Lucas: Philadelphia Memories

By Adam Lucas

With almost a century of history, Carolina's roots in Philadelphia run almost as deep as any other non-ACC city.

The Tar Heels first competed in Philadelphia during the 1936-37 season, a 36-34 win over St. Joseph's. Since then, Carolina has played 19 more games in town, spread over five different arenas, and compiled a 14-6 record overall.

Here's a look at four other memorable Tar Heel trips to Philadelphia:

1956-57 postseason: Carolina played two games in Philadelphia on the way to an undefeated national championship. Frank McGuire's team defeated 20^th ranked Canisius, 87-75, in the regional semifinal. The Heels then topped unranked Syracuse, 67-58, to earn a berth in the national semifinals (a game played so long ago that it wasn't yet known as the Final Four).


1981 Final Four: As they were discussing Carolina's 2022 trip to Philadelphia, this was the previous trip that came to mind for Roy and Wanda Williams. "We were there when Reagan was shot," Wanda Williams said, and as usual, she was completely correct.

The Tar Heels went to the now-demolished Spectrum—across the parking lot from the site of Friday's game, the Wells Fargo Center—for the Final Four in 1981. The trip started positively, as Al Wood poured in 39 points to defeat Virginia in the national semifinal in what remains one of the best Carolina postseason performances of all-time.

That game was played on March 28. But on March 30, as Carolina and Indiana were going through pregame preparations for the national title game, news began to spread of an incident involving President Ronald Reagan. Eventually, the facts became clear: the President had been shot.

That threw the national title game into a will-we-or-won't-we uncertainty that lasted the rest of the afternoon. Remember, it was a different news era. It seemed a little insensitive to wonder whether the NCAA championship game was going to be played when no one was sure whether Reagan would live.

1981 was the final year of the NCAA consolation game—a much-hated contest matching the losers of the two national semifinals—and it wasn't until that game was being played that the NCAA made the decision to go ahead with the game. Indiana prevailed, 63-50.


2007: As part of an only-under-Roy-Williams four straight road game nonconference stretch in December of 2007, the Tar Heels faced Penn at the Palestra. The game was Wayne Ellington's "home" game, and the Philly native scored 13 points in front of family and friends.

But the star of the night was the arena, a throwback gym on which the Tar Heels sat on an actual bench instead of a row of chairs, and spectators had to ask the Carolina reserves to slide over so they could get to their seats.


2016 NCAA Tournament: This trip might be most memorable for Roy Williams hiding Easter eggs on the morning of the regional final game against Notre Dame. It was Easter Sunday, after all, and he had his children and grandchildren in town. It was a nice window into Roy Williams the person.

It was also a good demonstration of the power of the 2016 team, as Brice Johnson, