University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Nine Golden Rings
September 22, 2005 | Men's Basketball
Sept. 22, 2005
By Adam Lucas
NAGS HEAD--Flip-flops and t-shirts usually pass for normal beach attire.
The wardrobe requirements Wednesday night in Nags Head were slightly different--championship rings, and lots of them.
In conjunction with Pete Brennan and a host of Outer Banks volunteers the Rams Club hosted its largest event of all time, packing 850 people into an enormous outdoor tent for An Evening With Carolina Champions.
The event started with a simple idea: Brennan, a member of the undefeated national champion 1957 Tar Heels and an Outer Banks resident, wanted to reunite as many of his teammates as possible. But, in true Brennan fashion, he wasn't content with simply hosting a small get-together. When word filtered out of his intentions, some Outer Banks Rams Club members made a vow--they wanted to host the biggest event ever.
It happened, and the members of the head table Wednesday night--Eric Montross, Sylvia Hatchell, Bob Cunningham, Lennie Rosenbluth, Joe Quigg, Tony Radovich, Brennan, and Roy Williams (remember, he's also got one from 1982)--boasted an astounding nine NCAA championship rings.
"I only bring mine out on special occasions," Montross said, flashing a smile and the bright blue stone that forms the heart of the 1993 title ring.
Woody Durham hosted the event, bringing together almost 50 years of Carolina basketball history into one manageable 90-minute program. The stories ranged from the chill-inducing (Roy Williams's riveting account of the final 40 seconds of the 1982 championship game could be a best-selling book on tape) to the more lighthearted (let's put it this way--the free-swinging Radovich capped one segment with a joke that ended, "At Carolina, they teach us not to pee on our hands.").
The evening was a perfect snapshot of the frenzy that has surrounded the last five months of Roy Williams's life. The head coach of the Tar Heels walked into the Prime Only Steakhouse for a small reception having been in "either 11 states in 12 days or 12 states in 11 days, I can't remember which." It's the heart of the pre-practice recruiting period, so Williams has been soaking up plenty of airline miles.
But there was no time for jet lag in Nags Head. The split second he walked into the room, the crowd instinctively pressed towards him. Rams Club employees had already been piling up member items for the coach to sign, a practice that began at Tar Heel Tour events when they realized he'd never be able to leave if he tried to sign all autograph requests at the end of the meeting.
The formula was simple: Williams would sit at a small corner table before dinner, signing the hundreds of items that were affixed with small yellow sticky pieces of paper bearing the names of the members who owned the items. But Williams, who fielded every autograph request with a smile, has an inescapable magnetism. So as he sat and signed, fans began to line up, ignoring the queue of items on the table and pressing their programs, basketballs, and pictures into Williams's hands.
"Roy, just one more!"
"Coach, can you sign this one for my daughter?"
"Roy, how about a picture?"
"Coach, I've got these three basketballs here for you to sign..."
It's an extraordinarily odd existence--many fans would rather have a scrawled name than a handshake and a moment of interaction. But Williams seems to understand--or if not understand, at least appreciate--the fixation with Carolina basketball. So he took time with each item, making sure the owners' names stayed with every individual book, every ball, every hat. There was never a hint of exasperation, never a sigh. He wouldn't sign personalizations, fearing it would slow down the process too much, but he'd sign his name to absolutely anything.
After giving fans signatures--"I'm going to sign every last thing on this table," he repeatedly told fans inquiring about getting an autograph--he then gave them a rollicking 25-minute theater-in-the-round interview with Durham.
He spoke frankly of the upcoming 2005-06 season but expressed optimism about the opportunity to coach a team with four coaches' sons. He bragged on Marcus Ginyard's defense (rare praise for a freshman) and relived the final moments of the comeback over Duke and the immediate post-championship moments that included an embrace from Sean May--moments Williams said he wouldn't trade for 50 million dollars.
The pricetag was slightly lower, although not much, for the six items auctioned off to the crowd, with Durham showing some heretofore underappreciated auctioneering skills. The highlight of the evening was a 2005 team-signed basketball that went for the startling price of $3,500.
However, watching Rosenbluth share a moment with Montross, Williams joke with Quigg, and the rest of the Carolina champions interact did not carry a price tag. The '57 team, especially, seemed to relish the evening, as they've slowly been pushed back into the spotlight after too many years of being forgotten. The dinner capped several days worth of activities for the group, and the festivities might have stretched closer to a week if Rosenbluth, one of only seven men with a retired number at Carolina, hadn't had to jet to New York City Thursday morning to be inducted into the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame.
"It's great to be able to see these guys," he said. "For us, it's a night of memories."
FAN INPUT NEEDED: Adam Lucas is currently working on a book on the 1957 team that will be released in time for the 50th anniversary of their championship season. Fans who saw any of the 1957 season first-hand are asked to contact him via email.
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly and can be reached at alucas@tarheelmonthly.com. He is the coauthor of the official book of the 2005 championship season, Led By Their Dreams, and his book on Roy Williams's first season at Carolina, Going Home Again, is now available in bookstores. To subscribe to Tar Heel Monthly or learn more about Going Home Again, click here.
