T H E
ISSUE XIV
O F F I C I A L
M A G A Z I N E
O F
T H E
R A M S
C L U B
ORAL HISTORY
A TAR HEEL ARCHIVE
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WELCOME
I
Letter from the Editor
I was there. There are very few more powerful words in a sports fan’s vocabulary. Modern television technology is incredible, and home theaters have made incredible progress, and there are no parking hassles when you’re watching the game in your den. But when the biggest shot goes in, or the championship is won, or the walk-off home run happens, there’s still nothing like being there. And that’s what this entire issue is about. Some of the greatest moments in Carolina athletics history are represented in the following pages, and those stories are told by the individuals who were there, who lived them. Want to know what the 1957 undefeated national champions did after capturing the title in Kansas City? This issue has the answer. Always wondered how the play unfolded that helped Charlotte Smith make the most famous shot in program history? The Tar Heels tell the story in these pages. Curious about what Mack Brown told his team in the locker room at halftime of the 1993 Peach Bowl that ignited a furious Tar Heel rally? Brown himself writes about those moments in our back page column. There’s a wealth of information about virtually every topic available online, but there’s nothing quite like being there. Rams Club members are well aware of this fact, of course; that’s why the lobbies of the team hotel were lined with cheering Tar Heel fans throughout the month of March as they traveled around the country to support their team. Those trips create a lifetime of memories, and it’s not always the biggest moments that remain indelible.
Sometimes it’s the small details. I was lucky enough to be in Tuscaloosa when Chad Flack hit the biggest home run in Tar Heel baseball history in 2006. I will never forget the sight of the Alabama radio broadcaster banging on the press box windows with joy when the Crimson Tide took the lead in the top of the ninth inning. And I’ll never forget the stone silence that rolled over that same press box when Flack’s homer cleared the right field fence. We want these pages to take you to moments like those. We asked those involved to tell us what it felt like, what it sounded like, what they were thinking at the exact time they made Carolina athletics history. The result is an issue full of oral histories that we hope you’ll enjoy. It’s almost like being there.
PRODUCED BY THE RAMS CLUB EDITOR IN CHIEF ADAM LUCAS CONTRIBUTING WRITERS LEE PACE, MARGARET HIGH & PAT JAMES PHOTOGRAPHY JEFFREY CAMARATI & UNC ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS DESIGN JUJUBE SPORTS PUBLISHING
ADAM LUCAS Editor in Chief ramsclub.com
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“We thought there might be a few people there. But to see 10,000 people there, that was when we knew we had really done something.” —JOE QUIGG ON THE 1957 TEAM’S WELCOME HOME CELEBRATION AT RALEIGH-DURHAM AIRPORT
THE
ORAL HISTORY
EDITION
ON THE COVER: Frank McGuire and the starting five from the undefeated 1957 national champions in Woollen Gym. PHOTO BY UNC ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS
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BORN & BRED
30
36
EDITOR’S LETTER p. 3
42
TAR HEEL TICKER p. 6
ORAL HISTORY
10 March 23, 1957
Frank McGuire’s Tar Heels complete an undefeated national championship season by defeating Wilt Chamberlain and Kansas in triple overtime
CAROLINA EVERYWEAR p. 20
ORAL HISTORY
30 June 10, 2006
Chad Flack hits the most important home run in Carolina history BY PAT JAMES
BY ADAM LUCAS ORAL HISTORY
ORAL HISTORY
16 September 12, 1981
Kelvin Bryant hands the ball to Steve Streater BY LEE PACE
36 Memorial Weekend, 2016
Women’s and men’s lacrosse teams win double NCAA titles BY PAT JAMES
FIRST PERSON
ORAL HISTORY
24 April 3, 1994
Charlotte Smith hits the most famous shot in Carolina women’s basketball history BY MARGARET HIGH
42 ‘Making people take notice’
Mack Brown remembers the game when his program matured BY MACK BROWN
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TA R H E E LT I C K E R ORAL HISTORY
I WAS THERE WHEN... Rams Club members describe the memorable moments they’ve experienced Photos by Jeffrey Camarati & Rams Club Members
“ BRENT WOODS Lenexa, Kan.
The attached picture will always be my favorite Carolina athletics moment. My name is Brent Woods ’83 (pictured on the right) along with Dan Bryson ’83 (pictured on the left). That night was March 29, 1982, my 21st birthday! And also the night Carolina won the national championship! We had just come out of Purdy’s after watching the game, painting the town (and each other) in Carolina Blue on Franklin Street. What a night … the perfect birthday gift! Lifelong friends, lifelong memories.
DOUG WEATHERSPOON Cary, N.C.
Jerry Stackhouse’s reverse dunk at Duke. I was sitting behind the Carolina bench and witnessed the best dunk in Carolina basketball history. Woody Durham and Dick Vitale’s calls were amazing.
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BORN & BRED
“ “ FRANCES EDWARDS
JOHNNY SURLES
Remembering Gio run the punt back on October 27, 2012. My season seats were in Section 209 Row A about seat 22. My niece was with me and she is a die hard NC State fan. She just knew that the game was going into overtime. So when NC State punted the ball and Gio began his run, needless to say that the tables were turned. I began screaming, “Run, Gio, run.” And when he entered the end zone, I was looking to make sure there were no flags—and there were none. The look on her face went from excitement to what just happened. And of course I really enjoyed singing at the top of my lungs to “Hark the Sound.”
I was a two-year rookie NC State Trooper working a UNC football game. The Troopers normally sat in the east end zone but I always maneuvered myself to the sideline. Close enough to have Coach Crum tell me to back up once. James Betterson came off the field exactly where I was standing. I looked at him and said, “Boom Boom, next play I want a touchdown.” He laughed and said, “OK, I’m in.” Coach Crum sent him in and Boom, touchdown Carolina! James had the biggest smile in the world when he came off the field and came running straight to me. I was in Heel Heaven.
Banner Elk, N.C.
Pollocksville, N.C.
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TA R H E E LT I C K E R ORAL HISTORY
““ “ TINA BARRINGER China Grove, N.C.
My husband and I traveled to Chicago in December to see our guys play. I ran into Roy Williams getting on the elevator. It was a chance meeting, totally unexpected. It made my day. I’ll never forget how friendly he was. He’s the real deal.
TEMPLE GRASSI Chevy Chase, Md.
In 1964, UNC added lacrosse in order to have a better chance at winning the fabled Carmichael Cup. Maryland won it every year because they had more teams. Chuck Erickson, the athletic director, came to our last lacrosse practice and told us that if we beat Duke the next day, UNC would win the Carmichael Cup for the first time ever. Talk about pressure! So, we beat ‘em in OT. Pretty good party that night!
GUNNAR FROMEN Shallotte, N.C.
My story is from the best Carolina-Duke basketball game ever, and I have seen many as a former cheerleader, father of two alumnae, etc. It was the March 1974 game in Carmichael when we were down eight points. Bobby Jones’s contributions, and Walter Davis’s shot, coupled with Duke’s missteps, and the team’s overtime excellence all led to the best finish ever! My wife, Pat, and I were in the roll out stands that day. As each second rolled by and the Heels could do no wrong, the frenzy of the fans rose to an unbelievable crescendo! Fans that had left Carmichael heard either the roars or Woody on their radios and rushed back in. Pat was pregnant with our first daughter. The shaking of the metal and wooden roll out stands; the electricity of each basket; the absolute faith that Coach Smith would make all the right moves, gave the true Carolina blue fans the belief that we could still prevail. My hope (though not expressed to Pat) was that with all of the bouncing up and down in the stands, we would not have to deal with a premature arrival. Thankfully, not only was all well medically, but the Tar Heels completed the most amazing comeback ever.
