Stephen Fletcher – Page 12 – History on the Hill

UNC class of 1943 20th reunion

This coming Saturday, May 11th, “University History Lives in Wilson Library” from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. during our annual open house for Reunion Weekend. For the past few years, materials from special collections relating to the featured classes are on display in the Pleasants Family Assembly Room, including a projection show of images running on continuous loop that I create using scans from negatives in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Photographic Laboratory Collection drawn from the 50th reunion year. This year’s show honors the class of 1963.

While going through the negatives made during the 1963 commencement weekend, I saw images for other classes that also held their reunions . . . 1953 . . . scan it, nice bold banner . . . 1943 . . . . skip it, ordinary group shot . . . 1938 . . . 1933 . . . wait! . . . 1943? I pulled out the 1943 negative from its envelope and grabbed a magnifying loupe. Yep, Hugh and Julie Morton in attendance.

Class of 1943 reunion attendees in front of the University Faculty Club, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1 June 1963. This building is now know as Jackson Hall. Hugh and Julia Morton are second and third persons from the left in the back row. Photograph by Don Needham and Barney Young. (UNC Photo Lab Collection, 24311)

Detail from the above photograph highlighting Hugh and Julia Morton.

The Alumni Review April-May issue (which must have been a few months late) used the photograph with the caption title “Emphasis Was Placed on Low-Pressure, Family Type of Reunion for ’43.” The event’s focus was “an enjoyable supper on June 1 at the Monogram Club dinning room.” According the caption, by comparison, the “Pearl Harbor generation” classes of 1941, 1942, and 1943 held a joint reunion in 1962 at the Hope Valley Country Club in Durham.

An interesting biographical comment turned up in the column, “Some Notes from the ’43 Reunion”:

Hugh Morton of Wilmington, realtor, owns and operates Grandfather Mountain, known as “Carolina’s Top Scenic Attraction,” and also does some photographic work. . . .”

Some photographic work, indeed.

Wait, wait . . . is that Carl Kasell?

NPR’s Carl Kasell and North Carolina Collection Photographic Archivist Stephen Fletcher examine photographs in the Wilson Library Grand Reading Room, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Photograph by Mark Perry.

Last Tuesday was a fun day at the office. In the morning, library staff gave Carl Kasell a tour of Wilson Library. Kassel, a UNC alumnus, returned to Chapel Hill for an evening event sponsored by the library moderated by WUNC radio host Eric Hodge. Kasell was a member of UNC’s class of 1956 (although he did not graduate, having been drafted into the United States Army after four years as a student).

Kasell’s tenure at National Public Radio began in 1975 as a part-time news announcer for Weekend Edition. Starting in 1979 he was the voice of the network’s morning news for the next thirty years. Since retiring from that role at NPR in 2009, Kasell became a “roving ambassador,” and continued as the judge and scorekeeper for the “Oddly Informative News Quiz” Wait Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me!, which debuted in January 1998.

As you might imagine, Kasell has received several awards during his sonorous career. In 2004 the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication inducted Kasell into the North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame. In 2010 the National Radio Hall of Fame inducted Kasell into its ranks. In March 2013 the North Carolina Press Association named Kasell “North Carolinian of the Year” for 2013, and the association made a wonderful biographical video available on their YouTube site. Despite his stature in journalism, A View to Hugh has not been able to feature Kasell because Hugh Morton hadn’t photographed him, even though he been a co-founder of WUNC radio with Morton’s long-time friend Charles Kuralt.

Or so we thought.

Andy Griffith as Sir Walter Raleigh in “The Lost Colony.” Carl Kasell, as Wanchese, is in the lower right corner of the photograph.

We featured the above photograph a few years ago in a post about the comeback of The Lost Colony after a fire destroyed the production’s costumes and props. Playing the role of Sir Walter Raleigh (right) is Andy Griffith. But wait . . . wait! Who is the fellow in the lower right corner wearing too much face paint? None other than Carl Kasell!

As seen in the opening photograph, I showed Hugh Morton’s photograph to Mr. Kasell and he confirmed that that indeed was he in the corner. The reference to too much face paint came from a story Kasell told during Tuesday evening’s event, when Andy Griffith told Kasell he had been a bit heavy handed in the makeup room before dress rehearsal. Kasell confided that Griffith later helped him with a more appropriate application of face paint, and that Griffith was “a big, big help” during that season. (Kasell’s high school drama teacher was Clifton Britton, not Griffith as is often incorrectly stated on numerous web pages.)

We don’t know if Morton made the above photograph before or after that cosmetic lesson, but we now know the year Morton made the photograph: Kasell said it was 1952 after he had graduated from high school, and 1952 is the only year Kasell’s name appears in the official program. And because we know what Kasell’s costume looked like, we can now identify other Morton photographs of Kasell.

Lillian Prince and Carl Kasell in The Lost Colony

Lillian Prince as Queen Elizabeth and Carl Kasell as Wanchese in “The Lost Colony,” 1952.

Kasell played the role of “Wanchese, an Indian chief.” I believe as he looked at Morton’s photograph he dredged up from his memory a couple of his lines: “Mish-wi aga, Wingina” and “Wanchese no more chief. Wanchese now king.”

Carl Kasell as Wanchese confronts Old Tom

Wanchese confronted by the character “Old Tom” holding his arquebus. “Get out of here, ye knavish rogues! Scat!” Is this also Carl Kasell? If so, Frederick Young played the part of Old Tom Harris in 1952.

If you couldn’t make the evening with Carl Kasell, you can watch a video recording of the event, which includes Kasell’s recollections from his performance in The Lost Colony while Morton’s photograph is projected on the screen. Below is an image from a color transparency from the Morton collection not previously scanned.

Scene from The Lost Colony with Andy Griffith as Sir Walter Raleigh

This photograph is remarkably similar to the one that appears on the cover of the 1953 “The Lost Colony” souvenir program (see below).

Cover of the 1953 edition of “The Lost Colony” Souvenir Program.

But least we think that the similarity between the two photographs means that Hugh Morton made the eventual 1953 cover photograph, too, here is a photograph published on page 35 of the 1952 souvenir program:

Lillian Prince and Carl Kasell pose for photographers

Lillian Prince and Carl Kasell pose during the 1952 annual press photographers day.

The cover photograph could have been made by any of the photographers above. . . . But wait . . . wait, don’t tell me! Is that Hugh Morton (center right) among the press photographers?!

Library Snapshot Day

Today is “Library Snapshot Day” on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus, so what better way for A Hugh to Hugh to participate than to highlight photographs of the library made by Hugh Morton. Opened in 1929, The University Library was only … Continue reading →

Today is “Library Snapshot Day” on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus, so what better way for A Hugh to Hugh to participate than to highlight photographs of the library made by Hugh Morton. Opened in 1929, The University Library was only ten years old when Morton arrived as a student in the autumn of 1939. Renamed Wilson Library in 1956, the building has been home for the library’s special collections since 1987, including Morton’s photographic legacy since 2006.

