UNC Basketball History

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From the March 8, 1982 Chapel Hill News - there were other, less kind headlines.

I celebrated like hell.
 
I reckon this is about history.


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Since the Carolina/dook affair has a new wrinkle over language I felt compelled to Google ‘Krzyzewski cursing’ and got 10,000+ “hits.” Perhaps only challenged by his mentor Bobby Knight, Coach K was the champion of the foul-mouth so much so that hot links are unnecessary as proof. You google for yourself. Indeed, I’d venture to entitle him as the single greatest contributor to the demise of decorum in the college game. He has had teammates in that endeavor to be sure: John Chaney once of Temple was disrespectful of propriety in his final years. Frank Martin at U Mass and John Calipari, now of Arkansas, are also known for their indecency. And of course trumpism has been the greatest culprit of the setting of new world records in vulgarity. Connections?



But back to the long-time Blue Devil headman and “legend” and the world that he orchestrated on that Piedmont Gothic campus. Let’s take it way back yonder to 1990 when the ACC was truly regional, Bible Belt to be exact, and all eight teams fit neatly between Maryland and Georgia, and while hate had long reigned supreme between the teams and followers, language itself tended toward the more creative and less the gutter. In that year the coach in Durham, having long since shaken off his first three seasons (1980-1983) and a dismal record of 38-47 and secure in his tenth campaign (then 272-94) with an overall record as of mid-season of 12-2 (3-0). That team finished 29-9 and was NCAA Runner-up.



But despite the success, the Durham Coach didn’t approve of the student newspaper’s coverage of a weekend home 91-80 win over Maryland. Fuming the Future Legend called the student paper’s sports staff to a meeting with the team where he delivered the following decorum denigrating message: “I just wonder where your mindset is that you don’t appreciate the kids in this locker room…I’m not looking for puff pieces or anything like that but you’re whacked out and you don’t appreciate what the fuck is going on and it pissed me off…get your head out of your asses and start looking out for what’s actually happening.” The foundation of the coach’s profanity laced ire was a student sportswriter who had dealt out a B+ grade on the squad’s performance versus the Terps.



Now I bring this up because as a historian , ignorance of the past, especially one’s own, is particularly alarming to me. Kelly Flagg, mother of player Cooper Flagg, must be credited with accidentally joining into that true Blue Devil Krzyzewski spirit inaugurated 35 years ago by calling the Carolina fan base “classless assholes” for treating her and her son’s team with some rough words when they visited Chapel Hill a couple of days back. Remarkably Ms Flagg seems not to have known what a good ole natural Blue Devil she is. She truly fits right in. Thankfully she doesn’t have to reach back to 1990 for her future inspiration since so much more exists in the historical record in the intervening years. And in her upcoming review of that historical record she won’t even have to focus solely on the former coach since the chronicles of the student body itself, the cleverly named “Cameron Crazies” scripted by their famous cheer sheets (archived no doubt), should provide her ample study material.



Here’s to you Ms Flagg — study up now. If there was ever any doubt it is gone - we all know where you truly belong.



$$$$$$$$$$$$$&$$$$$$&$$

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I reckon this is about history.


IMG_7777.jpeg

Since the Carolina/dook affair has a new wrinkle over language I felt compelled to Google ‘Krzyzewski cursing’ and got 10,000+ “hits.” Perhaps only challenged by his mentor Bobby Knight, Coach K was the champion of the foul-mouth so much so that hot links are unnecessary as proof. You google for yourself. Indeed, I’d venture to entitle him as the single greatest contributor to the demise of decorum in the college game. He has had teammates in that endeavor to be sure: John Chaney once of Temple was disrespectful of propriety in his final years. Frank Martin at U Mass and John Calipari, now of Arkansas, are also known for their indecency. And of course trumpism has been the greatest culprit of the setting of new world records in vulgarity. Connections?



But back to the long-time Blue Devil headman and “legend” and the world that he orchestrated on that Piedmont Gothic campus. Let’s take it way back yonder to 1990 when the ACC was truly regional, Bible Belt to be exact, and all eight teams fit neatly between Maryland and Georgia, and while hate had long reigned supreme between the teams and followers, language itself tended toward the more creative and less the gutter. In that year the coach in Durham, having long since shaken off his first three seasons (1980-1983) and a dismal record of 38-47 and secure in his tenth campaign (then 272-94) with an overall record as of mid-season of 12-2 (3-0). That team finished 29-9 and was NCAA Runner-up.