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TA R H E E LT I C K E R
“ “ “ JEFF KNOTTS
Wadesboro, N.C.
I attended many games back in the 80’s and 90’s. In my opinion my favorite picture I took was the one from Charlotte Smith hitting The Shot to win the NCAA Championship in 1994. I watched it through my camera. The other picture was when I met Michael Jordan in 1983 during halftime of the Duke football game. That was the first night game in Kenan. Members Only jackets were really big then and I only had a red one, which is why I’m wearing red. Michael is holding two hot dogs. He sent a guy to get him two hot dogs and when he brought Michael the food back, Michael asked for his change.
CHRIS HORSNELL ‘71
GRAHAM WILLIAMS
During my freshman year at Carolina I had the pleasure and privilege of watching the debut season of the amazing Charlie Scott. It wasn’t just his talent that was so impressive, although I still think of the phrase “stopping on a dime and giving nine cents change” every time I reminisce about that year. He was amazing in the mature manner that he handled the pressure and responsibility of being the first African-American scholarship athlete in the Atlantic Coast Conference. It was also a delight to witness the way his teammates welcomed him and “had his back” during the stress of that year. That was my introduction to “The Carolina Way.”
My freshman year at Carolina, my roommate was from Richmond, Va., and was friends with John Kuester, who was a point guard on the basketball team. John got us two tickets to the Duke game in Durham, but there was one drawback—we didn’t have a car. Nevertheless, we made a sign that said “Durham or bust” and hit the road. Before long, someone picked us up and drove us to the Duke campus. Our seats weren’t great—near the top of Cameron behind the basket—but it didn’t matter, because we were at the game! Duke did not have a very good team that year, but they played us tough and the game was tied near the end of regulation. The crowd at Cameron was fired up, because they thought the Blue Devils might win. Duke tried to inbounds the pass, but Bobby Jones stole the ball and drove down court for the winning layup. The place went silent, all except for us few Tar Heel fans near the rafters, who were cheering loudly. My roommate grabbed our sign and slung it, Frisbee-style. We hitchhiked back to Chapel Hill, celebrating all the way.
Nashville, Tenn.
Union, S.C.
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1957
K A N S A S
C I T Y ,
MARCH 23
M I S S O U R I
ORAL HISTORY
Frank McGuire’s Tar Heels complete an undefeated national championship season by defeating Wilt Chamberlain and Kansas in triple overtime BY ADAM LUCAS // PHOTOS BY UNC ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS
O
n the morning of March 23, 1957, North Carolina was 31-0 and had just defeated Michigan State on the evening of March 22 in a classic triple-overtime national semifinal in Kansas City. Their reward, without a single day of rest, was a national championship matchup against Wilt Chamberlain and Kansas. Head coach Frank McGuire and his Tar Heels would have to complete their perfect season against the best big man in the history of college basketball.
STARTING GUARD TOM KEARNS:
I came downstairs in the hotel that morning and I saw Jerry Tax, who covered college basketball for Sports Illustrated. We sat down and talked. I think we were something like nine- or tenpoint underdogs against Kansas, and Jerry was telling me it was impossible for us to beat Wilt and Kansas. But we had an air of arrogance about us that we were not about to lose to them … I told him that we were going to win the game that night. I just had that feeling. We felt like it was going to be our five against their one, and I liked those odds.
STARTING FORWARD LENNIE ROSENBLUTH:
I don’t believe we had 50 Tar Heel fans in Kansas City. We didn’t even have the money to film the game. The entire gym was all Kansas people. But we had only played eight home games all season, so playing what was basically a road game didn’t bother us.
STARTING CENTER JOE QUIGG:
Coach McGuire was a great motivator. He could always get you up for a game. It was always us against them.
KEARNS:
We came back into the locker room for our last instructions
before the game, and Coach McGuire asked me (5-foot-10) if I was afraid to jump center against Wilt Chamberlain (7-foot-1). I said, ‘Hell, no, Coach, let’s do it.’ So we went out to start the game and Wilt walked to center court for the jump ball and I walked to center court for the jump ball, and Wilt was looking down at me wondering what was going on.
FRANK DEFORD (LEGENDARY SPORTS ILLUSTRATED WRITER AND A FRIEND OF BOTH KEARNS AND CHAMBERLAIN, FROM A 2006 INTERVIEW):
When you think about it, it was a really mean thing to do. I know all is fair in love and war, but it probably really hurt Chamberlain. Once again he was being made fun of, and that was something he had to endure everywhere he went. It’s not the kind of thing he would have dwelt on for the whole game, but it certainly was the kind of thing that would have been a distraction for him. It was mean, but brilliant. Carolina got that initial laugh, and what could Wilt do? He couldn’t turn around and say, ‘Hey, what are you doing?’ If he had done that, he would’ve taken the bait, and that would have been even worse. So he had to stand there against this guy who is 5-foot-10. All his life Chamberlain had his height pointed out, and now, in this game of games, he’s having it really thrown back in his face.
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ORAL HISTORY
Chamberlain won the jump ball, of course. But Carolina jumped out to a quick early lead by utilizing a sagging defense designed to prevent Chamberlain from getting the ball.
STARTING GUARD BOB CUNNINGHAM (FROM A 2006 INTERVIEW):
I was standing on the foul line and Tommy was right beside me. We were challenging their guards to take shots. We were sagging back so far on Wilt, but they kept looking for him. All they had to do was take a few shots and we would’ve had to go out and play them. It was the difference between city ball and other kinds of basketball. If you’re from the City, like we were, you know what to do in that situation. You take a few jumpers, you hit them, and the game is over because we’ve got to come out and guard you and then you just throw it in to Wilt. But they never adapted to our sagging defense. They couldn’t figure out what to do when we took Wilt away from them. I felt like they were playing into our hands. Our strategy on offense was simple: stay away from the middle and stay away from Wilt because if you challenge him he will knock it down your throat. Take the ball to the sides and hit those corner shots. When we started hitting those shots, Kansas knew they were getting a game.
KANSAS ASSISTANT COACH JERRY WAUGH (FROM A 2006 INTERVIEW):
They got off to such a quick start. They were hitting everything they threw up there. They ran out to that eight-point lead, and at that time that was a big lead. Today you just hit a couple of threepointers and you’re right back in it, but we couldn’t do that. Eight points seemed like a lot to make up.
QUIGG:
The way we opened up that game and went ahead so early really shook them. Wilt was playing down and I was able to hit a couple of jump shots on them. They wanted to play that box-and-one on Lennie but we were making it tough for them. I really felt good. Some games you have that feeling and some games you don’t. This was one of those games that I had the feeling. I really felt confident, and all night I felt my touch was there.
Kansas eventually fought back and tied the game, and appeared to be in control when Rosenbluth fouled out in regulation.
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BORN & BRED
ROSENBLUTH:
Basically, they were stupid fouls. They were stupid fouls, because I normally didn’t foul out of a game. The last foul was in desperation to try to stop them from scoring underneath, trying to block the shot, it was again a stupid foul. But the way that things turned out, who knows what would have happened if I stayed in? So it turned out for the best. There was never any hesitation in my mind that we’re not going to win the game, because it happened all the time. When Bob Young came in for me, he immediately scored two points and tied up the game again. But that was the first time I felt what the fans were going through, by having to watch the game instead of playing in it. I was sitting over there with so much tension when I was watching the game.
But at the same time I didn’t have any hesitation that we were going to win. We fell behind and won all the time. So this wasn’t unusual. I knew we would do it, I just wasn’t sure exactly how we would do it.
RESERVE FORWARD BOB YOUNG:
I knew there was a chance I could be called upon. During the course of the season, I knew when I went into the game, I was in there to play defense and rebound. I tried to block the middle as best I could. I wasn’t going in for Coach McGuire to say, ‘OK, Bob, you take the shots.’ I was able to score some points because Chamberlain took it for granted that I wouldn’t be shooting. He thought I was going to push him around as best I could and use my five fouls to give, but I don’t think he thought I was going to shoot.
ROSENBLUTH:
The first overtime, each team scored two points. The second overtime, neither team scored a point. How do you have Wilt Chamberlain on the court for ten minutes and only score two points?
KEARNS:
We controlled the game. We got the ball and we held it.
Kansas finally pushed ahead by one point, 53-52, in the third overtime. Carolina had the ball with ten seconds remaining.
QUIGG: Young’s contributions helped push the game into overtime, where the contest stagnated.
Tommy drove the lane and put up a good drive. Chamberlain came from nowhere and knocked it 20 seats into the crowd, so we had the ball out of bounds with ten seconds to go. Bob Cunningham
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ORAL HISTORY
threw the ball to Bob Young, who threw it to me around the foul line on the left hand side. Chamberlain was in front of me, so I couldn’t take a jump shot. The only thing I could do was drive and hope to draw a foul.
CUNNINGHAM:
I think that was as quick as Joe had moved all year. He gave him that head fake and went around him, and the whistle blew. That referee had a lot of moxie blowing that whistle on Kansas against Chamberlain in that third overtime. It was clearly a foul, but it was the kind of foul they sometimes don’t call at the end of a game.
QUIGG:
Coach McGuire called timeout, and I went over there and said, ‘Coach, I’m going to make them.’ I don’t know why I did that. Probably because I was 20 years old and didn’t know any better. So McGuire told us what we should do after I made them. Buck Freeman, our wonderful assistant coach, grabbed me and said, ‘Joe, finish on your toes.’ That’s the only thing I was thinking about when I took them. Five years later, Bob Cunningham told me McGuire called him over after the timeout and said, ‘If Joe misses, foul Chamberlain.’ Once I made the first one, I felt like the second one was automatic.
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BORN & BRED
CUNNINGHAM:
Kansas still had six seconds left, and in those days the ball went to midcourt after you called timeout. So we’re in the huddle, and Frank says, ‘They’re going to come down the floor and go to Wilt.’ So he tells Joe to get in front of Wilt, and Danny Lotz to get behind him. Sure enough, they go right to Wilt. And Joe was able to reach up and deflect the pass just a little, and it went to Tommy. If that ball was thrown two inches higher, Joe wouldn’t have been able to get to it, and Wilt gets the ball and lays it in.
QUIGG:
The pass was underthrown. I thought I had a chance to tip it, but I knew if I missed it, we were in trouble, because Wilt was going to score. If it had been even one inch higher, we were probably going to lose the game.
ROSENBLUTH:
To me, Joe’s two free throws are the greatest shots in Carolina history. You can talk about Michael Jordan’s shot to win the championship for Dean Smith, or Luke Maye’s shot to beat Kentucky. We were down one point with six seconds to go. I would not want to be on that free throw line. Joe was there all alone. On his shoulders were two things: a national championship and an undefeated season. And he made them both.
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ORAL HISTORY
C H A P E L
H I L L ,
N O R T H
C A R O L I N A
Kelvin Bryant hands the ball to Steve Streater
1981 SEPTEMBER 12 BY LEE PACE // PHOTOS BY UNC ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS
C
arolina’s football team opened its 1981 season ranked No. 13 in the country and returned 12 starters from its 11-1 ACC championship team under fourth-year coach Dick Crum. The opening week was spiced with the news that a staff member from East Carolina had been caught spying on the Tar Heels’ practice and making notes from the UNC Law School Library overlooking Navy Field. Gone from the 1980 team were stars like Lawrence Taylor, Donnell Thompson and Amos Lawrence. One key member of that team, however, was back in Chapel Hill. Steve Streater, named All-ACC as a free safety and punter in 1980, was in a wheelchair, paralyzed following a car wreck four months earlier. Streater had signed a free-agent contract with the Washington Redskins and flew home to RaleighDurham Airport on April 30, but he suffered a fractured vertebra when his car skidded on a wet highway near the airport, hit an embankment and flipped over. The Tar Heels handily dispatched the Pirates 56-0 on Sept. 12, 1981, taking a 35-0 halftime lead. Twice after scoring fourth-quarter touchdowns, Bryant looped from the left corner of the east end zone to the area behind the goal posts and handed the ball to Streater, who was sitting there in his wheelchair.
ROD ELKINS, STARTING QUARTERBACK:
There was quite a build-up to that game. The papers were full all week with the story of the ECU coaches at least being accused of spying on us. And Kelvin was from Tarboro, so of course he was heavily recruited by ECU. They really recruited him hard. So there was a lot of emotion leading into that game.
I’m going to.’ That was not like Dick. But that shows how much emotion was in that game.
PHIL RAGAZZO, A TAR HEEL OFFENSIVE LINEMAN FROM 1974-77:
BRYANT, WHO GAINED 211 YARDS ON ONLY 19 CARRIES THAT DAY:
The East Carolina game was a big one for me. I grew up 25, 30 miles from their campus. I think that’s one reason I didn’t want to go there—it was just too close. Plus, when I went on my visit to Carolina, I fell in love with the place. I still love it today.
I watched it from the stands with tears in my eyes. Steve was a freshman my senior year. We spent a lot of time together as fellow punters, and I was a long snapper. He was a shy country boy when he first got to Chapel Hill from Sylva. But the shy, quiet guy changed pretty quickly. He started hanging out with fellow freshman Lawrence Taylor. He had a chance to be a great punter. He was inconsistent at first, but you could see the skill. He’d shank two or three in a row and then launch one 60 yards.
CHUCK PRIEFER, DEFENSIVE LINE COACH:
VICTOR HARRISON, A TAR HEEL WIDE RECEIVER FROM 1979-82:
Kelvin had four or five touchdowns and we’re well into the second half. I’m in the press box alongside John Matsko, the offensive coordinator. He says to Coach Crum, ‘Let’s get Kelvin out of there before he gets hurt.’ Coach comes back, ‘I’ll get Kelvin out when I want to. If I can get a hundred on those blankety-blanks,
I was there, blocking the corner as Kelvin sprinted upfield. He always made it easy for the receivers blocking downfield. Even if we didn’t get a huge block, he was so good in the open field, he had the potential to turn every play into a big play. I was honored to have shared the field with such an amazing talent. We never
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ORAL HISTORY saw his gesture toward Steve coming. I think it was just instinct on Kelvin’s part. After he did it the first time, we were saying on the sideline that every time we scored, we’d give the ball to Steve to honor him. Kelvin just happened to score all of the TDs that day.
ELKINS:
If you remember, that era was all about Herschel Walker from Georgia. I tell people I would have taken Kelvin over Herschel any day. He was a big running back but still long and lean, so powerful and incredibly fast, a world-class sprinter. He was so hard to tackle and so quick and shifty in that big body. He could get lateral or go north and south, he could block out of the backfield, catch the ball out of the backfield. He was an incredible athlete.