The University Library (now Wilson Library), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Morton probably made this photograph with infrared film. It appears (cropped vertically) on cover of the April 1947 issue of THE ALUMNI REVIEW. Morton presented the Alumni Office with six photographs of campus in autumn of 1946, or the image may date from early 1947.

The photograph above dates from Morton’s post World War II days, but naturally he photographed The University Library as a student, too. The Daily Tar Heel published the two following photographs on September 26, 1941 to illustrate an article about remodeling and changes in the library. The top image depicts the reserve and general reading room (what is now the Pleasants Family Assembly Room).

The photograph below shows the new browsing room and Bull’s Head Bookshop, at the time just moved from the first floor to the second.

Charles E. Rush, University Librarian, made the changes because, “he felt the [undergraduate] students were either too timid or too rushed to get books on their fields other than those assigned.” In the interest of comfort, Rush permitted students to smoke in the east end of the room, with ashtrays placed on the ends of the tables. You can see an ashtray on the table in the top photograph.

University Librarian Charles E. Rush (right) with two unidentified men in The University Library. The index on far right is dated 1940. Rush became university librarian in May 1941.

A January 2012, A View to Hugh blog post on the UNC Information Center for Civilian Morale during World War II features a photograph made in the lobby of the library, which also includes Rush who had had begun his appointment at UNC merely half a year before the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

More photographs of Wilson Library can be seen in the online collection.

Another view of ’82

Wednesday afternoon was one of those times, like so many others in this line of work, where what you end up working on isn’t even on your radar when you step off the bus and head to the office. Here’s … Continue reading →

Around 2:30 a new staff member in the the library’s Digital Production Center received a phone call from Yahoo! Sports requesting Hugh Morton photographs. He asked me who should take the call, and I recommended he transfer the call to Keith Longiotti in our Research and Instructional Services Department. Keith handles most of the image requests for the North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives.

Shortly after the call I saw an email that I had received before the phone call, but hadn’t seen because I had been away from my desk. The email was from an associate producer at Yahoo! Sports, and had its beginnings on Tuesday with a referral from The Daily Tar Heel to the journalism school’s librarian Stephanie Brown.

Yahoo! Sports has been producing a series called “Memorable Moments: March Madness.” Their last episode was to feature the 1982 NCAA men’s basketball championship game between UNC and Georgetown. They requested photographs or footage from the game, mentioning that they had seen some Hugh Morton photographs in the online collection of Morton images, but nothing from the closing moments of the game. The producer wrote,

I’m looking for any photos AFTER Michael Jordan’s go-ahead jumper with :17 left in the game. Specifically Georgetown’s Fred Brown throwing the ball away to James Worthy during the subsequent play. Anything of Worthy and/or Brown from the final moments (before the steal, during the steal, after the steal, huddles, shooting free throws, etc.) would be outstanding.

Stephanie replied that the Park Library did not hold such materials, and that she should talk to me about the Hugh Morton collection. I wrote the associate producer immediately after I finished reading her email, telling her that I had read her email shortly after the telephone call.

If you are a regular reader of A View to Hugh, then you know only 8,000 of the 250,000 items in the Morton collection are online. I told the associate producer that I would look in the remainder of the collection to see if I could locate any images that were not online. The catch? They needed images that day, or early Thursday at the latest. (Luckily their offices are on the west coast so that gave me an additional three hours to work on the request.) They had seen Morton’s photograph of the team huddle shown above, but not in the online collection. Did we have it? Did we have anything else?

Given their tight deadline and the proximity to closing time, we could have settled for the images they already seen and requested. Keith sent them scans of the images they’d seen so they could get started. I couldn’t fathom, however, that Hugh Morton would not have photographed the pivotal closing moments unless he had been on the opposite end of the court. That, coupled with an opportunity to give the Morton collection some national or even international exposure was too good to pass up. I jumped on it.

First I checked for scans saved on our image server, but not used in the online collection. (Yes, there are thousands of them!) To do that, I had to review all the prints, negatives, and slides from the games, because the scan’s file names are written on the storage enclosures. The huddle scene above was previously scanned, but not included online.

But look at what else I found that wasn’t scanned:

P081_1982NCCAfinal_Worthy 01

After watching the closing moments of the game on YouTube, I was convinced the scene above was James Worthy driving the basketball down court after stealing Fred Brown’s errant pass. The steal and drive happened right in front of Morton. He snapped the camera shutter just a moment before Worthy was intentionally fouled by Georgetown’s Eric Smith (#32). Eric “Sleepy” Floyd (#21) is on the left. Both Floyd and Worthy are from Gastonia, North Carolina and were good friends. The turnover happened so unexpectedly on the other end of the court, and so quickly that it may have caught Morton off guard because Worthy is out of focus. The result, however, means that Morton captured the dismay on Floyd’s face, and the expressions on the bench and cheerleaders are more visible.

(By the way, if you watch the CBS broadcast, you can see Hugh Morton pop into the frame about 25 seconds after the end of the game. This may be when Dean Smith told Morton, “Stick with me.”)

Below, Morton photographed Worthy taking one of his free throws with only two seconds remaining on the clock.

P081_1982NCCAfinal_Worthy 02

A staff member of the Digital Production Center helped me make the scans of the two 35mm slides. (I couldn’t do it because they just starting using new software.) We had the slides finished before 6:00. I continued to dig Thursday morning, taking advantage of the time zones difference, but didn’t find additional images that fit the hole they needed to fill. We delivered the scans by their deadline, and Yahoo! Sports was thrilled.

We received the link to the story, “Michael Jordan’s gutsy shot leads to North Carolina title” this morning. The downside of our efforts is that Yahoo! Sports doesn’t credit their sources after the episodes in “Memorable Moments: March Madness,” so you won’t see Morton or the photographic archives credited. The upside is that seven Hugh Morton photographs appear in the episode (one of Worthy during the East Regional final game against Villanova in Raleigh, and six from the championship game), and the library did receive a respectable commercial use fee to help support the work that we do with the collections. The team huddle photograph also opens a one-minute piece, “Memorable Moments: The huddle before Michael Jordan’s shot.“ Another of Morton’s images appears in a second short, “Memorable Moments: James Worthy remembers UNC vs. Georgetown.”

A remaining mystery emerged from this reference request. I didn’t find a photograph of Michael Jordon’s game winning shot, which occurred near the very spot of the Worthy photograph above. Did Morton photograph that memorable moment, too? If so, I didn’t find it. Yet.