But despite the success, the Durham Coach didn’t approve of the student newspaper’s coverage of a weekend home 91-80 win over Maryland. Fuming the Future Legend called the student paper’s sports staff to a meeting with the team where he delivered the following decorum denigrating message: “I just wonder where your mindset is that you don’t appreciate the kids in this locker room…I’m not looking for puff pieces or anything like that but you’re whacked out and you don’t appreciate what the fuck is going on and it pissed me off…get your head out of your asses and start looking out for what’s actually happening.” The foundation of the coach’s profanity laced ire was a student sportswriter who had dealt out a B+ grade on the squad’s performance versus the Terps.



Now I bring this up because as a historian , ignorance of the past, especially one’s own, is particularly alarming to me. Kelly Flagg, mother of player Cooper Flagg, must be credited with accidentally joining into that true Blue Devil Krzyzewski spirit inaugurated 35 years ago by calling the Carolina fan base “classless assholes” for treating her and her son’s team with some rough words when they visited Chapel Hill a couple of days back. Remarkably Ms Flagg seems not to have known what a good ole natural Blue Devil she is. She truly fits right in. Thankfully she doesn’t have to reach back to 1990 for her future inspiration since so much more exists in the historical record in the intervening years. And in her upcoming review of that historical record she won’t even have to focus solely on the former coach since the chronicles of the student body itself, the cleverly named “Cameron Crazies” scripted by their famous cheer sheets (archived no doubt), should provide her ample study material.



Here’s to you Ms Flagg — study up now. If there was ever any doubt it is gone - we all know where you truly belong.



$$$$$$$$$$$$$&$$$$$$&$$

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classy dookie mom
 
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Round about now and 50 plus years ago teachers across The Old North State would be rolling a cart like this into classrooms, assigning some light ‘busy-work,’ and settling in to watch a few games spotlighting Tobacco Road. In those days the Atlantic Coast Conference of C.D. Chesley and “Sailing With The Pilot” was 8 teams small and stretched from Maryland to South Carolina. The conference season was 14 games, with everyone doing a home and away with everyone else. Sentiments were strong and rivalries and history ran deep. The familiarity bred a good deal of both respect and enmity each one to the other.

In 1971 an ACC Tournament with 8 teams was held in the only proper place, The Greensboro Coliseum. That year was an infamous one featuring a heart-breaking 52-51 finals win by South Carolina over Carolina. The NCAA field was only 32 then so a very good Tar Heel team went to the National Invitational Tournament, where, after putting down dook in the semis, they defeated a then non-ACC Georgia Tech for the championship. UNC also beat a Julius Erving-led Massachusetts team on the path to that title, a significant feat. The NIT was strong before the expansion of the NCAA field to 64.

Whether there were 8 or 7 (Sub Carolina bugged out in a huff in ‘72 so until Georgia Tech joined in 1979 the count was 7 schools in the league) the games began on Thursday with the winners battling on Friday evening and the knock-down, drag-out final was scheduled for Saturday. For that Thursday noon game - the first versus last seed - classrooms were transformed into mini-arenas and bone-dry barrooms - hardwood heavens peopled by youthful lovers, and haters, of the teams in play and everyone in thrall to The Game that Mr. Chesley and that Old Seafaring Pilot broadcast, saving us all for one glorious afternoon from the quadratic formula and diagramming sentences.

In 1971 on that afternoon we watched UNC’s George Karl, Dennis Wuycik, and Bill Chamberlain rout a hapless Clemson squad. Lee Dedmon, Dave Chadwick, and the hard-nosed prototype for every floor-diving defensive-specialist to come through Carolina, Steve Previs, added in key contributions that day. UNC was ranked #13 and on the other side of the bracket stood Frank McGuire’s New York City Gamecocks ranked #6 - the despicable Roche, Riker, Ribock, Owens, and Joyce. Only the tournament victor went to March Madness (itself a brand yet to be dreamed up by marketing).

Tournament recollections from that long first day are Howard White and Jimbo O’Brien starring for the Terps in a loss and Wolfpack reserve Jim Risinger rose up to help Paul “Cocaine” Coder upset Duke. Barry Parkhill and Scott McCandlish led UVA over Wake and Charlie Davis and Gil MacGregor. That bunch of Tar Heels back in 1971 will forever be among my favorites and Roche shall be eternally despised, unliked, and unwelcome.