ALLEN STEELE, DAILY TAR HEEL PHOTOGRAPHER, 1984 CAROLINA GRADUATE:
Of my 20-year career as a photojournalist, that is one of my favorite images I ever captured. I was a sophomore that year and I didn’t know Steve, but I had followed his story. During the game when Kelvin scored the first touchdown in that end zone, he handed the ball to Steve. This made me quickly realize that it wasn’t going to be a one-time event, so I set myself up in the end zone, so I could photograph both a future score and the moment between Kelvin and Steve. It was one of those moments when you are moved by what you are seeing through the view finder but you are praying when the film is developed that you have captured it perfectly. Years later, I was asked by The Washington Post to photograph Steve as he coached football. I was so touched by Steve’s passion for the game and his desire to share his knowledge with young men. I later visited with Steve at his home and presented him with an enlargement of this photo from 1981.
PRIEFER:
I was defensive backs coach for two years, so Steve was one of my guys. He was such a special player. I remember visiting him in the hospital. It just tore me up. He was such a vibrant young man. I always believed he would find a way to walk. He was that determined.
ELKINS:
That picture with a big smile on Steve’s face nails his personality. He didn’t let many things bother him. He dealt with his handicap as well or better than I can imagine most people dealing with that. He loved being around the locker room and loved being around the guys. We all looked up to him and were all friends with him. To see what happened to him was so tragic and hit all of us hard. It was two amazing players and two amazing people. They were two of the most popular guys on our team and leaders and great, great players.
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CLIFF ALPHIN, 1970 CAROLINA GRADUATE:
When Terry Lewis joined Mack Brown’s coaching staff in 1988, Terry and I became friends. Terry was on Ed Emory’s staff at ECU in 1981. He would laugh about that game and tell me Carolina had the most unbelievable collection of talent he’d ever seen. If Rod Elkins and Kelvin hadn’t been hurt later in the year, we would have won the national championship. Terry said after the game he went to Coach Emory and suggested they not spy on anyone else for all the good it did them.
BRYANT:
Steve was a good football player and a good person. To have something like that happen to him, being an ex-teammate of mine
and a guy who had just signed with the Redskins, my favorite team … it was hard to take. He was such a strong person. I’ve never been in that situation, but I don’t think I could have handled it as well as he did. We wanted to win for him. I saw Steve in the end zone and I just took him the football. I don’t really know what made me give him the ball. But he got a kick out of it, he was
pretty excited. On the first one, I gave him the ball and he spiked it and had a big smile on his face. It just shows you why you have to live each day to the fullest—you never know when something might happen to change your life.
The day after this Carolina-ECU game, Lawrence Taylor played his second game as an NFL rookie, helping the New York Giants to a 17-7 win over the Washington Redskins. That came four months after Taylor broke down in tears in Streater’s hospital room and threatened to quit the game of football. Though Streater set a goal of learning to walk again, he never would. But he lived a full life for 28 more years, including fathering a child. He lobbied the State Legislature to pass a seat belt law, directed the state’s Students Against Driving Drunk program, and gave dozens of talks to high school and youth groups, emphasizing that he was sober the night of his accident but warning about risky behavior. He died June 19, 2009.
& THE VIEW FROM THE STANDS
Longtime Rams Club member Harry Bryant graduated from Carolina in 1970, and when the 1981 season rolled around had just gotten married and was in the midst of a string of seeing 50 straight Tar Heel games in a row. He traveled from Charlotte with three buddies to see the 1981 season-opener and was sitting about 10 rows behind the Tar Heel bench on about the 40 yard-line toward the Kenan Field House side. “Kelvin was having a field day,” Bryant remembers. “One play went to the left, he took it to the end zone and I saw him keep running. I said, ‘Where is he going?’ It looked like he was running to the Rams Head parking lot. It turned out he was giving the ball to his buddy. The place erupted. It was crazy. I get cold chills talking about it now. It was just exhilarating. What a great athlete sitting there in the end zone and what a great athlete admiring him and giving him every accolade he could in the moment.”
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C A R O L I N A E V E R YWE A R Rams Club members like to wear their Carolina Blue, and they’ll wear it all over the US and the world. If you have a photo of you in your Carolina gear in front of notable landmarks in the US and abroad, send them our way to be a part of Carolina EveryWear!
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To have your photo included: -Send your photo digitally to bornandbred@ramsclub.com. -Identify everyone in your photo and the location of the photo. Here are the “Rules”: -At least one person in the photo has to be a Rams Club member -You must be wearing Carolina gear -You must be in front of a notable landmark (sorry, as cool as Kenan Stadium and the Smith Center are, they don’t qualify). SHOW US YOUR COLORS!
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1) Andrew & Sonja France of Jacksonville, FL, with Camden, Riley & Cooper at Copper Mountain, CO; 2) Karen & Ralph Wilson of Durham, NC, and Linwood & Brian Blalock of Durham, NC, crossing the equator just off the coast of the Galápagos Islands; 3) Henry Fleishman & Scot Brower of Charlotte, NC, at Half Dome in Yosemite National Park; 4) Dick & Jona Kay Prindle of Atlanta, GA, at the Continental Divide near Breckenridge, CO; 5) Lauren Hamlett of Oak Ridge, NC, at the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro; 6) Tim Maas & Denise Chen of Vienna, VA, at Ayers Rock in Australia; 7) Mike & Ristie Miller Askew of Oriental, NC, with Melissa Miller Bell, Madison & Caroline Bell, Michael & Rachel Morris Askew, and Randy Gibson & Mary Anna Askew at EPCOT in Orlando.; 8) Toni & Rufus Langley of Apex, NC, in Havana, Cuba; 9) Jeff Thornton of Colorado Springs, CO, on Kwajallin RMI; 10) Fred Ingham & Ann Marshall of Fort Lauderdale, FL, at Rapa Nui (Easter Island); 11) Bill Pomeroy of Asheville, NC, at Lihue, Hawaii; 12) Lauren Fisher (Student Ram) of Ahoskie, NC, with friends Maanasa Rajeshwer & Morgan Fisher in Honduras; 13) Sal & James Galante of Morrisville, NC, in Las Vegas; 14) Steve & Anna Evans of Nags Head, NC, in Cologne, Germany; 15) Scott Arnold & Jan Davis of Cary, NC, at the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon; 16) Stephanie Morgan of Canton, NC, with a camel in United Arab Emirates
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17 18
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17) David, Anders, Wade & Lisa Marie Ferrell of Raleigh, NC, in front of the
Barcelona Cathedral in Barcelona, Spain; 18) Philip Blatt of Greensboro, NC,
in the Tuscany wine country; 19) Russell & Beverly Clark of Wilmington, NC, at Garden of the Gods in Colorado; 20) Akash Mishra of Winston-
Salem, NC, at Kankyakumari Monuments in India; 21) Dianna & Colin Epps,
Shane Smith, Bryan & Betsy Gentry & Adam Stein at the Ark Experience in Williamstown, KY; 22) Crystal & Rick Erwin of Landis, NC, at Waimea Canyon in Hawaii; 23) David & Charise Gannt of Asheville, NC, at Waterboat Point
in Antarctica; 24) Greg Tuttle of Hillsborough, NC, sailing past the Arctic
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Circle off the coast of Norway; 25) Trish & Bill Sherrill of Portsmouth, VA, in Singapore; 26) Linda & Art Maillet of Powhatan, VA, checking out an iguana
at Galápagos Islands, Ecuador; 27) Ed, Rachel, TJ, Deuce & Kendall Geer of
Chapel Hill with Luke Maye, Kenny Williams & Justin & Brooke Jackson after
a Sacramento Kings game; 28) Sydney & Rob Ehinger of Greensboro, NC, at Tamarindo Beach, Costa Rica; 29) Kent Burris of Chapel Hill at the Pyramids
in Egypt; 30) Ed & Barbara Newnam of Wake Forest, NC, crossing the Gatun Locks in the Panama Canal
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BORN & BRED
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C A R O L I N A E V E R YWE A R 26 27
28 29 30
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ORAL HISTORY
1994
R I C H M O N D ,
V I R G I N I A
APRIL 3
Charlotte Smith hits the most famous shot in Carolina women’s basketball history BY MARGARET HIGH // PHOTOS BY UNC ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS
S
omehow over time English language has placed heavy emphasis on the word “The.” When a noun is introduced with a capital The, it’s serious. “The save,” “The play,” or “The shot.”