Player, Preacher, Coach, and Commentator

UNC’s men basketball team bowed out of the NCAA tournament over the weekend, but the UNC women’s team continues on its quest for a national championship this evening. With basketball season still in high gear, Hugh Morton collection volunteer Jack Hilliard looks back at a North Carolina basketball legend on the anniversary of UNC’s second place finish in the 1946 NCAA championship game played on March 26, 1946.

Wake Forest men’s basketball Head Coach Bones McKinney on bench/sidelines. Possibly during a UNC-Chapel Hill versus Wake Forest University basketball game.

“I don’t remember exactly when everyone started calling me Bones, but with a name like Horace Albert, the sooner the better, right?”

—Bones McKinney from Bones: Honk Your Horn if You Love Basketball (1988)

His resume is like no other. It goes something like this:

High School All-Star Basketball at Durham High
Varsity basketball at North Carolina State
United States Army, Fort Bragg (basketball coach and player)
Varsity basketball at University of North Carolina
Basketball Association of America, Washington Capitols
National Basketball Association, Boston Celtics
Ordained Baptist minister
Head coach, Wake Forest
Head coach, American Basketball Association, Carolina Cougars
TV commentator and analyst, Raycom
Newspaper columnist
Author
Humorist and motivational after-dinner speaker

Folks born on New Year’s Day are special people.

For Horace Albert (Bones) McKinney, born in Lowlands, North Carolina on January 1, 1919, that specialty was his love for the game of basketball. When he was five years old, the McKinney family moved to Durham and that’s where young Horace began playing his favorite game—starting at Watts Street Grammar School, then to Central Junior High, the YMCA, and finally to Durham High where, under Head Coach Paul Sykes, he led the team to two South Atlantic Prep Tournaments, two Duke-Durham Tournaments, three state championships, and the Interscholastic Basketball Tournament in Glens Falls, New York . . . all the while racking up sixty-nine straight wins.

McKinney graduated a little late from Durham High in the spring of 1940, then headed over to Raleigh for a college career at North Carolina State College (now North Carolina State). A year of freshman ball was followed by a sophomore year when he led the Southern Conference in scoring with 200 points and was an all conference selection. On Christmas Day, 1941, Bones McKinney married the love of his life, Edna Ruth Stell.

UNC 1946 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship runners-up

Group portrait of UNC-Chapel Hill men’s basketball team after their loss to Oklahoma A&M in the 1946 NCAA championship at Madison Square Garden, New York, NY. Among those pictured are head coach Ben Carnevale (back row, second from left) and Horace “Bones” McKinney (back row, second from right).

A week after the 1942 season ended, on April 2, 1942, he joined the Army. At Fort Bragg, Bones played, coached, and led the team to wins in the Southeastern Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Tournament in Savannah and the Southern AAU in Raleigh. While at Fort Bragg, he became good friends with Ben Carnevale the head coach at UNC and on January 9, 1945, Bones McKinney became a Tar Heel—but the UNC basketball team was called the White Phantoms in those days. The highlight of the 1946 season, which was his only season at UNC, was a NCAA national championship game against Oklahoma A&M at Madison Square Garden. The 43–40 loss was difficult for Bones as evidenced by Hugh Morton’s photograph of the award ceremony following the game.

1946 UNC coach Ben Carnevale receiving runner-up trophy

“In 1946, before the NCAA national championship became known as the Final Four, UNC lost in the championship game, 43 to 40 to Oklahoma A&M. The game was played in the old Madison Square Garden before 18,479 spectators. UNC head basketball coach and Navy lieutenant Ben Carnevale (shaking hands), who had responsibilities as the Navy Pre-Flight School at Chapel Hill as well, accepted the runner-up trophy. Carolina’s Horace ‘Bones’ McKinney (far left) was not pleased at being runner up.” Presenting the award is Harold G. Olsen, who was serving his final year as the NCAA basketball tournament chairman. (Identification obtained from book ON TOBACCO ROAD.)

By the end of the ‘46 season, the McKinney family had grown to three and Bones realized that he needed a paying job to support the family, so he left UNC and went to work for Hanes Hosiery. It was while there that an unbelievable phone call came. On the other end of the line was Red Auerbach, who was going to form the “Basketball Association of America”—and he wanted Bones to play for him. Just when it looked like basketball was over for Bones McKinney, along came an opportunity to play for pay: $6,750 for a season with a $500 advance. He would play for the Washington Capitols for five seasons, making all pro and led the team to the Eastern Division championship his first season, 1946-47. He led the team into the playoffs each year from 1946 through 1950.

On January 9, 1951 the Washington Capitols folded, and McKinney was sent to the Boston Celtics as a player-coach. While there he made some NBA history. He recruited and signed Earl Lloyd, the first African American player in the NBA. Following the ’52 season, McKinney left pro basketball and enrolled in the Southeastern Theological Seminary at Wake Forest. While in class on November 8, 1952, Wake Forest Head Basketball Coach Murray Greason walked in and asked Dr. Bill Strickland if he could speak with student McKinney. Greason needed an assistant coach and offered Bones the job, a job that would last until March 26, 1957 when he took over the head coaching position at Wake.

In February of 1960, a writer for the magazine Life came to Winston-Salem to do a McKinney feature story. It wasn’t the first time he had made the big time. There is an action shot by Hugh Morton contemporary Hy Peskin on the front cover of Collier’s dated January 15, 1949. Life published another article, titled “Basketball’s Incredible Mr. Bones” in its February 22, 1960 issue, which featured the following:

People go to Wake Forest basketball games to see a winning team perform. For the same price, they get Bones McKinney, the coach with his own private volcano. Once the game starts, the bench can’t hold him. The climactic moment arrives when Mr. Bones erupts dramatically from the sideline, looking like a dead ringer for Ichabod Crane.

In 1961 and 1962, McKinney led the Deacons to Atlantic Coast Conference championships, with the ’62 team playing in the NCAA Final Four. Following the ’64-’65 season, Wake Forest made a coaching change and Bones McKinney took a job with the North Carolina Board of Corrections, but soon after the ’65-’66 basketball season started, he got a call from ACC TV producer Castleman D. Chesley. It seems that Bones’ good friend Charlie Harville had recommended him as a possible broadcaster with the ACC network. Bones was eager to get back into basketball, so on January 8, 1966 at the UNC vs. Duke game in Chapel Hill, Bones McKinney became a TV basketball commentator and analyst, working with play-by-play man Jim Thacker, and stat man Charlie Harville. At first, McKinney didn’t think he was very good as a broadcaster, but when he was invited back, he figured he must be OK.

Then in early 1969 . . . another phone call and another basketball opportunity. On January 2, 1969, Southern Sports Corporation purchased the Houston Mavericks, a team in the American Basketball Association. President Jim Gardner was planning to move the team to North Carolina and he wanted Bones as his head coach. Gardner and McKinney struck a deal and Bones McKinney became to first head coach of the newly formed Carolina Cougars, leading them that year to the ABA playoffs.

One of my favorite Bones McKinney stories came during that ’69-‘70 season. During a hotly contested game, Bones yelled out at an official following a questionable call.

“Hey, you’re either blind or you’re a crook.”
“And you’re out of the game,” yelled back the ref.
“Why?” asked Bones defiantly.
“Because you called me a crook,” replied the official.
“Did not,” yelled Bones, looking back over his shoulder as he departed, “I gave you a choice.”

While still coaching the Carolina Cougars, McKinney was inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame with the Class of 1970.

Bones McKinney, Billy Packer, and Jim Thacker, with Castleman Chesley at UNC-Chapel Hill versus Marquette basketball game, 1977 NCAA

Seated are (L to R) Bones McKinney, Billy Packer, and Jim Thacker, with Castleman Chesley (standing) behind the scenes at UNC-Chapel Hill versus Marquette basketball NCAA finals in Atlanta, Georgia.

The 4th Annual ABA All-Star Game was played in the Greensboro Coliseum on January 23, 1971 and CBS-TV carried the game nationwide, with play-by-play by Don Criqui and Pat Summerall and color commentary by Bones McKinney.

On November 18, 1979 during halftime of the Washington Redskins vs. Dallas Cowboys game in RFK Stadium, McKinney was inducted into the Washington Hall of Stars. In 1985 his longtime friend Charlie Justice joined him in the DC Hall. McKinney continued to coach all-star games, and was in high demand as an after-dinner speaker during the 1980s and early ‘90s.

When the Greensboro News and Record arrived on Saturday morning May 17, 1997, the front page headline read, “Legendary Wake Coach Dies at 78.” Staff writer Jim Schlosser related the story of McKinney’s death at 5:05 PM on Friday, May 16th at Wake Medical Rehab Center following a stroke two weeks earlier. On Sunday, I went out to WFMY-TV and put together a video piece for Monday’s “Good Morning Show.” As I was putting the piece together, I kept thinking about a Bones McKinney quote that I had read years before in his 1988 book. The quote was part of the short section about his broadcasting career. It went like this: “I soon found out that if your director ain’t no good, you ain’t no good.” He went on to talk about the magnificent Raycom directors, Norman Prevatte from WBTV in Charlotte, John Young from WUNC-TV, and Frank Slingland from WRC-TV in Washington, DC.

During my time in broadcasting, I never had the honor of directing a Bones McKinney game or a Bones McKinney broadcast. However, I worked several Carolina Cougar games in 1972 after Bones had moved on. But in 1969, WFMY-TV produced the Carolina Cougar coach’s show. It was called, of course, “The Bones McKinney Show.” Veteran WFMY Producer/Director George Leh was director and Woody Durham was producer along with Bones. The show was usually taped on Thursday afternoons for weekend playback. On this particular Thursday, Leh was not available to direct so production manager Jack Forehand asked me to direct the show. For twenty-eight minutes and thirty seconds on Thursday afternoon, March 5, 1969, I knew I was part of something very special.

Back at the Top . . . Back on the Bayou

It’s that time of year again when hundreds of thousands of college basketball fans huddle secretively with their notes on “bracketology.” The NCAA basketball championship tournaments broke onto the stage this week and, once again, the UNC men’s and women’s … Continue reading →

UNC basketball team huddles during 1993 NCAA final

UNC basketball team in huddle during the North Carolina versus Michigan basketball game at 1993 NCAA finals in New Orleans.

Readers of A View to Hugh know that Hugh Morton had a great love for UNC men’s basketball, photographing games regularly as far back as his days as a student in the late 1930s and early 1940s. As the basketball teams head into their championship runs, Morton collection volunteer Jack Hilliard takes a look back at the men Tar Heels’ 1993 trip to “The Final Four” twenty years ago, when Carolina won its fourth national championship under legendary head coach Dean Smith.

It was one year ago today that library staff members learned of the untimely passing of our colleague, Bill Richards. 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 Service in 1998, but continued working for Sports information into the 2000s. This post is dedicated to Bill who, like Hugh Morton, was an avid UNC basketball fan.

UNC student fans during the 1993 NCAA championship at New Orleans, Louisiana.

Eleven seasons had come and gone since Dean Smith’s basketball Tar Heels had won the 1982 NCAA championship in the Louisiana Superdome. But in early April 1993 his team was poised and ready for another run at the big game in “The Big Easy.”

Most UNC fans agree that Smith’s 1992-93 team was one of his best. When all was said and done, their record was 34–4, with 26 wins in the regular season and 8 wins in the post season. The one post season loss came in the ACC Tournament final, a two-pointer to Georgia Tech. Following that disappointment, it was on to NCAA March Madness and a number one seed in the East, starting in Winston-Salem. A twenty-point win over East Carolina and a forty-five-point win against Rhode Island put the Heels in the “Sweet 16” at the Meadowlands in New Jersey. Then came a six-point win over Arkansas and a seven-point overtime victory versus Cincinnati . . . and it was on to the Crescent City and another Final-Four for Coach Smith (his ninth).

The 1993 Final Four was unique. Three number one seeds and one number two seed would be playing for the championship: North Carolina, Michigan, and Kentucky along with number two seed Kansas. The first national semi-final on Saturday, April 3rd would match Dean Smith’s UNC Tar Heels and Roy Williams’ Kansas Jayhawks. Needless to say, there was plenty of ink and airtime about this rivalry. Two years earlier, Kansas had beaten Carolina in the national semi-final 79 to 73. Dean Smith played at Kansas in the early 1950s. Roy Williams played and coached at Carolina in ‘70s and ‘80s, and one of Williams’ assistants was Matt Doherty who played for Smith during the 1982 NCAA championship season. If the truth be known, Smith and Williams probably would rather be playing someone else in the semi-final game but they didn’t set the brackets.

Row Williams, Dean Smith, and Bill Guthridge prior to the 1993 NCAA tournament semifinal in New Orleans, Louisiana. Cropped by the editor; the full-frame image (click to see photograph without cropping) includes Kansas assistant coach and former UNC player Matt Doherty. A slightly wider crop, also without Doherty, appears in the book Return to the Top: The Inside Story of Carolina’s 1993 NCAA Championship.

During the warm-up for the game, photographer Hugh Morton got a classic shot, one that he would include in all his future slides shows. The image shows Smith, Williams, Doherty, and then UNC assistant Bill Guthridge, current and future Carolina coaches from 1961 to the present.