Today, March 11, 2025 the tab is three games. No. 12 seed Notre Dame (14-17, 8-12) faces No. 13 Pitt (17-14, 8-12) in the opener at 2 p.m. ET. No. 10 Virginia Tech (13-18, 8-12) plays No. 15 California (13-18, 6-14) at 4:30 p.m. ET in the Golden Bears’ first-ever ACC Tournament game. No. 11 Florida State (17-14, 8-12) takes on No. 14 Syracuse (13-18, 7-13) in the Tuesday nightcap at 7 p.m. ET. Thus on Day One nary an original ACC school will play.

On Wednesday, March 12 the first day starts with No. 8 seed Georgia Tech (16-15, 10-10) playing No. 9 Virginia (15-16, 8-12) at noon. The Cavaliers will be the first of the true ACC squads to play. Founding school NCSU, by the way, has transcended The Les Robinson Invitational of yore by not even making the top 15 and thus joining Boston College and Miami on the outside, gameless (and newly coachless) and displaced by Left-Coasters in the tournament that they won so miraculously just a year ago.

That afternoon No. 5 seed North Carolina (20-12, 13-7) will play the winner of the Notre Dame-Pitt contest at 2:30 p.m. ET. In the evening session, No. 7 Stanford (19-12, 11-9) makes its ACC Tournament debut, playing the winner of the Virginia Tech-California game at 7 p.m. ET, while No. 6 SMU (22-9, 13-7) takes the ACC Tournament court for the first time ever as it plays the Florida State-Syracuse winner at 9:30 p.m. ET.

Not until Thursday do the top four seeds, dook, Louisville, Clemson, and Wake Forest play the survivors. Friday will bring the semifinals and on Saturday, at 8:30 pm, the showdown for all the marbles.

There is value-added in that Carolina - 20-12 (13-7) with only a single so-called Quad 1 win stretching out behind them (UCLA), may just need to win the tournament to make the NCAA - just like the old days - you gotta win to go to the Big Dance.

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I reckon this is about history.


IMG_7777.jpeg

Since the Carolina/dook affair has a new wrinkle over language I felt compelled to Google ‘Krzyzewski cursing’ and got 10,000+ “hits.” Perhaps only challenged by his mentor Bobby Knight, Coach K was the champion of the foul-mouth so much so that hot links are unnecessary as proof. You google for yourself. Indeed, I’d venture to entitle him as the single greatest contributor to the demise of decorum in the college game. He has had teammates in that endeavor to be sure: John Chaney once of Temple was disrespectful of propriety in his final years. Frank Martin at U Mass and John Calipari, now of Arkansas, are also known for their indecency. And of course trumpism has been the greatest culprit of the setting of new world records in vulgarity. Connections?



But back to the long-time Blue Devil headman and “legend” and the world that he orchestrated on that Piedmont Gothic campus. Let’s take it way back yonder to 1990 when the ACC was truly regional, Bible Belt to be exact, and all eight teams fit neatly between Maryland and Georgia, and while hate had long reigned supreme between the teams and followers, language itself tended toward the more creative and less the gutter. In that year the coach in Durham, having long since shaken off his first three seasons (1980-1983) and a dismal record of 38-47 and secure in his tenth campaign (then 272-94) with an overall record as of mid-season of 12-2 (3-0). That team finished 29-9 and was NCAA Runner-up.



But despite the success, the Durham Coach didn’t approve of the student newspaper’s coverage of a weekend home 91-80 win over Maryland. Fuming the Future Legend called the student paper’s sports staff to a meeting with the team where he delivered the following decorum denigrating message: “I just wonder where your mindset is that you don’t appreciate the kids in this locker room…I’m not looking for puff pieces or anything like that but you’re whacked out and you don’t appreciate what the fuck is going on and it pissed me off…get your head out of your asses and start looking out for what’s actually happening.” The foundation of the coach’s profanity laced ire was a student sportswriter who had dealt out a B+ grade on the squad’s performance versus the Terps.



Now I bring this up because as a historian , ignorance of the past, especially one’s own, is particularly alarming to me. Kelly Flagg, mother of player Cooper Flagg, must be credited with accidentally joining into that true Blue Devil Krzyzewski spirit inaugurated 35 years ago by calling the Carolina fan base “classless assholes” for treating her and her son’s team with some rough words when they visited Chapel Hill a couple of days back. Remarkably Ms Flagg seems not to have known what a good ole natural Blue Devil she is. She truly fits right in. Thankfully she doesn’t have to reach back to 1990 for her future inspiration since so much more exists in the historical record in the intervening years. And in her upcoming review of that historical record she won’t even have to focus solely on the former coach since the chronicles of the student body itself, the cleverly named “Cameron Crazies” scripted by their famous cheer sheets (archived no doubt), should provide her ample study material.



