Four years ago today, my fellow co-worker Bill Richards passed away while watching the Tar Heels play their “Sweet Sixteen” game against Creighton in the 2012 NCAA tournament. In addition to being an avid UNC football and basketball fan, Bill was the senior digitization technician in the Carolina Digital Library and Archives. In 1982 Bill was the Chief Photographer for the Chapel Hill Newspaper. In 1988, he began working as a photographer and graphic designer in the UNC Office of Sports Information. He began working in the Library Photographic Services unit in 1998, but continued working for Sports information into the 2000s. Each year at this time I dedicate a post about UNC basketball to Bill.
Tar Heel Eric Montross lofts a shot as Kansas Jayhawk Greg Ostertag defends during the 1993 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament National Semifinal matchup. Will the Tar Heels and Kansas face one another again in 2016? (Hugh Morton photograph cropped by the author.)
By my count, Hugh Morton photographed during seventeen NCAA men’s basketball tournaments—in some years at multiple locations, such as 1991 when Morton traveled to East Rutherford for the East Regional and to Indianapolis for the Final Four. In last year’s post I counted fourteen, so below is an updated list with several new links to images in the online collection. Bill Richards would have loved this much detail! Did I miss any this time around?
- The loss in the 1946 championship game against Oklahoma A&M, at Madison Square Garden in New York.
- Duke’s defeat of Connecticut in the 1964 East Regional Final played in Raleigh’s Reynolds Auditorium.
- UNC’s victory over Davidson in the 1968 East Regional Final, also played at Reynold’s Coliseum.
- UNC’s 1969 “Final Four” loss to Purdue in the national semifinal played in Louisville, Kentucky. Morton also photographed the other national semifinal between Drake and UCLA, the eventual national champion.
- The 1974 national semifinals played in the Greensboro Coliseum, where North Carolina State upset of UCLA in the first round of the Final Four. Morton photographed the game from the stands, from where he also shot some of the Kansas versus Marquette contest. Morton did not photograph N. C. State’s win over Marquette for the national championship.
- 1975 first round win over New Mexico State played at the Charlotte Coliseum.
- The 1977 “Final Four” games versus the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and Marquette University played at The Omni in Atlanta.
- UNC’s 1981 trip to Final Four at Philadelphia. The online collection includes photographs of the win over Virgina, but not the championship loss to Indiana.
- UNC’s 1982 journey to a championship victory over Georgetown at New Orleans, including trips to Raleigh for the East Regional games agains Alabama and Villanova.
- UNC’s 1983 defeat of Ohio State and its loss to Georgia in the East Regional Final played at Syracuse’s Carrier Dome.
- UNC’s 1987 trip to The Meadowlands for its victory over Notre Dame in the East Regional Semifinal and the Tar Heels’ loss to Syracuse in the regional final.
- UNC’s 1990 upset over number one seed Oklahoma in the second round of the Midwest Regional.
- UNC’s East Regional games against Eastern Michigan and Temple at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, N. J. Morton also went to Indianapolis for the Final Four. The online collection, however, on includes on one photograph of Kansas head coach Roy Williams talking to his assistant coach Matt Doherty, and two scenes after Duke won the national championship over Kansas.
- UNC’s 1993 national semifinal game versus Kansas and national championship win over Michigan, 77–71, in New Orleans; and UNC’s regional semifinal against Arkansas and the regional final victory over Cincinnati, both played at the Brendan Bryne Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey. According to the Morton collection finding aid, Morton did photograph UNC’s regional game against Rhode Island, but there isn’t enough detail to see if he photographed the opening round game versus East Carolina. Winston-Salem hosted both of these games.
- UNC’s trip to the 1995 Final Four in Seattle, where they lost to Arkansas in the national semifinal.
- UNC’s trip to Indianapolis in the 1997 Final Four, where they lost to Arizona 66-58 in the national semifinal. Morton also photographed UNC’s regional game versus Colorado played in Winston-Salem.
- Morton’s final trip to the NCAA tournament to him to San Antonio for the 1998 Final Four, when he photographed UNC’s national semifinal loss to Utah, 59-65.