When Charlotte Smith sank a three-pointer as time expired to win the 1994 women’s basketball national championship, it was quickly named capital The Shot. It wasn’t just one shining moment; it was The moment. The moment that changed the outcome of history, the future of Carolina women’s basketball and the rest of those players’ lives. This year marks the 25th anniversary of “The Shot,” and the entire Carolina women’s basketball program still vividly remembers the moments surrounding that resounding play.
STEPHANIE LAWRENCE (NOW STEPHANIE LAWRENCE YELTON, HEAD COACH AT UNIVERSITY OF WEST FLORIDA, MADE THE INBOUNDS PASS):
It was amazing to step on that court and look around in the arena to see the names of all the teams that were in the tournament that year. Absolutely amazing to see all the banners of the teams that had won it before and realizing you have this one moment to be part of this history.
CHARLOTTE SMITH, (NOW HEAD COACH AT ELON UNIVERSITY, MADE THE SHOT):
A lot of excitement. I was feeling a lot of excitement. The day before the game I was really excited because my parents were there. They are my biggest fans and so that was really important to me for them to be there. Coach Hatchell used to always say Charlotte was not worth a nickel—this is her, verbatim—Charlotte was not worth a nickel until her parents showed up for the games.
LAWRENCE:
Coach Hatchell gave an amazing pregame talk about visualizing things that you have yet to see and believing that those things can happen.
SMITH:
I remember having a devotional the day of the game because it was Easter Sunday. And you know our team is very big on faith and that was important. I remember the devotional that we talked about Easter Sunday was us being one body with many members and how that was important in terms of us understanding that we all had a role. We all have significance whether you are playing, whether you are on the bench—everybody was important.
LAWRENCE:
I think our team was prepared to play anybody that was put in front of us. We entered the tournament with the idea that we’re
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ORAL HISTORY gaining respect. We wanted respect for the season we had. We were ACC tournament champions. We had an amazing season with only two losses. We entered that game thinking it doesn’t matter who we’re playing, we’re coming out to play our best basketball and to prove that we deserved to be there.
WADDELL:
MIKE WADDELL (RADIO VOICE OF THE 1994 WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TAR HEELS):
LAWRENCE:
I was so bought into that team and that game. It was crazy. Like, here I am making a little more than minimum wage and I was so into this game that I got 20 t-shirts made with “Respect” on the back with a little saying. It was just our thing. We used the Aretha Franklin song and everything.
LAWRENCE:
My moment was in the locker room before the game and after that team prayer. I had tears coming out of my eyes. I was thinking, ‘Why am I getting emotional?’ I lifted my head and looked across the way and saw Marion Jones with the same look on her face and multiple players with that same look on their faces. I realized, O.K., we’re all on the same page here. We all have the same emotion and the same desire to make this happen.
So after Stephanie takes the timeout we get a media break, and I’m sitting there as the commercials are going on and look over to the other UNC media person and I’m like, ‘We’re about to have one of those moments.’
When I saw Charlotte curve out with no defenders on her, it was just a matter of getting that pass to her. It was an incredible pass because it had to go under the backboard but high enough over the defender’s hands and over Sylvia Crawley, who is over 6-5 and was setting a screen on that side of the floor.
SMITH:
I remember Stephanie Lawrence inbounding the ball and it seemed like it took an eternity for that ball to reach me. And I remember thinking, ‘Please God let this shot go in.’
LAWRENCE:
WADDELL:
There wasn’t a single kid on that team that was a top 100 recruit. Marion Jones was a track athlete. But what stuck out to me was how close they all were. It truly was a family.
It seemed like it took the ball forever to get to her. And then of course when she let the ball go, man, it seemed like an eternity before that ball went through the net. I had the best seat in the house. I stepped in bounds, I saw her let it go and I could see the flight of the ball. And as I saw the flight of the ball, I remember thinking to myself, ‘It’s going in.’ And as it got closer and closer, you could tell it was coming right through the bottom of the net.
SMITH:
SMITH:
I remember at halftime, and this is pretty much Coach Hatchell’s M.O.—at halftime the score is zero to zero. That you’ve got to go out and give it your all in 20 minutes. She said, ‘Twenty minutes. That’s all we have left before we become national champions.’ She was always so confident and instilled a great level of confidence in all of us.
So when it hit my hand and I released it – it was euphoria.
LAWRENCE:
The original play that was called was a lob pass to our 6-5 center, who was Sylvia Crawley.
On the way home, we’re like, ‘Oh man, we’re eating steak dinners tonight.’ This was during the time when budgets were limited in women’s basketball. We get on the bus thinking we’re getting steak dinners. And we pull into a McDonald’s. Normally we have a budget, but Coach Hatchell announced you can get anything you want. You can get anything you want on the menu on this night. So we went all out with milkshakes and sundaes.
SMITH:
SMITH:
LAWRENCE:
After the play changed, it never even crossed my mind that the shooter was going to be me. I’m sitting in the huddle waiting for her to designate a three-point shooter, as in Tonya Sampson or Stephanie Lawrence to take the shot. She said that I was going to take the shot. My heart sank to what felt like to the bottom of my feet.
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We were excited because the men had just won the championship in ‘93 and we remembered what Franklin Street looked like and all the excitement. So we were really excited to get back to Chapel Hill and so we had the bus to drive through Franklin Street.
WADDELL:
There was maybe one fan outside Shrunken Head who threw a roll of toilet paper.
LAWRENCE:
There was one fan on Franklin that actually ran down the street with the bus waving at us. But there really was no one out there, so we were wondering where everyone was.
WADDELL:
I already knew it was coming. I was already told there was going to be a crowd there but they told me not to tell. That, I think, meant more to the girls than the actual thing going on in Richmond. We got the rings and everything in Richmond, but the fans welcoming them home meant so much.
LAWRENCE:
Because there weren’t trees with toilet tissue in it we later went and got toilet tissue and rolled the trees ourselves.
It was amazing to get off the bus and see so many fans. And this was late at night, you know, maybe midnight. It was late on a Sunday night, but those people stood there on a cold, spring night to wait for us to arrive and pat us on the back when we got there.
LAWRENCE:
SMITH:
SMITH:
Then we made that turn down South Road headed towards Carmichael, you could see a pack of people standing outside where Woolen Gym is now. Everybody was waiting for the bus to show up there.