Here’s to you Ms Flagg — study up now. If there was ever any doubt it is gone - we all know where you truly belong.



$$$$$$$$$$$$$&$$$$$$&$$

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Re: A friend wrote… “My high school basketball teammates were sitting with the dook families (they coached one of the dook players in AAU) and confirm that Flagg’s mom is lying about fans saying mean things to them. One of them texted, ‘WTF IS SHE TALKING ABOUT ??
good gracious just stop!! She’s probably a part of the MAGA PARTY as well 🤦‍♂️ smh’”
 
Re: A friend wrote… “My high school basketball teammates were sitting with the dook families (they coached one of the dook players in AAU) and confirm that Flagg’s mom is lying about fans saying mean things to them. One of them texted, ‘WTF IS SHE TALKING ABOUT ??
good gracious just stop!! She’s probably a part of the MAGA PARTY as well 🤦‍♂️ smh’”
I wouldn't doubt that she probably had a few mean things said to her at some point during her time in the dome, there are 21+k folks in there and some of them are gonna say something stupid. I would expect the same would be true for Carolina parents taking in a game in Cameron, despite the much lower number of fans. But I have serious doubts that she experienced anything particularly noteworthy and I fully believe that she's blowing whatever she experienced well out of proportion. It's especially hypocritical to call the entire UNC fan base "classless" when you're so classless yourself that you run to facebook to whine after the game and act like a complete and utter fool in the process.
 
I travelled for work quite abit. So it was with great enthusiasm I looked forward to when the nascent broadcast.com would begin streaming Woody for UNC games. This was Mark Cuban's first big money maker. They had Indiana of course (Cuban) and Kentucky, we were #3.
Can't remember if the precursor for Cuban or not, but in the early 90s, you could dial an 800 number for a large number of teams [each team had its own dedicated number if I remember or maybe just its own code to enter] and you could listen to the home radio broadcast.

I had a deposition where I had a minor defendant on the Thursday of our first round NCAAT game against Miami [OH] in 1992. Using the landline in the corner of the conference room at the firm where the depo was taking place, I dialed in and listened to a very tense game. With some time left in the second half [I can't remember how much now], it was my time to ask the dozen or so questions I needed to ask. I left the receiver off the hook in my corner seat, moved to the front, asked my questions, went back to my corner seat, and finished listening to our 5 point win.
 
I reckon this is about history.




But despite the success, the Durham Coach didn’t approve of the student newspaper’s coverage of a weekend home 91-80 win over Maryland. Fuming the Future Legend called the student paper’s sports staff to a meeting with the team where he delivered the following decorum denigrating message: “I just wonder where your mindset is that you don’t appreciate the kids in this locker room…I’m not looking for puff pieces or anything like that but you’re whacked out and you don’t appreciate what the fuck is going on and it pissed me off…get your head out of your asses and start looking out for what’s actually happening.” The foundation of the coach’s profanity laced ire was a student sportswriter who had dealt out a B+ grade on the squad’s performance versus the Terps.
Wasn't Seth Davis the student reporter who got called on the carpet by the Rat that day?
 
Not sure if this was ever posted here or not...Before The Dean E. Smith Center, before Carmichael Auditorium, there was Woolen Gymnasium (and before that, The Tin Can, & Bynum Hall). This video appears to be from Woolen Gym - UNC V Wake in 1947 purportedly.

 
Fred Hobson played on the freshman team at Carolina with Billy Cunningham and later taught in the English Department at UNC.

His publications are impressive (That Mencken book is particularly good as is Tell About the South):
  • Mencken: A Life (New York: Random House, 1994). Nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography.
  • Tell About the South: The Southern Rage to Explain (Louisiana State University Press, 1983). Winner of the 1983 Jules F. Landry Award in Southern Studies.
  • The Southern Writer in the Postmodern World (University of Georgia Press, 1991).
  • But Now I See: The White Southern Racial Conversion Narrative (Louisiana State University Press, 1999). Winner of the 2005 Jules F. Landry Award in Southern Studies.
  • The Silencing of Emily Mullen and Other Essays (Louisiana State University Press, 2005).
  • (Co-ed.) The Oxford Handbook of the Literature of the U.S. South (Oxford University Press, 2016).

