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Hubert Davis makes history as the first Black head coach of UNC’s men’s basketball team. You can learn more about his journey at the Carolina Basketball Museum, which reopened to the public on June 1 and will soon unveil a section dedicated to the new Tar Heels’ coach. We spoke to him in May about recruiting, his life experiences around town and his son’s high school graduation.
hat were some of your favorite spots in town as a student in the early 1990s and now? Chapel Hill’s changed so much. I loved the Ye Olde Waffle Shop, but that’s not even open anymore. Spanky’s – it’s not open anymore. But I love Carolina Coffee Shop on Franklin Street, and Top of the Hill is still here. Those are [some] favorite places to go. But anywhere on Franklin Street – it’s just a cool place. Tell us about meeting your wife, Leslie. I met her in high school at Lake Braddock [Secondary School]. She’s an Army child, and her dad was stationed at the Pentagon. So at the time, they were living in the northern Virginia area. She was 15; I was 16. We just instantly became great friends and were great friends all throughout high school. She’s one year behind me, and she wanted to go to Davidson. For whatever reason, she ended up [attending] North Carolina. I didn’t even know she was even considering it. She just showed up on campus, and I was like, “What are you doing here?” She said, “I got into North Carolina.” I said, “What in the world? You didn’t tell me?” So then we were best friends in college. We just did everything together. After she graduated, we just looked at each other and said let’s date and get married. We’ve known each other a long time and been married almost 22 years. But it feels like even more because I’ve had my best friend with me since I was 16 years old. 38
chapelhillmagazine.com July/August 2021
What was it like returning to Chapel Hill and then raising a family here after the NBA? I needed this place coming from high school. My mom passed away of cancer two days before my junior year of high school. I was a mama’s boy, and she was the love of my life. To go through that was beyond devastating. How I dealt with that [was] I needed to get out, I needed to go someplace. I needed a place that was going to open its arms up to me and encourage and support me. That’s what I found here, not just from the coaches, not just from the secretaries or from the guys on the team, but this university and this community. They just wrapped their arms around me and took care of me the four years that I was here. So when my wife and I were trying to decide where to raise our three children, we decided here. It was a place where not only I knew that they would be cared for, but [where] they would grow up in an environment where people genuinely cared for them and genuinely were on their side. I wanted my kids around that.