A crowd of 64,151 watched as Kansas took an early 3–2 lead, but Brian Reese hit a driving layup to put Carolina up by a score of 4–3. The Heels would retain a lead the rest of the way. Kansas kept it close; Carolina led by only four at halftime, 40–36. In the second half when George Lynch hit a layup at the 17:01 mark, the Tar Heel lead was seven, 48 to 41; but one minute later, Kansas had cut that lead to two at 48 to 46.

Donald Williams’ twenty-one foot three ball made the score 63–55 with 9:35 to play. But five minutes later, Carolina’s lead was once again down to four, 67–63 and Coach Smith called a time-out to change his lineup. In the final 2:36, Donald Williams scored seven points as the Heels finally pulled away for a 78–68 win. Eric Montross and Donald Williams accounted for forty-eight Carolina points.

Coach Williams, in his post-game news conference, said, “I’ll be pulling like the dickens for Carolina Monday night.”

Later that day, Michigan defeated Kentucky to set up a UNC vs. Michigan national final. It would be only the second time two number one seeds had met for the championship. (The other time was Carolina and Georgetown in 1982).

Once again there was lots of media coverage, focusing on a Rainbow Classic game between Michigan and Carolina, which Michigan wound up as the 79–78 winner back on December 29, 1992.

Monday, April 5th was a long day for me. I did my usual morning show shift at WFMY-TV, and then returned in the evening for a “NCAA Countdown” special program just before CBS’ live coverage of the game. By the time I got home, the game was well underway and Carolina trailed 23–13. But three-and-a-half minutes later, the Tar Heels had tied the score at 25. George Lynch, Eric Montross, and Derrick Phelps kept Carolina in front going into the halftime break.

Halfway through the second half, the Wolverines caught the Heels, tying the score at 56. Chris Webber’s alley-oop at the 8:35 mark gave Michigan a 60–58 lead. Five minutes later, Derrick Phelps’ fast break layup put Carolina back on top 68–67. An Eric Montross dunk at the 1:03 mark pushed the UNC lead to 72-67. Then Ray Jackson’s 18-foot jumper brought Michigan within three at 72–69. Following a Michigan timeout, Chris Webber’s follow up shot made the score 72–71. Then with twenty seconds remaining in the game Michigan’s Rob Pelinka fouled Carolina’s Pat Sullivan, who hit one of two foul shots. Chris Webber got the rebound . . . seemed to travel, then took the ball the length of the court into the corner in front of his bench. At this point, Carolina had fouls to give, so Lynch and Phelps set up a vicious trap. Webber picked up his dribble. With nowhere to go, only eleven seconds left in the game, and the Michigan coaches shouting “NO,” Webber called a timeout—a timeout he didn’t have. Donald Williams calmly stepped to the line and hit the two technical foul shots, raising the score to 75–71. Williams would hit two more foul shots following a Ray Jackson miscue, thus giving Dean Smith his 774th win and his 2nd NCAA Championship. Final score: Carolina 77, Michigan 71.

Victorious UNC men’s basketball team after the 1993 NCAA championship game.

As the CBS cameras focused on the team celebration, a celebration of another kind began back in rainy Chapel Hill as 25,000 fans stormed Franklin Street—light blue paint in hand. As the bell from University Methodist Church rang out, a Tar Heel fan was heard to say:
“Dick Vitale, you picked the wrong winner tonight, baby.” The headline in Tuesday’s Gastonia Gazette read: DEJA BLUE.

About 3 p.m. on Tuesday, April 6, 1993, a crowd started gathering in the Smith Center on the UNC campus. The crowd would eventually grow to be about 20,000 strong by the time the team bus pulled into the parking lot at 4:47. As the Marching Tar Heels played the fight song, Pat Sullivan and Senior Matt Wenstrom, with NCAA trophy in hand, led the victorious Tar Heels into the arena. Each team member was introduced by the “Voice of the Tar Heels” Woody Durham, and each spoke briefly. Said Eric Montross: “It just doesn’t get any better than this.”

Missing from the festivities was the man who had orchestrated the “Season of Dreams.” Head coach Dean Smith wanted the celebration to be about his players, so he had scheduled a recruiting trip to Pennsylvania for Tuesday, April 6, 1993.

For those wanting to read more about UNC’s 1992-1993 season, see the book Return to the Top: The Inside Story of Carolina’s 1993 NCAA Championship. The book contains an ample serving of Hugh Morton photographs made throughout that season. You may see additional images of the UNC versus Kansas game and the 1993 championship game versus Michigan as part of the more than 8,000 Hugh Morton photographs online (A mere sampling of the 250,00 images in the entire collection!)

Another birthday for Dean Smith

We’re celebrating another birthday here at A View to Hugh: today is legendary UNC basketball coach Dean Smith’s 82nd. This morning’s Daily Tar Heel features a front-page story using two Hugh Morton photographs (unfortunately Morton is not credited): the one … Continue reading →

Dan Smith cutting net after winning 1993 NCAA championship

UNC men’s basketball team Head Coach Dean Smith cutting down net at UNC vs. Michigan NCAA championship win at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, 5 April 1993.

We’re celebrating another birthday here at A View to Hugh: today is legendary UNC basketball coach Dean Smith’s 82nd.

This morning’s Daily Tar Heel features a front-page story using two Hugh Morton photographs (unfortunately Morton is not credited): the one above following the 1993 NCAA championship nearly twenty years ago, and the one below after winning the 1967 ACC championship game. As of 10:15 a.m., there’s no online version of the story, but there is an online readable version of the print edition.

UNC-Chapel Hill men’s basketball team celebrating their win over Duke University after the 1967 ACC tournament championship game played in Greensboro, NC. Among those pictured are Head Coach Dean Smith (front row, third from left) and ACC tournament MVP Larry Miller (front row, fourth from left).

Uncovered notables

Wee spend our mid-day sweat, or mid-night oyle; Wee tyre the night in thought; the day in toyle. — Francis Quarles, from Emblemes, 1635 There are times when carrying out my twenty-first century daily toils in front of a computer … Continue reading →

Wee spend our mid-day sweat, or mid-night oyle;
Wee tyre the night in thought; the day in toyle.

— Francis Quarles, from Emblemes, 1635

There are times when carrying out my twenty-first century daily toils in front of a computer get to be a bit too much for the eyes and I need to step away from the computer. When those occasions occur I look at photographs from the collections, which also keeps me rooted in the reasons I do what I do for a living.

UNC student studying while holding a pipe.

“Burning the Midnight Oil” is the quotation that accompanies this photograph by Hugh Morton in the 1942 Yackety Yack, UNC’s student yearbook. The photograph served as the visual opener for the professional schools section.