In this interview with D.G. Martin Hobson talks about his book Off The Rim: Basketball and Other Religions in a Carolina Childhood. It is a well-spent 27 minutes.

 
#OTD in 1952 Kansas defeated St. John’s to become NCAA Champs. St.John’s was coached by Frank McGuire who would go to UNC for the 1952-53 season. Kansas was coached by Phog Allen and a little used reserve on that team was Dean Smith who played the final 29 seconds of the game.

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Fred Hobson played on the freshman team at Carolina with Billy Cunningham and later taught in the English Department at UNC.

His publications are impressive (That Mencken book is particularly good as is Tell About the South):
  • Mencken: A Life (New York: Random House, 1994). Nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography.
  • Tell About the South: The Southern Rage to Explain (Louisiana State University Press, 1983). Winner of the 1983 Jules F. Landry Award in Southern Studies.
  • The Southern Writer in the Postmodern World (University of Georgia Press, 1991).
  • But Now I See: The White Southern Racial Conversion Narrative (Louisiana State University Press, 1999). Winner of the 2005 Jules F. Landry Award in Southern Studies.
  • The Silencing of Emily Mullen and Other Essays (Louisiana State University Press, 2005).
  • (Co-ed.) The Oxford Handbook of the Literature of the U.S. South (Oxford University Press, 2016).

In this interview with D.G. Martin Hobson talks about his book Off The Rim: Basketball and Other Religions in a Carolina Childhood. It is a well-spent 27 minutes.

Like his humility and southern grace.
 
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#OTD (March 30) in 1981 President Ronald Reagan was shot. Vice President George H.W. Bush immediately headed back to Washington D.C. from Texas by plane. In the meantime, Secretary of State Alexander Haig met with the Press and announced that, “I, Al Haig, am in control at the White House.” Thankfully he was badly mistaken, showing a lack of knowledge of the Constitution, and was never ‘in control.’ Though the 25th Amendment to the Constitution has recently been much discussed, on that day it was not invoked.

UNC was set to play Indiana that evening for the National Championship but until Reagan emerged from surgery in stable condition the game was in doubt. White House Press Secretary James Brady was graveky injured, never to fully recover. When the doctors signaled that the president would survive and was not even badly wounded, the game was played. The starters for Carolina were Al Wood, James Worthy, Sam Perkins, Jimmy Black, and Mike Pepper. Matt Doherty, Jimmy Braddock, Chris Brust, Pete Budko, and Eric Kenny also played. Wood was the leading scorer with 18, Perkins grabbed 8 rebounds, and Black dished out 6 assists. Isaiah Thomas had 23 points and 5 assists for Indiana.

The Hoosiers won 63-50.

At that point in his 19 year long head coaching career Dean Smith had yet to win a National Championship. His coaching opponent that night, Bobby Knight had captured a title five years previously, winning in 1976. I have never been a fan of Bobby Knight. I can respect that his players graduated. Something apparently motivated him away from corruption as well. Just the same, the sentiments that he so frankly expressed over the years and the acts that worldview drove him to commit have always been, in the main, repulsive to me.

So many of his performances over the years were juvenile and mean-spirited. After the conclusion of his coaching career at Texas Tech in 2008 he continued to speak his mind in public venues and in 2016 and 2020 was a vocal backer of Donald Trump. At one point he was the winningest head coach in the college game and passed Coach Smith to reach that milestone. He begat the equally foul-mouthed coach in Durham, Mike Krzyzewski, who currently tallies the most wins on the court.

My apologies if my views on this offend you. I won’t be swayed so do not try. I have heard many suggest that Coach Smith and Knight were friends but I have long searched for evidence and have only found them to be acquaintances. More recently I have heard of more evidence that they were indeed friends. If true then that is yet another tribute to Coach Smith’s Christian character. Both men acknowledged one-another’s coaching prowess.

I felt this way about Knight before 1981 by the way, and his behavior in the subsequent 43 years up to his passing on 11/1/23 have only worked to heighten my disgust. If you know me you’ve either heard this or are not surprised. I’ve always kind of wished that contest had been postponed but it was played and UNC lost. I have poured over the sources in search of how the respective locker rooms dealt with that period of uncertainty after the shooting over both Reagan’s survival and, of course, whether the game would be played that evening. I have yet to find any satisfying account - I will keep looking.

I know Coach Smith was a man of faith and right mindset and suspect that any locker room discussion would have reflected that as it also did on the court. An attempted murder of a global leader had happened and as the day progressed that person’s life hung in the balance. Reagan emerged from surgery at 6:20 and despite an earlier dire prognosis he was declared ‘out of danger.’ The game proceeded as scheduled. It was quite a day — and night.

