Player Speeches Highlight Reunion Banquet

Feb. 21, 2004

By Adam Lucas

King Rice stood at the podium, facing 219 fellow lettermen, 16 current Tar Heels, and seven coaches. The former Carolina point guard had started his speech at the 2004 Letterman's Reunion Banquet on a lighthearted note, relating several humorous stories about his four years as a player.

But then he tried to close the speech by explaining what Carolina meant to him. And that's when he couldn't stop the tears.

Looking straight at the players from the current team, who were seated around tables in the middle of the room, he addressed them directly.

"Guys, everyone in this room loves you. When I was here, I had the former guys come back and get on me when I did the wrong thing," he said. "I'm sorry I haven't done that for you. I'm sorry we haven't been together like this. I'm ashamed of myself because everyone in this room has to come together to support you guys."

That's the kind of night it was at the Alumni Center, where a full house gathered to celebrate Carolina's victory over Florida State earlier in the day, renew old acquaintances, and--as Dick Grubar said during his speech--tell a few lies. It was the kind of evening when you could do almost anything. You could find yourself at a table with Pearce Landry and Will Johnson, both Morehead Scholarship recipients, and realize you were the dumbest one at the table, and then turn around and bump into, successively, J.R. Reid, Joe Quigg, and Mitch Kupchak, who would have made a pretty fair trio on the hardwood. The night was the product of endless hard work by Carolina basketball staffers Emily Cozart, Armin Dastur, Jennifer Holbrook, and Kay Thomas, plus administrative assistant C.B. McGrath, who was putting together his second reunion in two years after coordinating Kansas's 105th basketball anniversary celebration last season.

The hard work must have been worth it, as Grubar seemingly echoed the thoughts of many in attendance when he said, "I can't think of a better time that I've had in years and years."

Roy Williams had given his current players a simple rule to follow for the evening: "Don't try to be cool. Don't sit there and say, 'When is this old guy going to be through talking?' In 15 or 20 years, you'll be that old guy."

Williams opened the program, but the rest of the night belonged to the lettermen. Seven speakers had been scheduled to talk about what Carolina basketball meant to them, but Eric Montross had to back out when foot surgery earlier this week caused his doctors to order him to stay off his feet. The big man was missed, but he would have had some difficult speeches to follow. Nearly every era of Carolina basketball was represented at the podium, beginning with Nemo Nearman, class of 1950.

Nearman was followed by Lennie Rosenbluth, the legendary Tar Heel who led the 1957 team to an undefeated season and national championship. Rosenbluth, a native of the Bronx, regaled the crowd with stories about his adjustment to Chapel Hill.

"One of the first things I realized was that everybody I met had three names," he said. "Billy Bob. Susie Joe. So I thought, well, maybe I should have three names. So the next guy I met, I told him, 'Hi, I'm Lennie Shootalot Rosenbluth.'"

Grubar represented the triple Final Four teams of 1967-69 and was followed by Phil Ford, one of the six of the top 10 scorers in Carolina history who were in attendance.

"When I went to the NBA, I met so many players who said they wouldn't go back to the same school," he said. "These were NBA players, so they were obviously very successful. I just took it for granted that everyone loved their school like I did."

The two most moving speeches of the evening capped the night. Al Wood is known mostly to Carolina fans for his 39 points in the 1981 Final Four game against Virginia. From this point forward, however, he'll be known to the lettermen for his moving account of what it meant to him to play Carolina basketball for Dean Smith.

By the time he began, the evening had lasted almost three hours, and it was reaching the point in most formal dinners where chairs are shuffling and watches are being checked. The banquet began with a social hour and after completing the sign-in process and picking up their letterman-only t-shirts, the scheduled 7:00 dinner soon had to slide back a few minutes. But as Wood spoke, there wasn't a sound from the audience.

"When I was battling alcoholism, I got to the point I didn't know what to do," Wood said. "The only person I could think of to call was Dean Smith. That's what the Carolina family is all about. A family loves each other."

And then it was Rice's turn, the former point guard who won two ACC Tournament championships and went to the 1991 Final Four. He perfectly blended humor and sincere apologies to the assembled crowd for some of his off-the-floor decisions that he candidly admitted brought shame on him and the program. It was heartbreakingly honest, but in the next breath he'd follow with a story that had his listeners roaring.

"I was pretty cool when I was in high school. Way cooler than you guys," he said with a smile and a nod at the current team. "So I had this cool way of answering the phone, 'Yo, this is King.' And one day I answer the phone and I say, 'Yo, this is King.'

"The voice on the other end says, 'King, this is Dean Smith.'"

Pause for effect. Quick glance at the audience.

"So I said, 'Oh, Coach, let me go get King. This wasn't King at all.' And then I came back to the phone and said, 'Hello, Coach, this is King, and I was just in the hall practicing my dribbling.'"

The story brought a smile from his former coach who had placed that call over ten years ago. Smith, who began the day at midcourt of the building that bears his name watching as a banner was unveiled in the rafters honoring him, enjoyed the evening.

"Roy Williams had a great idea," he said. "I talked to the oldest here and the youngest here and it was definitely a hit. We had great speakers and great togetherness."

"I thought it was a great night," fellow banner honoree Bill Guthridge said. "The speeches were really inspirational. I can't play a lick and I'm ready to play right now."

There would have been no shortage of players on Guthridge's team, with about 160 former players and 60 managers in attendance. Even Mike Pepper, who has made a stunning recovery from a brain aneurysm over the past two months, made the trip from his home in Virginia.

Before he turned over the podium to the players, Roy Williams capped his remarks with one simple sentence that seemed to be the theme for the evening and will carry through the next six years until the next reunion, which should be a gigantic affair celebrating Carolina's 100th anniversary of basketball.

"This is for you," the coach said. "I hope you'll always feel like this is your program."

TarHeelBlue.com will have extensive photo coverage of the reunion activities in the coming days, so keep checking back.

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.

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Will Johnson

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