One of those occasions struck a couple weeks ago, so I wandered off to the unidentified nonflying objects in “Area 5.1″ (actually, the unidentified negatives in series 5.1) of the Morton Collection: “University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1939–early 2000s / Student Life, 1939-1942.” There are many unidentified negatives in that portion of the collection, including many posed yet candid portraits.

As I examined one negative at a time, I saw a face that was immediately recognizable: Louis Harris. (Lou Harris, who became an important American pollster, has been mentioned in a few posts and an essay thus far here at A View to Hugh.) The portrait in hand seemed familiar, and I soon located it in the “Senior Personalities” section of the 1942 UNC yearbook, The Yackety Yack.

Louis Harris

The caption for Harris’s portrait reads:

Campus idealist, reformer, organizer . . . one of few with the courage of his convictions . . . incessant energy . . . needs 34 hour day . . .

The captioned portrait next to Harris’s looked like a different negative I had viewed a few minutes earlier, so I went back to the storage box to find it. The portrayed: Ferebee Taylor. That name may not be recognizable to many, but thirty years later Nelson Ferebee Taylor became the fifth chancellor of UNC-Chapel Hill. A native of Oxford, North Carolina, Taylor headed to Cambridge, Massachusetts for a Harvard Law degree after graduating from UNC. From Harvard he received a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford, England.

Nelson Ferebee Taylor

Taylor’s caption:

Capable, responsible . . . that “Oxford” accent . . . unanimous draftee for legislature speakership . . . Phi Bete prexy, Fleece, etc. ad infinitum

Because there are so many negatives of unidentified students, we only scanned a sampling when processing the Morton collection—and only a selection of the sampling made it into the online collection. (Sometimes portraits include multiple poses—there’s one variant of Taylor’s portrait and a few of the opening image above.) The previously unidentified portraits of Lou Harris and Ferebee Taylor are only two negatives among hundreds.

Wee make Art servile, and the Trade gentile,
(Yet both corrupted with ingenious guile)
To compass earth; and with her empty store,
To fill our Armes, and graspe, one handfull more,
Thus seeking Rest, our labours never cease,
But as our years, our hot desires encrease.

Rediscovering two notable people seemed like enough for one blog post, but while relocating the Taylor negative I saw a different negative with an image that I also recalled having seen somewhere once before. This portrait (shown below, but tightly cropped from elbow and head on the right to the left edge of the sign) also turned up in the “Senior Personalities” section—this time in the 1941 Yackety Yack with the caption “Gene Whitten.”

The Yackety Yack tightly cropped this portrait of Gene Witten. The “please” sign directed pedestrians where to walk, and by default, where not to tread.

Eugene Roy Witten (misspelled in the Yackety Yack caption) played an interesting role in the history of UNC student publications. Although he may have had earlier unacknowledged contributions, Witten’s name first appears as a cartoonist in the masthead of the October 1939 issue of the then soon-to-be-ill-fated student humor magazine The Carolina Buccaneer. The student publication rode a problematic seesaw from its beginnings in 1924, but the Buccaneer’s eventual downfall was the cover, and to some extent the contents, of its infamous “sex issue” of November 1939. Witten had one innocuous (by today’s standards, at least) cartoon included in that issue. The real controversy, however, centered on the magazine’s cover by cartoonist Hight Moore—and the fallout reached far beyond the campus walls.

The details of the magazine’s final saga would take this blog post astray. In brief, on Friday, November 10th, The Daily Tar Heel editor Martin Harmon wrote a satirical “Buc Review” in the form of a letter to his Aunt Emmy in New Orleans. That evening, the Student Council directed the Publications Union Board to destroy all 3,000 copies of the issue shortly before its release date. Sunday’s Daily Tar Heel decried a “Crisis in Student Government.” On Monday, November 13th, the Publications Union Board decided to reuse parts of the magazine and publish a revised edition, which was to be issued by the end of the week. Later that evening, the Student Legislature voted 18-13 against the Student Council ban. A month later, a DTH editorial called the whole affair “the most sensational, the most astounding, the most stupendous bombshell of the [fall] quarter.”

A side note . . . The November 1939 issue of The Carolina Buccaneer is one of many items used to illustrate the North Carolina Collection Gallery exhibit, “A Right to Speak and to Hear: Academic Freedom and Free Expression at UNC”—which opened today.

“Let bygones be bygones!” the Buccaneer‘s editors wrote in the ensuing December issue. After the last issue of the school year published in May, however, the magazine was gone. What makes this story relevant to readers of the A View to Hugh? Between its November death knell and May burial, Hugh Morton joined The Carolina Buccaneer masthead as a photographer. In the March 1940 issue, Morton contributed a photographic essay entitled “‘That’ Week-End” that included his photograph of Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Band performing during the Mid-Winter German dances held on February 15th and 16th.

Why did Morton join the Carolina Buccaneer staff as a freshman, just a few months after the sex issue fiasco? We may never know. This time period, however, seems to have been an important crossroads in Morton’s early career as a photographer. According to a November 1941 DTH article, Morton’s camera had been stolen shortly after he arrived on campus in September 1939. He didn’t replace it until he bought a camera in a Raleigh pawn shop during the winter of 1940, after which he “immediately” began to work for The Carolina Buccaneer. With the Glen Gray and Mid-Winter German dance photographs as evidence, that would be mid February. Additionally, a montage of photographs by G. B. Lamm and Morton appear on the cover of the March 1940 issue of Carolina Magazine. Morton would go on to photograph for several student and university publications.

An important connection may have been made during or after the Buccaneer debacle: the president of the Publications Union Board who salvaged The Carolina Bucaneer and kept at least some of its parts from the incinerator was senior Edward L. Rankin, Jr.. Nearly fifty years later Rankin would co-author with Morton the book Making a Difference in North Carolina published in 1988. It would be fascinating to know if Morton and Rankin’s association began at UNC, or in later years.

Gene Witten reading the February 4, 1941 issue of The Daily Tar Heel. Morton’s portrait of Witten appears in the 1941 Yackety Yack.

Jump ahead to autumn 1940, and re-enter Gene Witten, named in November to be Editor-in-Chief of Tar an’ Feathers, successor to The Carolina Buccaneer. Witten’s charge was to produce a “clean” humor magazine. In the first issue Witten contributed one cartoon, which was more like a sketch with a caption beneath—his only cartoon published in the magazine. Witten named Lamm, the upperclassmen to Morton, as the photography editor.

Working on another batch of negatives several days after the initial Harris and Taylor discoveries, I uncovered another unidentified portrait of Witten. In this portrait (shown above), Witten is reading (or glancing at, given the strange angle of the newspaper) a copy of the February 4th, 1941 Daily Tar Heel. This portrait also appears in the 1941 Yackety Yack, but it’s cropped vertically. The typewriter to his left is branded with a “TH” that likely stands for Tar Heel, and may have been photographed in the DTH offices.

Curious about Witten’s life after UNC, an Internet search revealed a website dedicated to his life as an artist. Witten was a business major at UNC, and worked briefly after college in a New York City advertising agency. According to the Witten website, after serving in the United States Navy during World War II he “was impassioned to leave ‘business’ and entered the Art Students League in Manhattan in 1946. At the age of 25 he decided his life’s work was to paint.” In addition to working as an artist for decades, Witten became a master frame maker. He passed away on January 13, 2004.

Now, reader, close thy Booke, and then advise:
Be wisely worldly; be not worldly wise.
— Francis Quarles, from Emblemes, 1635

The Dunk for the Ages

Over the years, Hugh Morton has taken hundreds of pictures of basketball great Michael Jordan. There are 124 photographs of Jordan in the Morton online collection so far. One image, however, stands out from all the others. As Jordan turns … Continue reading →

His biography on the NBA website states, “By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time.”

It’s easy to see why. Michael Jeffrey Jordan’s resume includes the following accolades:

An NCAA Championship (at UNC)
2 Olympic Gold Medals
6 NBA Championships (with the Chicago Bulls)
5 MVP Awards
10 All-Pro NBA First Teams
10 NBA Scoring Titles
14 NBA All-Star Appearances

The list doesn’t stop there.

Jordan was one of the most effectively marketed athletes in the history of sports. Thanks to the emergence of the 24/7 cable sports channels—and the Internet in the latter part of his playing career—Jordan’s heroics became all access, all the time. Michael Jordan has been the subject of a Sports Illustrated cover fifty-seven times (so far), and, according to Lew Powell of “North Carolina Miscellany,” he has had seventy-eight mentions on the TV show Jeopardy!.

When recalling Jordon’s UNC accomplishments, Tar Heel fans will often recall the final basket in the NCAA Championship game against Georgetown in 1982 that gave Head Coach Dean Smith his first national title. Other folks, however, like to recall a different shot.

On February 10, 1983, in a game against the University of Virginia played in Carmichael Auditorium, the Tar Heels trailed by sixteen with 8:30 left in the game. It was then that the Heels started a classic comeback. By the time there was only 1:20 left on the clock, the Virginia lead was down to three points. Then a Jordan put-back made it a one-point game at 63-62. With under a minute to go, Virginia’s Rick Carlisle had the ball and got past Jordan, but Michael came up from behind and stole the ball. Jordan drove to the hoop, making the famous basket that North Carolina author and sports historian Jim Sumner termed “the dunk for the ages.” Heels win 64-63.

Hugh Morton once again was at the right place at the right time, capturing the moment with a classic image that has been reproduced dozens of times. Morton, in his 1996 book Sixty Years with a Camera, called it his favorite picture of Jordan. Morton always included the image in his slides shows while he told the story behind the picture. The story goes like this.

In early February 1983 Morton got a call from C.J. Underwood, the longtime anchor and reporter at WBTV, Channel 3, in Charlotte. Underwood wanted to do a feature for his “Carolina Camera” news segment about Morton and his longtime association with UNC sports. So they both agreed that the game on Thursday, February 10^th in Chapel Hill would be a good time to meet and shoot the feature.

As the teams warmed up for the game, Jordan came over to Morton’s courtside location, as he often did. During the course of the conversation, Morton told Jordan about Underwood and the WBTV photographer shooting the feature. As the two parted, Morton said, “Have a good game, Michael.”

Following that fantastic shot, Michael ran back up the court, brushed by Morton and asked, “Was that good enough?”

In 2009, Michael Jordan was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and is currently the owner of the Charlotte Bobcats.

On February 18^th when the new Sports Illustrated hits the bookstores, Jordan will once again be pictured on the front cover. So far he has managed to avoid the legendary “SI Cover Jinx” fifty-seven times. (Fifty times according to the magazine if you don’t count “commerorative and collector’s editions as well as tiny insets or out of focus shots of MJ.”) If all goes well after next week, you can add number fifty-eight.

A commitment to excellence

Officially it’s “The Dean E. Smith Student Activity Center.” Some call it simply “The Smith Center,” while others call it “The Student Activity Center.” And then there are those who lovingly call it “The Dean Dome.” But whatever name you use, the University of North Carolina’s basketball arena had a most interesting and inspiring beginning. Morton collection volunteer Jack Hilliard takes a look back at the beginning of what has become one of the premier basketball facilities in the country.

Dean Smith in the UNC Student Activity Center, 21 August 1985. (Photograph cropped by the editor.)

“The SAC (Student Activity Center) is a visible commitment to excellence in athletics.”—UNC Athletics Director John Swofford, Summer of 1985

The scenario was familiar. By 1980 Carolina had once again outgrown its basketball facility and talk of a new one was a familiar topic when Tar Heel alumni and friends gathered. It was just as it had been in 1923 when the Indoor Athletic Center (known as the Tin Can) replaced Bynum Gym—just as it had been in 1937 when Woollen Gym replaced the Tin Can, and just as it was in 1965 when Carmichael Auditorium replaced Woollen Gym.

In the spring of 1980 the University and a very special group of its most loyal supporters began a journey, led by Hargrove “Skipper” Bowles, UNC Class of 1941. The mission was to raise 30 million dollars in private funds for an arena to showcase head coach Dean Smith’s nationally prominent basketball program. There were many who said it couldn’t be done, but Bowles never wavered and on April 17, 1982 ground was broken in a wooded ravine near Mason Farm Road. The fund raising campaign continued until August 1, 1984. By that date 2,362 people had contributed from $1 to $1 million, and the total came to almost $35 million. (The single $1 million gift came from businessman Walter R. Davis.)

Aerial view of the Student Activity Center under construction circa 1985. (Hugh Morton photograph, not in online collection at time this post was published.)

While Bowles and his team made its final push, construction at the site was progressing—more than 20,000 cubic yards of rock were dynamited out of the ground and about 150,000 cubic feet of dirt was redistributed to clear and shape the land. Slowly the bricks and mortar and steel and concrete took shape. 1800 tons of structural steel was brought in to support the 250,000 square foot roof. After almost four years of construction, the 300,000 square foot octagonally shaped, seven-and-a-half acre Student Activity Center was ready.

On Friday night January 17, 1986, a black-tie dinner was held in the new arena to honor the University’s Arts and Sciences Foundation. Broadcaster Woody Durham, master of ceremonies, introduced UNC’s Chancellor Christopher C. Fordham III.

