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My Carolina Experience: Phil Ford
August 10, 2016 | Men's Basketball
My Carolina Experience: Phil Ford
By Zoya Johnson, GoHeels.com
From the time he was four or five years old Phil Ford can remember being full of energy. His uncle recommended that his parents get him a ball and a bat, and from that point on it was always baseball, football, and basketball.
At six years old, Ford's father cut the bottom out of a barrel and nailed it to a backboard and a pole behind their house that was about seven or eight feet tall, and that was the beginning of his love affair with basketball. He says, “I started playing organized basketball in the seventh grade. When I went to high school we began in the tenth grade and I was the only sophomore on the varsity starting so I was getting a little attention then.”
By his junior year the attention was pouring in, and by his senior year he had been contacted by over 350 schools. Ford narrowed his options down to NC State and North Carolina, and in the end UNC won due to the relationship he had developed with Coach Dean Smith.
He says, “Who you play for and how you feel about where you play is more important than the exposure you get. I was very blessed to have great relationships with every coach that I played for. Probably the greatest relationship that I had was that of my relationship with Coach Smith who became like a second father to me. Not every school is for everyone, and basing that decision on this relationship usually helps athletes make the right choice if they're honest with themselves.”
Additionally, both of Ford's parents were teachers for over 30 years so education was something that had always been a very important part of his upbringing. Regardless of his unprecedented success at UNC, Ford stayed all four years and completed his degree in business administration because education was engrained in who he was as a person.
He says, “Things were different then. That was not a time when people were coming out of college making 60 to 70 million dollars and another 10 if they wore a certain pair of shoes. I say that I would make the same decision but it is extremely difficult to determine what a 20-year-old would do when faced with that kind of opportunity.
“I know money isn't everything, but I also know it can allow you to do things for your family that you wouldn't normally be able to. It is such a personal decision that there is no right answer across the board. That decision should stay between an individual player, their family, and coach. In the same breath I can also say having my degree from Carolina in business has been invaluable, as have the friends and the contacts that I've made.”
During Ford's four years at UNC he was the first freshman to start in the first game of his Carolina career under Dean Smith. That season, the Tar Heels won the ACC Tournament Championship, and Ford also became the first freshman in ACC history to win the MVP award for the Tournament. He went on to start on the Olympic team that won gold in Montreal during his sophomore year and continued to excel at Carolina until he became UNC's all-time leading scorer with 2,290 points by the end of his career. That feat was only passed by Tyler Hansbrough over 30 years later.
Ford's career was further honored by being named a winner of the coveted John Wooden Award, awarded to the nation's top player. Only three other Tar Heels – Michal Jordan, Antwan Jamison, and Tyler Hansbrough – have received the honor. Soon after, Ford was drafted as the second overall pick in the first round of the NBA to the Kansas City Kings for whom he would become the Rookie of the year in 1978-79.
He spent seven years in the National Basketball Association before retiring and spending time in the banking world. Ford rejoined Tar Heel basketball as a part of the coaching staff under Coach Smith in 1988 while becoming Coach Bill Guthridge's first assistant when Smith retired in 1997. After 12 years with UNC basketball he stepped off the court to become a part of Carolina's Educational Foundation, raising money for North Carolina's Athletic Department.
He is now pursuing his passion to help battle childhood obesity through the Phil Ford Foundation, alongside expert Dr. Eliana Perrin. The foundation, like UNC, is something that is close to Ford's heart. After so many years doing what he loves he finds great joy in being able to give back to the state on this level while also promoting his alma mater.
“Very few people that went to Carolina can say that they didn't have a good time or didn't enjoy the experience. When you get back to campus, love is the first feeling that washes over your body and I'm not sure that happens everywhere. When I was playing professional ball I took for granted that everybody loved their school the way I love Carolina, but I met so many guys who said that if they had to do it all over again they probably wouldn't attend the same school, and I just found that hard to believe. I've never met a Carolina basketball player that wouldn't do it again.”
“Coach Smith taught us so many things like, loyalty, trust and respect. He was constantly putting the games in perspective for us by saying things like, 'A billion people in China don't know you're playing tonight,' and by solidifying notions like no one person on a team is more important than anyone else. He taught us that we shouldn't judge another person because we don't know what that person is going through or has been through. He was a good man, and he made me a better man.
“People ask me my greatest time or my greatest game at Carolina and it's hard to pinpoint because I enjoyed my entire experience as a student athlete. The good times, the bad times, winning games we probably shouldn't have, and losing some we should have. I remember stuff like, everybody being crammed in Walter Davis' dorm room watching the Wizard of Oz. I remember crying after losses together and rejoicing after wins. Overall I wanted to be the best student athlete I could possibly be while I was at Carolina, but my time at the university taught me that it doesn't stop there. We should try the best we can and serve each other while we're here on earth.”