic Jordan. After not starting as a sophomore at Laney, Jordan began to blossom. Torn between basketball and baseball as a little boy, he now went virtually everywhere with a large leather ball under his arm.

    It was still there when Dean Smith first visited the Jordan home in the fall of 1980. Through the entire two-hour visit, Jordan sat in the middle of his living room floor, cradling a basketball. When Smith and assistants Bill Guthridge and Eddie Fogler arrived at the two-story colonial house, Michael and his father were outside working on one of the family cars. But the Carolina coaches already knew about the closeness of the Jordan family. They had met James and Deloris Jordan the previous summer when Michael took the UNC basketball camp by storm.

    Guthridge, at least, had not been surprised by Jordan’s remarkable improvement. He saw Jordan as junior and rated him as an outstanding prospect then. After watching Jordan work out one afternoon that summer in Carmichael Auditorium, assistant coach Roy Williams called him the best 6'4 high school payer" he had ever seen.

    Because James Jordan had not missed one of his son’s basketball or baseball games since the eighth grade, Smith was hopeful that Wilmington’s proximity to Chapel Hill would work to Carolina’s advantage. Still unknown to most college recruiters, Jordan blew UNC’s secret after one week at Howard Garfinkel’s Five-Star Camp later that summer of 1980. Jordan was voted MVP and instantly turned into one of the hottest prospects in the country.

    Even after completing his glorious NBA career, Michael Jordan still maintained a close relationship with Dean Smith.

    But due to UNC’s early mining of this gem, Jordan turned down Duke, Maryland, South Carolina, N.C. State, and virtually every other major college that had recruited him and committed to Carolina before his senior year, enjoying a stress-free season further honing his game and looking forward to going to Chapel Hill.

    After a month or so on campus, Jordan was summoned to Smith’s office before official practice started. The 1981–82 UNC media guide had already gone to press and his profile listed him as Mike Jordan. Smith had heard that Jordan’s nickname in high school was Magic and told him that Magic Johnson already owned that distinction. What about just Michael Jordan and make a name for yourself with that?

    Jordan would make a distinction and then some, becoming the fourth player after Phil Ford, Mike O’Koren, and James Worthy to start his first game as a freshman despite missing almost two weeks of practice with a sprained ankle. He quickly became one of the Tar Heels’ top offensive rebounders and their best perimeter shooter, scoring in double figures in his first six college games against the nation’s toughest schedule.

    He soon was a fixture for Carolina fans, dancing around the lane, looking for an opening, and finally going to the basket with that ever-present tongue wagging from the side of his mouth. Any die-hard Carolina fan could tell you that Phil Ford stuck his tongue out—but only on free throws.

    By midseason, Jordan was taking a lot of the big shots that had belonged to Al Wood the previous three years. And when the inevitable shooting slump arrived, Jordan was so determined to shake it that he stayed after practice every day for a week to take 82 extra shots because it was 1982. Walter Davis had begun the superstituous procedure during his own slump in 1977: shoot 77 extra shots after practice on the suggestion of Guthridge. So when Jordan’s shot stopped falling, Coach Gut told him to do the same.

    By the home stretch of the championship season, Jordan had ACC Rookie of the Year honors locked up. He shot better than 50 percent in February and March, attempting more field goals than any other Tar Heel while opponents were sagging inside on Worthy and Sam Perkins.

    That is precisely what happened on Jordan’s final shot of the season. Worthy flashed through the lane, drawing the Georgetown defense to him and leaving Jordan alone on the left wing. Jimmy Black threw the cross-court pass, and Jordan made history by sticking his tongue out and sticking the jumper in. That game-winning shot of the national championship, actually far easier than the lefty layup he arched over Georgetown’s Patrick Ewing moments earlier, was etched into Carolina basketball forever. I really didn’t feel any pressure, Jordan said in the championship locker room. It was just another jumper over the weak side of the zone.

    3. Psycho T’s Records

    Tyler Hansbrough never thought seriously about turning pro before his college eligibility expired. He was having too much fun in Chapel Hill, wanted to beat Duke four straight times in Cameron Indoor Stadium, and sought a national championship. It was a fairly easy decision: Should I stay all four years at UNC and try to become the all-time leading scorer and rebounder in the history of the school or leave a year early for the NBA, where my size might not allow me to play in the post?

    Coach Roy Williams could not even get Psycho T to make a statement regarding the 2008 NBA Draft. When Williams asked him, Hansbrough was pumping iron in the UNC weight room, still trying to get over the embarrassing loss to Kansas in the 2008 Final Four. I’m not leaving, Hansbrough told his coach who then asked the sports information office to issue a statement. Although Williams was happy he would have his All-American big man back for a fourth year, he felt guilty about not pushing him out like his mentor Dean Smith did with James Worthy and Michael Jordan. Smith would always say, What if they stayed another year and got hurt?

    Sure enough, Hansbrough began the 2008–09 season sidelined by a potential stress fracture. Among Williams’ biggest concerns was that Hansbrough would not be healthy enough to reach the records he could break after returning to the lineup for his senior season. The workhorse from Poplar Bluff, Missouri, had become the standard for staying in school after a third straight season of making unanimous All-ACC and consensus All-American teams and winning almost every Player of the Year award given out.

    After sitting out four games in November, Hansbrough returned for the ACC–Big Ten Challenge in Detroit. He had 25 points and 11 rebounds in only 27 minutes as Carolina trounced tired and dinged-up Michigan State 98–63 at Ford Field. The Heels went home with Hansbrough only 34 points away from Phil Ford’s 31-year-old scoring record at UNC of 2,290.

    Williams orchestrated the timing of the occasion by taking Tyler out of the Saturday evening game against Oral Roberts after he had scored 26 points and Carolina on the way to a 100–84 victory. Thus, the big moment would come in the first half against Evansville the following Thursday on ESPN. Ford, an assistant to Carolina icon Larry Brown with the Charlotte NBA franchise,

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