Fordham speaking at Dean Smith Center opening

UNC Chancellor Christopher Fordham III speaks during a black-tie dinner to honor the University’s Arts and Sciences Foundation. During his speech, Fordham announced that the Student Activity Center was to be named in honor of Dean Smith. Seated behind Fordham (left to right) are Gillian T. Cell, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, John Swofford, Director of Athletics, and Woody Durham, Master of Ceremonies. (Hugh Morton photograph, not in the online collection at the time this post was published.)

“This magnificent building stands as both a tribute to what Dean Smith has created at the University and a promise that what he has developed will continue. . . . We are a better university and a better state because he is one of us.” The Chancellor then added the following announcement. “From now on, this building shall be known as the Dean E. Smith Student Activities Center . . . .”

Hargrove "Skipper" Bowles watches UNC vs. Duke in Smith Center

Hargrove “Skipper” Bowles watching the UNC vs. Duke basketball game during the Smith Center’s debut. Seated to Bowles’ right is his wife Deziree and grandson Sammy Bowles. (Hugh Morton photograph, not in the online collection at the time this post was published.)

During the fund-raising campaign, “Skipper” Bowles had been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease. When he entered the Smith Center on Saturday afternoon January 18, 1986, Bowles was on a respirator and in a wheel chair. One of the first persons to greet him was North Carolina Governor Jim Martin.

Then it was time for Dean Smith’s number one ranked Tar Heels (17-0), led by senior James Daye, to take the floor for the first time in their new home. The third-ranked Duke Blue Devils (16-0) followed. At exactly 1:18 PM, Coach Smith walked into the arena and walked directly over the where Bowles was seated, took both his hands, leaned close and whispered, “Skipper, this wouldn’t have happened without you.” Bowles smiled broadly and then was helped to mid-court for the ceremonial toss to begin the game. Skipper’s grandson Sammy was there to help his grandfather.

Ceremonial jump ball, Duke versus UNC before first game at Dean Smith Center

The ceremonial “jump ball” toss before the first game at the Dean Smith Center, played between hosting UNC and visiting Duke University. Hargrove “Skipper” Bowles is seated in the wheelchair, with Skipper’s brother Richard Bowles behind and Skipper’s grandson Sammy Bowles (Erskine Bowles’ son) at his side. Carolina players in white are (left to right) guard Kenny Smith, jumping center Brad Daugherty, forward Warren Martin, and forward Joe Wolf (#24). Duke players in blue: jumping center Danny Ferry, forward Mark Alarie, guard Tommy Amaker (#4). (Hugh Morton photograph, not in the online collection at the time this post was published.)

The official toss to start the Duke versus UNC game in Smith Center (Note: Scoreboard 0-0.) Carolina players in white: (left to right) guard/forward Steve Hale (#25), forward Joe Wolf (#24), Brad Daugherty jumping center, forward Warren Martin (#54), and guard Kenny Smith. Duke players in blue: (left to right) guard Tommy Amaker (#4), forward Mark Alarie (#32), jumping center Danny Ferry (#35), and guard David Henderson (#12). (Hugh Morton photograph, not in the online collection at the time this post was published.)

It was a historic moment in North Carolina sports. With a packed house of 21,426 looking on, Carolina defeated Duke 95 to 92. The record book shows that Tar Heel Steve Hale scored a career high 28 points, and Kenny Smith and Jeff Lebo combined for 50 points. Brad Daugherty and Joe Wolf led a 38 to 30 rebounding advantage. The Heels went to 18 and 0.

Following the game several fans left the arena and headed out into what would become “Skipper Bowles Drive”; many others, including Bowles, stayed around just to take in the moment. “I was overwhelmed,” said Bowles softly. “I knew how big it was going to be, and I still was overwhelmed.”

American flag hanging from rafters of Dean Smith Center. (Hugh Morton photograph made in January 1994.)

When photographer Hugh Morton entered the building for the first time he noticed that the American flag imported from Carmichael to the new facility was dwarfed in the spacious new building. So Morton took a flag catalog over to the basketball office and asked them to pick out a new, bigger one. Once in hand, Morton flew the flag over Grandfather Mountain, Mount Mitchell, the Biltmore House, the State Capitol, the USS North Carolina Battleship Memorial, Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, and the Wright Brothers National Monument. Satisfied that the flag now suitably represented the state of North Carolina, Morton handed it over to UNC, and it now hangs proudly over center court.

Smith Center Dedication Pro-Alumni Game particiapants

Notable UNC basketball alumni (left to right) Sam Perkins (#41), Michael Jordan (#23), Lenny Rosenbluth (#10), Mike O’Koren (#31), James Worthy (#52), Phil Ford (#12), and Charlie Scott (#33), who participated in the Smith Center Dedication Pro-Alumni Game, September 6, 1986.

The formal dedication ceremony for the Smith Center was held on September 6, 1986. A pro-alumni game was staged that afternoon, because Coach Smith wanted to celebrate the players who made the program great: Lenny Rosenbluth, Sam Perkins, James Worthy, Phil Ford, Michael Jordan, and many others came back to be a part of the dedication game. In his dedication remarks, Athletics Director John Swofford remembered what he called a sharp image from that first game in the Smith Center. “The image of “Skipper” Bowles and his grandson sharing a ceremonial ball toss just seconds before game time. It was altogether a nice moment for Bowles, his family, and all the people pulling for him. I was thrilled he could be there even if I did have a hard time keeping my own composure.”

The day after the dedication game, Sunday September 7, 1986, Hargrove “Skipper” Bowles, Jr. lost his battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). He was 66 years old.

“Skipper” Bowles’ fingerprints are all over the Dean E. Smith Student Activity Center and the donors’ room is called Hargrove “Skipper” Bowles Hall. In an interview in early January, 1986 with Carolina Blue editor John Kilgo, Bowles looked back on the SAC effort. “That project was fun and I wouldn’t take anything for the experience. I don’t want but two things. I’d like to toss up the first ball in the building, and I’d like to see it named for Dean Smith.”

Both wishes came true.

Editor’s note: In the process of preparing this post, several images of the Dean Dome’s opening night festivities—both represented and not represented in the online collection— have been been discovered that were not previously identified. Not all of the descriptions for these images could be updated in the online collection and finding aid in time for publication. Once that work is completed they will be described in a more accurate manner to make them more easily discoverable. For an example, several pre-game photographs, including a photograph of Governor James Martin and others along the sidelines during the national anthem, can been seen by searching on their current title, “UNC basketball, wide-angle.” (<—click to see them!) Once the descriptions for these new discoveries have been cleaned up, this editor’s note will be updated; the work is likely to be gradual, however, so diehard Tar Heel fans may want to check back from time to time. More mysteries solved; more wishes coming true.