Knight’s Hoosiers won. That Carolina team, minus senior starters Al Wood and Mike Pepper, added a young Wilmingtonian the next year and emerged victorious over Georgetown giving Coach Smith his first National Championship.
 


From 2017...wish I had seen this exhibit.

"Wilson Library opens exhibit on integration of varsity sports at Carolina
When Carolina basketball star Charles Scott enrolled in 1966, he was one of only 22 African-Americans in an entering class of more than 2,000.

When Charles Scott took the floor for the men’s basketball team on Dec. 2, 1967, he became the first African-American to play on the varsity basketball team at Carolina.

It was the beginning of a legendary career for Scott and marked a turning point in University history. Not only did he help bring the Tar Heels back to national prominence – the team made it to two Final Fours during Scott’s years at Carolina – he helped to pave the way for the generations of African-American athletes and students who would follow in his footsteps.

A new exhibit on the fourth floor of in Wilson Library, which opened Jan. 30 and runs through the end of May, places Scott’s career in context by looking at the integration of the student body at Carolina and of Chapel Hill in the 1960s, said University archivist Nicholas Graham.

The exhibit reveals how Carolina integrated peacefully, but reluctantly, Graham said.

After decades of resisting efforts by African-American students to attend Carolina, federal court orders forced the University to begin admitting African-Americans to its graduate programs in 1951. The University administration continued to deny African-American applicants to the undergraduate school until 1955, when another federal court ordered the university to admit qualified African-American students.

As a result, the number of African-American students at Carolina grew slowly. When Scott enrolled in 1966, he was one of only 22 African-Americans in an entering class of more than 2,000.

When Dean Smith was hired as head basketball coach in 1961, one of his goals was to recruit African-American players for Carolina.

“Smith was inspired by the example of his father, who had, years before, integrated a high school basketball team in Kansas despite strong opposition by many in the community,” Graham said. “Smith was further encouraged by Robert Seymour, the pastor at Binkley Baptist Church in Chapel Hill and a leader in the local Civil Rights movement.”

Scott grew up in New York City before going to Laurinburg Institute in North Carolina for high school, where he excelled as both a star player on the basketball team and an outstanding student in school. Many schools recruited Scott, and he initially committed to play at Davidson College, but Smith coaxed Scott to visit Chapel Hill and later convinced him to come to Carolina.

Scott excelled from the start, following a successful first year on the freshman team by three outstanding years on the varsity, Graham said. He and his teammates took the Tar Heels to two Final Fours and Scott played on the gold medal-winning 1968 Olympic basketball team.

But his years at Carolina were not without controversy, Graham added.

“Scott was often the subject of abusive comments from fans at away games,” Graham said. “And despite terrific seasons in 1968-69 and 1969-70, he finished second in ACC Player of the Year voting when several voters left him off of their ballots entirely, in what could only be explained as racially motivated votes.”

The small exhibit – which includes photos, newspaper articles, documents from the University Archives and old basketball programs – promises to appeal to sports fans and anyone interested in University history."

 
I've been looking on YouTube forever (without success) for video of when Magic Johnson and the eventual national champion Michigan State Spartans came to Carmichael in December 1978, with Carolina squeezing out a 1-point win. Thank you Michigan State University archives! UNC had a comfortable working margin late in the second half, but some missed FTs and turnovers gave MSU a chance, but they missed a last-second shot to win (Magic didn't get the ball for some reason). No sound, but pretty high quality video for 1978.

 
I've been looking on YouTube forever (without success) for video of when Magic Johnson and the eventual national champion Michigan State Spartans came to Carmichael in December 1978, with Carolina squeezing out a 1-point win. Thank you Michigan State University archives! UNC had a comfortable working margin late in the second half, but some missed FTs and turnovers gave MSU a chance, but they missed a last-second shot to win (Magic didn't get the ball for some reason). No sound, but pretty high quality video for 1978.



I was at that game and my greatest memory -- whether true or not -- is of Al Wood flying out of the Four Corners Offense from out front and throwing down a dunk that felt like it pulled the entirety of Carmichael through the rim with it. (I found it at the 34 minute mark -- so my memory proves good!). I have to note that Carolina played pretty loose with the ball from what I viewed looking at the final 6 minutes or so. Message boards of the day must have been calling for Coach Smith's head...after all, he couldn't "win the big one" and all.
 
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