University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: For Some Fans, Late Night Begins Early
October 17, 2003 | Men's Basketball
Oct. 17, 2003
By Adam Lucas
Allegedly, Neill Wessell is majoring in business.
In reality, he'll graduate with at least a minor in Carolina basketball. The senior from Wilmington arrived at the Dean Smith Center on Friday at noon in anticipation of Late Night with Roy Williams, which begins tonight around 10 p.m.
Doors open for that event at 6:30, and yes, Wessell waited in line a full 390 minutes on an unseasonably warm October day for the privilege of being the first through the Smith Center doors.
"I kind of skipped out on work, but it's just a job," Wessell said. "I told my boss I had to do it."
Inside the Smith Center late Friday afternoon, crews were assembling an impressive-looking array of lights and smoke machines. But outside was where the real action was taking place.
Around 2:30, Tar Heel student Scott Jones arrived with a generous portion of Bojangle's to fortify the troops, who numbered roughly 100 by 5:00.
While Wessell could claim the title of first to arrive, he couldn't stake claim on the longest journey to the event. Across the street, Gary Singleterry, his parents, Paul and Judy Singleterry, and Gary's daughter, Misty, were preparing to attend their third midnight practice.
Three seems fairly tame--especially when compared to Lorraine and Barry Greer of Fork Unioin, VA, who have driven the nearly four hours for every midnight practice Carolina has ever held and arrived three hours before the doors opened Friday afternoon--until you hear that the Singleterry family came all the way from Kansas strictly for Late Night.
Gary flew into RDU on Thursday afternoon. Paul and Judy, however, hitched up their RV on Monday and drove the 1,400 miles from their home in Mulvane, KS. The itinerary: Monday night in Kansas City, Tuesday night in Benton, Illinois, Wednesday night in Newport, Tennessee, and a Thursday afternoon arrival in Chapel Hill. They'll drive home next week, just a quick jaunt across America to watch a little basketball.
What makes a family travel halfway across the country to watch a college basketball practice? The family didn't have much of a college preference until Gary began rooting for the Tar Heels while in the ninth grade in Fayetteville. Since then, they've been hooked.
"They give us a hard time at home," Gary says. "But you just have to love it."
Everyone in line well before the doors opened on Friday clearly had the love. Back at the head of the group, Wessell said that Carolina basketball has a unique place in NCAA hoops.
"There can't be many places like this," he said. "I know Kentucky has a big Midnight Madness and you have to respect that. There's probably somebody as crazy as I am in line in Lexington right now. But other than that, it's hard to imagine any other places with this kind of interest."
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly and can be reached at alucas@tarheelmonthly.com. To subscribe to Tar Heel Monthly, click here.
