My Momma and Deddy loved basketball. I can’t explain it really. Neither of them ever played. I never saw either one dribble or shoot. They did understand the various approaches and strategies of the game quite well though and could hold their own in rather high level discussions of the nuances of what happened as well as what they thought ought to have.
We followed the Chatham Central Bears and the Bonlee Green Dragons nigh religiously. There were two or three Bears games a week through the winter. We drove through the Piedmont North Carolina darkness to places like Troy, Biscoe, Robbins, and Deep River for those contests and along the way I also learned a lot of geography. In retrospect it is pretty amazing to think about how my parents navigated those narrow country roads to all those 1 and 2A schools in rural crossroads but we did indeed always arrive.
Once there the brightness inside those loud echoey gyms mingled with the human heat and the strong aroma of fresh, hot popcorn to create an atmosphere truly like no other. It is a recollection firmly wedged in the memories of my childhood and teen years. Those evenings in either the friendly confines of the Chatham Central gym or the decidedly more hostile interiors in places like Union Pines High in Cameron or the two absolute worst — that cracker box of old school enmity, the home of the North Moore Mustangs in Robbins, and the citified bellicosity of the home gym of the Jordan Matthews Jets in Siler City — these spaces are etched in my psyche.
I remember some great players from my youngest years — Carl Thompson and Craig Lambert come to mind as Bear stand-outs while Ronnie Collins and Lonnie Bowden starred at Jordan Matthews in Siler City. I played with, and against, some very good ones too. But the names I most remember, and this may seem odd to some, are ones like Sandra Williamson, Cheryl Brewer, Candy Dixon, Rosita Curry, and Roxanne Moody.
Girls.
The girls of the Central Tar Heel Conference in the 1970s, hailing from small barely 2-A schools across the mainly rural Piedmont, took basketball very seriously - and I note here - as had their mothers. There was a quite intense love for the game among those young ladies that was frankly more virulent than that felt by most boys who, after all also had football and baseball as major community sports. The locals took note of the female hardcourt heroines in particular. They appreciated the intensity with which those girls battled. I’d wager that had you asked the generation before mine the question, “Who was Chatham County’s greatest sports star?” as many would have answered Katie Mae Wilson of Goldston High, as all other names combined. Wilson was a high-scoring forward from the days of the 6-player game in the 1950s and drew statewide attention, often putting up individual scoring totals in the 50s. She made headlines and her teams won. With consolidation in the 1960s Goldston became part of the larger school, Chatham Central, and the Bear Girls continued that winning tradition. CCHS won state championships in 1978, 1986, 1999, and 2000. Many of my friends, including my high school girlfriend, played.
High school games in those days consisted of a varsity girls game followed by the boys. I know that there were people that left after the girls played. I know this most acutely because I played boys basketball at CCHS and knew quite well that we were not the main attraction most seasons. I also don’t mind admitting that the girls played a much more disciplined and skill-based game than we did. They executed their plays WELL and pressed, often full-court, on defense and the sheer passion with which they took the court was ferocious.
Reflecting back I realize that to a 10-year-old just coming to understand the game that became his #1 sports love of a lifetime, those high school girls were my first real sports heroes (after Brooks Robinson of course). They lured me into the game that for decades rivaled Baptistism and Methodism as the true religion of North Carolina. Sadly, I have my doubts these days about the place of that most beautiful game in our hearts and minds as the brutality and power of football seems to have at least pulled that sport even to the grace and athleticism of basketball. But THAT topic is for another essay.
I still follow women’s sports - I’ve had plenty of female students over the years and I’ve followed their teams and careers. The UNC women have rivaled the men at times with their prowess on the court. They won a very exciting National Championship in 1994, led by Shelby NC’s Charlotte Smith. The women’s game is not really played above the rim, and for some fans that damns the entire enterprise. But what I see is skill, discipline, and. dedication unparalleled. Besides, the above the rim action among women is increasing steadily. A woman dunking now is less and less rare. And the shot-making, team-play, and fury is still at the highest level as the past year’s due attention to the WNBA has demonstrated.
#OTD (December 4) in 1994, Charlotte Smith, a member of the UNC Tar Heels women’s basketball team, became the 2nd collegiate women’s player ever to dunk. The first had come nearly 10 years earlier when West Virginia U’s Georgeann Wells dunked vs the University of Charleston.
Pioneer Dunker, Lady Tar Heel Charlotte Smith
www.dncr.nc.gov