It’s one of those moments where you are etched into history forever and no one can ever take that away. I would say I probably can’t go at least a couple of months without hearing about the shot.
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“I JUST WANT TO THANK ALL OF THE DONORS WHO HAVE HELPED MAKE MY CAROLINA EXPERIENCE SPECIAL AND SOMETHING I’LL NEVER FORGET. MY TEAMMATES AND I CAN’T THANK YOU ENOUGH. WE’VE GROWN TOGETHER AND GROWN SO MUCH OVER THESE PAST COUPLE OF YEARS, AND I’VE MADE FRIENDS FOR LIFE.” -LUKE MAYE
THANK YOU RAMS CLUB MEMBERS FOR PROVIDING OPPORTUNITIES!
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW TO MAKE A LIFE-CHANGING IMPACT ON CAROLINA STUDENT-ATHLETES, VISIT RAMSCLUB.COM/CAMPAIGN
ramsclub.com 29
T U S C A L O O S A ,
2006
JUNE 10
A L A B A M A
ORAL HISTORY
Chad Flack hits the most important home run in Carolina history BY PAT JAMES // PHOTOS BY UNC ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS
W
hen the North Carolina baseball team arrived in Alabama for the 2006 NCAA Super Regionals, 17 years had passed since UNC last played in the College World Series.
Plenty of teams in that span had certainly knocked on Omaha’s door. For one reason or another, though, the Tar Heels never broke through. And as they prepared to face the Crimson Tide, the No. 4 national seed, few people outside of Carolina’s clubhouse expected that to change. Yet, everything did change that June weekend in Tuscaloosa, with Chad Flack sending UNC back to Omaha with his walk-off home run in the second game. Since then, the Tar Heels have gone to the College World Series six more times, most recently last year. But no trip is more memorable than that one in 2006. This is how those involved remember getting there:
MIKE FOX, HEAD COACH:
Just the fact that we were there (in the super regionals), it’s hard not to think that you’re that close. You’ve played 60-some-odd games. It’s hard not to think, ‘Two more wins.’ You don’t say it. But everybody knows it. ‘If we can win two games, we’re in the College World Series.’
MATT DANFORD, REDSHIRT JUNIOR PITCHER:
Up until that series, we knew that we were one of the nation’s best teams, but Omaha in a lot of ways seemed like this mystical pipe dream. We spoke about it at every meeting. Every time we had a team huddle, it would break with an “Omaha!” But as silly as it sounds, it didn’t seem like a reality before that weekend.
CHAD FLACK, SOPHOMORE FIRST BASEMAN:
I think we went in with a lot of confidence, but there were also a lot of unknowns because we hadn’t been there and done that yet.
One thing was certain, though: Andrew Miller – Baseball America’s National Player of the Year and the No. 6 overall pick in the MLB Draft earlier that week – would start Game 1 for the Tar Heels. And in an 11-5 win, he was outstanding, going seven innings and giving up two unearned runs on five hits. He struck out 11 batters. Carolina was just as impressive at the plate, tallying 17 hits.
DANFORD:
We had a very deep, strong pitching staff, but having Andrew pitch Game 1 of any series, whether we played Alabama or the New York Yankees, we liked our chances in Game 1.
REID FRONK, SOPHOMORE THIRD BASEMAN:
Josh Horton hit a home run in the first inning that really got us
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ORAL HISTORY
started, and it punched them in the mouth and gave us the initial momentum. … When given the lead, Andrew was lights out. I think he was sitting in the mid-90s that game, and he definitely helped us get where we needed to be.
The next day, Daniel Bard took the mound, looking to clinch the series. The first-round pick struggled with his command, though, hitting three batters and walking two more in two-plus innings. When Bard exited in the third inning, UNC trailed 2-0. But then entered Danford, Jonathan Hovis and eventually Luke Putkonen, who combined to allow two runs across six relief innings. Their efforts kept the Tar Heels in the game. And they set the stage for the eighth inning, when Carolina went up 6-4 on a three-run homer by Flack and an RBI double by Benji Johnson.
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ROBERT WOODARD, JUNIOR PITCHER:
Once we put up the four-spot in the eighth, I remember thinking, ‘Dang, this is real.’ It didn’t seem real until that moment, that we could go (to Omaha).
DANFORD:
We felt incredibly confident. Slam dunk, this is it. We knew we had Andrew Carignan coming in and that’s that.
In emerging as one of the nation’s top closers, Carignan had converted 13 of 14 save opportunities. But after Alabama’s first two batters reached base in the top of the ninth, Alex Avila lined a three-run home run over the left-field wall to give the Crimson Tide a 7-6 lead. The homer was the first against Carignan all season. And suddenly, Alabama needed just three more outs to force a Game 3.
WOODARD:
FOX:
SCOTT FORBES, ASSISTANT COACH:
FLACK:
You couldn’t have thrown a ball closer to being foul. It just dropped right through the uprights between the wall and the foul pole, and we couldn’t believe it. We were in disbelief. The place is going crazy. You’re going from unbelievably high to feeling really low. You start thinking about other things, like, ‘We’ll have a good shot to win tomorrow,’ because (Woodard) hadn’t pitched. But I just felt like the momentum could hurt us the next day. But I also remember our guys running in, and they didn’t look shell-shocked.
FLACK:
I just felt a little bit of an anger. It was like, ‘They don’t deserve this. We deserve this, and we need to make this happen.’
Crimson Tide closer David Robertson, now in his 12th MLB season, induced a groundout to open the bottom of the ninth inning. He then got ahead of Fronk 0-2. But Fronk worked the count full and drew a walk that gave UNC some life. Matt Spencer pinch-ran for Fronk and reached second on a wild pitch. And after Horton struck out for the second out of the inning, Flack turned to Forbes before stepping up to the plate.
Quite honestly, it was a terrible pitch to swing at. But we knew there was a short right field there and it was just a matter of whether or not he had gotten enough of it.
I knew I hit it well. But it wasn’t a typical home run that had a lot of height to it.
WOODARD:
We weren’t sure it was going out because we saw the right fielder running alongside the outfield wall. Then we saw him reach up and it landed over. For one second, I forgot we were the home team, because we were in Alabama.
Others in the Tar Heel dugout shared a similar reaction. That lasted for only a moment, though, as pandemonium ensued.
WOODARD:
We all rushed home plate … and I remember working my way into the crowd and kneeling right at home plate, and I started pointing at it and saying, ‘Just touch the plate. We’re going.’
FLACK:
FORBES:
I remember Flack hitting his bat weight, throwing it off and he was like, ‘We’re not losing this game.’ And I was like, ‘Dang, go do it.’
Coming around third and seeing your teammates there to celebrate with you, knowing that we achieved our goal at the beginning of the season to get to Omaha and the goal all of us had coming to Carolina and all of that hitting at once, was a pretty big deal. Then I realized I couldn’t breathe much after that because the whole team was on top of me.
FRONK:
DANFORD:
I was confident that he was going to do something to give us a chance. He was going to hit something – he was going to hit a ball and hit it hard.
We’re celebrating on Alabama’s field while they were sitting in the dugout watching us, which was kind of a little awkward in a way. No one knows what to do, but everyone’s just totally giddy and excited. It was like walking around in a trance.
FORBES:
The first pitch, it was right down the middle. I was like, ‘Crap, he’s going to throw him that cutter and he ain’t going to be able to hit it. That thing’s disgusting.’ And then it all just happened. It happened so fast.
