Highlights include a trip to Chattanooga, Tenn. in 2007 to cover ASU’s third consecutive football national championship victory, as well as to Charlotte in December 2009 for the Meineke Car Care Bowl college football game. I was fortunate enough to visit Wake Forest in November 2009 to cover Florida State head football coach Bobby Bowden’s final college football game in North Carolina as the Seminoles’ head coach. Then there was the high school basketball playoff game at Nantahala High School last February (a truly unforgettable experience). I also traveled last spring to Chapel Hill for the UNC spring football game and a baseball game where the Heels faced rival N.C. State at the newly-renovated Boshamer Stadium.
On Sunday, Feb. 6, I had the opportunity to visit a location of great personal significance when I ventured to Chapel Hill to cover a pair of college basketball games (Editor’s Note: This is the point where the Duke and N.C. State fans reading can either continue reading with disdain, or check out another page of the sports section.)
On a cloudless Sunday morning my equally exuberant photographer Meredith Stewart accompanied me from Durham over to Chapel Hill to cover the day’s hoops action, beginning with our neighboring Milligan College’s junior varsity team taking on the UNC Tar Heels JV squad.
Late during the week preceding the trip east, I contacted the UNC Athletic Communications Office to inquire about covering the UNC men’s basketball game against Florida State, which followed the JV game on Sunday. Steve Kirschner and his staff at Carolina were extremely helpful, providing writer and photographer passes to cover the game on short notice.
Also, in an instance of the “small world” maxim, upon our arrival at the Athletic Communications Office, Meredith and I had the pleasure of meeting long-time staff member Terry Roberts, who went to college at Western Carolina University and had once worked in Linville Falls. He shared several memories of his times around Avery County and the High Country. We spoke for several minutes about the area and he was more than happy to assist us in any way he could.
Most everyone who knows me or has read many of my past columns are aware that I spent four years at UNC as a student and was awarded a bachelor’s degree. During those years there weren’t many home basketball games that I missed.
I was in attendance at the Smith Center on Jan. 27, 1993, when the home crowd proved to be anything but what Florida State guard Sam Cassell once called a “wine and cheese crowd,” as the Tar Heels overcame a 21-point second-half deficit to the Seminoles and earned a five-point win. A little more than two months later I jumped through bonfires with thousands of ecstatic fans on Franklin Street when UNC defeated Michigan to capture the 1993 NCAA men’s basketball championship.
On another occasion, I recall my college friend Dean Jones and I getting second row student seating behind the UNC bench for an ACC game against Wake Forest. We subsequently painted our faces and cheered as enthusiastically as we could in order to demonstrate our immense team spirit. Besides the experience, the memorable portion of the evening occurred upon returning to the dorm room. We had received more than a half-dozen answering machine messages—messages that shared how we had unknowingly received a television close-up and was commented on by the ESPN broadcasters covering the game.
In the years after graduating from Carolina, I’ve only had the chance to attend a couple of games, and those occurred the season after my graduation. Needless to say, the experience of covering a Carolina basketball game as a member of the working media is something I have wanted to do for a long time. Attending the game truly was an honor, as well as one of those special occasions in which a sportswriter only occasionally has the opportunity to participate.
“It was an amazing opportunity to be able to see Coach Roy and a few of the elite UNC players face-to-face. It helped to remind me that, although they are often viewed as larger-than-life heroic figures, they are humans, too,” Meredith told me later of the experience. “They get tired, sweat [a lot] and sometimes they may even be a little overwhelmed by the magnitude of the expectations thrust upon them. This team has impressed me by showing heart, camaraderie and an unexpected humility on the court and off—that is one of the many reasons why I am proud to be a Tar Heel.”
The accessibility to the Tar Heels who inspire deep emotion in countless fans (either love or hate), was a one-of-a-kind occurrence. I look forward to more visits to “The Southern Part of Heaven,” and hope to share more of them in future Musings.