Robertson’s next pitch was high and away. But Flack swung anyway and sent the ball sailing toward right field.
That continued to be the case when the team returned to its hotel.
FLACK:
Some of us sat around and watched SportsCenter that evening to see what they were saying and to watch some replays. Other
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ORAL HISTORY than that, I remember being physically exhausted but running on adrenaline.
DANFORD:
Cell phones were going off, texts were going off. If I’m not mistaken, Dick Baddour called the hotel room and was talking to Chad (Flack). I think I was even allowed to get on the phone for like 10 seconds.
FORBES:
I remember getting in the shower and just kind of decompressing a little and thinking, ‘Man, we’re going to the College World Series, something I watched from a small town. Who would ever be able to play in the College World Series?’ After that, me, Coach (Larry) Gallo and Coach (Chad) Holbrook sat down at a little restaurant and that’s when it really kicked in.
But even then, no one foresaw the lasting impact that weekend would have on the program.
WOODARD:
Right after we took the team picture and we were all wearing our ‘Going to Omaha’ shirts and hats, I said to Tim Federowicz, ‘Hey man, just take this in and enjoy it. This doesn’t happen every year.’ I don’t know why I felt like I needed to say that, but he was just a freshman, and I knew I was either going to sign with the (St. Louis) Cardinals or I was going to come back and have only one more shot. But he had at least two more years, and I felt the need to tell him, ‘Hey man, take it in.’ He said, ‘No doubt.’ And then sure enough, Federowicz goes every single year.
FOX:
Certainly it’s hard not to look at that and go, ‘That was a pretty big win and to get there.’ There is something to be said about getting there the first time, for that group. Then you know how to do it, and more importantly, you know what it feels like. It’s like, ‘Let’s try to do that again.’
And they have, again and again.
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P H I L A D E L P H I A ,
MEMORIAL WEEKEND
2016
P E N N S Y L V A N I A
ORAL HISTORY
Women’s and men’s lacrosse teams win double NCAA titles BY PAT JAMES PHOTOS BY JEFFREY CAMARATI
O
f all the championship moments in the history of North Carolina athletics, rarely have two occurred in as short a span as they did Memorial Day weekend in 2016.
In roughly 24 hours, both the men’s and women’s lacrosse teams captured NCAA championships. That alone would’ve been a memorable weekend. But that both titles were won in the same city, Philadelphia, made a historic occasion for both programs even more significant. This is how those involved remember it happening: Before 2016, Princeton was the only school that had won the men’s and women’s lacrosse NCAA championships in the same year, accomplishing the feat in 1994. But even before Carolina’s teams embarked on their final four journeys, that possibility had been entertained.
SYDNEY HOLMAN, JUNIOR WOMEN’S LACROSSE PLAYER:
The men’s and women’s team were really close when I came into Carolina my freshman year, so we’d always talked about it, how crazy that would be. But it was so far away from us that we never thought it was actually possible.
AUSTIN PIFANI, JUNIOR MEN’S LACROSSE PLAYER:
We’d always joked with Sydney about both winning in the same year, but after we both made it to the final four, we were like, ‘Holy crap, this is a real possibility.’ … We all lived on the same street, and (the environment) was like nothing I’ve ever experienced before.
SAMMY JO TRACY, REDSHIRT JUNIOR WOMEN’S LACROSSE PLAYER:
We’d sit on each other’s stoops and be like, ‘This could really happen.’
BRIAN BALKAM, REDSHIRT SOPHOMORE MEN’S LACROSSE PLAYER:
Just realizing that both teams were going to be in the same city at the same time competing for a national championship was pretty surreal.
That feeling became even more palpable when both teams learned their hotel assignments (preset by tournament seeds) were the same. They’d be staying at the Sheraton Philadelphia Society Hill Hotel, coincidentally the same hotel the men’s basketball team had inhabited when it won the NCAA Tournament East Regional in March.
JOE BRESCHI, MEN’S LACROSSE COACH:
You can’t imagine the electricity in that hotel. I always joked because the girls were on the fourth floor, the boys were on the second floor and the coaches were in the middle to make sure that they were separated.
HOLMAN:
I don’t think we spoke to each other very much at all because they were doing their own thing and we were doing ours. It was special. We were all so focused.
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ORAL HISTORY After losing to Maryland by one goal in the 2015 NCAA championship game, the women’s team had worked all season to return to the final four. The Tar Heels suffered early-season losses against the Terrapins and Florida. But entering their NCAA semifinal match against Penn State, they’d won 15 consecutive games. And six of those wins were by one goal. That close-game experience surely helped them against the Nittany Lions, who gave UNC all it could handle in Carolina’s 12-11 win.
HOLMAN:
It was a battle, but at the same time, we had such confidence in each other that we never wavered from our game plan. That gritty battle meant we didn’t just slide into the national championship seat.
TRACY:
If we didn’t fight that hard the day before, I don’t think we would’ve come as hungry and as angry as we did that Sunday. We had a really big chip on our shoulder.
The men’s team did, too. Despite nine straight NCAA Tournament appearances from 2007 through 2015, the Tar Heels hadn’t reached the final four since 1993. That drought seemed as if it might continue in 2016, as UNC entered its final regular-season game against Notre Dame with a 7-5 record. But after trailing the Fighting Irish 1510 in the fourth quarter, Carolina staged the largest second-half comeback in program history to secure a marquee win and ultimately an at-large NCAA bid. From there, the Tar Heels beat Marquette in the first round. They then faced Notre Dame in Columbus, Ohio, where Breschi had coached from 1997 through 2008 and where his son Michael had been killed in a tragic automobile accident in 2004. In a game that Breschi’s players dedicated to Michael, UNC won 139. Carolina was headed to Championship Weekend for the first time in 23 years. The amount of energy and emotion that the Tar Heels expended in their quarterfinal win could’ve caused concern. But that was far from the case in their
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18-13 victory over Loyola in the national semifinals, as UNC scored 12 of the game’s first 14 goals and never looked back.
BRESCHI:
It was 23 years since we had been there, and people were like, ‘Well, now it’s going to be a letdown.’ Are you kidding me? It was the complete opposite. The way they responded was just a lack of pressure. They just went out and played. It was like, ‘OK, that’s behind us. Now we’re playing for the past 23 years of guys who didn’t get here.’ And it was really cool to see them just unleash.
BALKAM:
For us to come out against a very talented Loyola team and just absolutely throttle them in the first quarter was a huge statement – not just to Loyola or (fellow final four teams) Maryland or Brown, but to ourselves. ‘This is our weekend. We’ve got this.’
That Saturday night, a few hours before they faced Maryland in Sunday’s national championship game, the players on the women’s team gathered in cocaptain Stephanie Lobb’s room.
HOLMAN:
That moment was the changing point for our team. We just spilled our hearts out in that room, especially the seniors, and talked about what this would mean to them and how special everyone is on the team. It was a conversation that you can’t plan or force.
MEGAN WARD, SENIOR WOMEN’S LACROSSE PLAYER:
Every single person on the team ended up speaking by the end of it.
TRACY:
It was electric and something I’ve never experienced in all my years. Just everyone being on the same page. No one is out for themselves. You could feel it. ‘We’re going to do this together because we think we deserve it. We’ve been though a lot and it’s our time.’
The next morning, the men’s team was at breakfast when Breschi called his players into the hotel lobby, where they formed a tunnel for the women’s coaches and players to walk through before boarding the bus to Talen Energy Stadium.
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ORAL HISTORY HOLMAN:
There was such a sense of camaraderie and belief in each other. It was so special and I will never ever forget that moment in my entire life.
TRACY:
Knowing they made the extra effort, it gives you that little extra inside you that someone else has your back. … I think we really felt like we were unstoppable because of the support we had from our family, our friends, our men’s team and then each other.
That showed in the Tar Heels’ 13-7 drubbing of the Terrapins. Aly Messinger, the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, matched her career high with six points and Ward, who had been pulled early in Friday’s semifinal game, made a career-high 14 saves. Her last came with 11 seconds left in regulation. But by then, UNC’s second NCAA title was well within reach.
HOLMAN:
At one point, I looked over to our sideline and just knew that we were winning. … I’ve never ever experienced that feeling in my life before – a feeling of such confidence, surrounded by 30 other girls who felt the exact same way. And it never wavered.
WARD:
There was a dogpile right after the game, and I thought I was going to die. That was a little scary there. When I got my breath, it really hit me. I remember walking over to Jenny (Levy). We spent three years getting back to that championship (after winning it in 2013), and when I thought about it that way, that’s when it really hit me.
PIFANI:
To see how excited they were, to see all they’d accomplished, it made things so much more real in the moment. It definitely put a good perspective that we could go out there and do the same.
After its game, the women’s team was given the option to fly home on the NCAA charter plane or stay for the men’s game on Monday. Every member of the travel party who didn’t already have family commitments on Memorial Day stayed.
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BALKAM:
For them to miss their flight back to Chapel Hill so that they could come and watch our game and to look up and see them in the stands was a huge motivating factor for us and something that definitely got us all pumped up.
TRACY:
If the guys left and went home to Chapel Hill after they won, I wouldn’t have taken it too personally, but you feel it. I think that was really important for us to stay, and I think everyone kind of understood that. It was worth the eight-hour bus ride home.
Just like it did against Loyola, the men’s team started off hot against Maryland, scoring the first four goals. It took the Terrapins just over five minutes to tie the game, though, and from there, the two teams went back and forth. With 7:49 left in regulation, Maryland went up up 1311. But Carolina rallied with an extra-man goal by Luke Goldstock with 3:53 remaining and a tying goal by Patrick Kelly 31 seconds later. The Tar Heels wouldn’t tally another shot in regulation. Their defense stood tall, though, with Balkam stonewalling Maryland’s Matt Rambo right on the doorstep with six seconds to play. Goldstock received a one-minute penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct with 3.9 seconds left in regulation, forcing UNC to open overtime playing a man down. The Terrapins passed the ball around for about 30 seconds before taking a shot. At that time, Carolina’s Zach Powers dove toward the shooter, distracting him just enough to disrupt the follow through. And Balkam positioned himself perfectly for the save.
BALKAM:
Without Zach Powers diving, who knows where that shot goes? Maybe it goes a couple of inches lower and it doesn’t hit me in the midsection and it goes in. That aspect of the defense, forcing guys to make shots that they’re not 100 percent comfortable with, is a huge aspect of why myself as a goalie was allowed to have some success.
BRESCHI:
(Powers) didn’t play the whole game, outside of man-down, and he makes probably the biggest play of it, to alter the shot. And then he stands up and clears the ball the way he’s supposed to.
The Tar Heels called a timeout after the successful clear. They then recorded two shots over the next 63 seconds, both of which were saved. But with UNC able to retain possession, Michael Tagliaferri eventually found Chris Cloutier on a skip pass.
BRESCHI:
When I saw the skip pass to him, I was like, ‘That’s who you want shooting it!’ And he just stung it right inside. There was no hope for that goalie. There was no hope. And then I blacked out.
BALKAM:
I saw that move and I just sprinted downfield. There’s a funny video of me from the opposite end zone, and you just see me take my helmet off, roll it right off my head like a little kid, throw my gloves in the air and just sprint downfield.
PIFANI:
Everybody else took their pads off and chucked them in the air, but for some reason, I couldn’t let go of my equipment. I had all of my stuff still
on and couldn’t let it go. It really sunk in when I walked to the sidelines and saw my parents. My mom was crying. That’s when it really hit me.
As the celebration continued in the aftermath of the 14-13 win, Mark Rizzo carried the men’s trophy into the Lincoln Financial Field stands, where Molly Hendrick of the women’s team waited with their trophy.
HOLMAN:
Getting to experience that was truly amazing, both with those guys that you worked so hard next to and with your teammates. Then there’s the feeling that you’re going to head back to Chapel Hill with not one but two national championships. The emotions are so hard to describe, just how special they were.
TRACY:
There’s no better moment that I think I’ve ever experienced. There’s no better high I’ve ever had. It’s really kind of hard to remember because it was crazy – everyone was screaming, yelling, and trophies were in the air. I guess it’s out of a movie.
Yet, somehow, it wasn’t. And it’ll likely never happen again. ramsclub.com 41
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‘Making people take notice’
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The 1993 Peach Bowl is one of the great memories I State and USC made people take notice nationally. have in my life. What made it so special was that that group of players The game itself was an incredible experience. It was the had brought the program so far. It was very important to first college football game played in the Georgia Dome, them to win 10 games after losing 10 the first year. They and it was played on January 2. Mississippi State was a very believed in each other and in the system, and they were good team, and their fans brought thousands of cowbells so proud of what they had done. It’s not a coincidence that into the dome. But we also had thousands of Tar Heel fans several players from that team—Rick Steinbacher, Corey there, so the atmosphere in the sold-out Holliday, Tommy Thigpen—are still dome was tremendous. involved with Carolina football. We played tentative in the first half. They were and are a very tight-knit We were down 14-0, and if it wasn’t group, and this program is so important “They believed in each other and for a couple of holding penalties, it to them. They know what it took to get in the system, and they were so would have been 28-0. We were still Carolina onto the national level, and trying to get our program to that level, proud of what they had done. It’s they know what we will have to do to and we had not been in that situation get back there. not a coincidence that several very often. We’d had the game in 1990 players from that team—Rick when Georgia Tech came back to tie us before they went on to share the Steinbacher, Corey Holliday, National Championship, but that was Tommy Thigpen—are still involved at Kenan Stadium. This was a different with Carolina football.” environment. I pretty much lost it with the coaches at halftime. I ripped them, and I ripped myself. I was very frustrated that I did not feel like we were competing. It was one of the most heated halftimes I can remember as a head coach. Then I went in and was very positive with the players. I told them we weren’t hitting anybody and we weren’t blocking anybody. So on the second half kickoff, I wanted them to go out and knock someone down. We had to get in the fight. We had to compete. I had some friends standing outside the locker room. As we were going back to the field, they reminded me that the smaller locker room for the coaches was right next to the players. So they had heard that entire conversation, so the MACK BROWN Head Coach, Football players got both the negative and the positive during that Illustration by Jason McCorkle halftime. But it worked, because we came out and played great in the second half. Bracey Walker made a couple big plays, and Natrone Means was so tough, and our defense shut them down. It was a tough, physical win against a very good coach in Jackie Sherrill who had won a lot of games. That put us in position to go beat Southern Cal on the road in the first game of the 1993 season, and that enabled us to get some national attention. Going into the Peach Bowl, we’d been talked about on the conference level and people knew we were improving. The wins over Mississippi
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CAROLINA INSIDER PODCAST HOSTED BY JONES ANGELL AND ADAM LUCAS
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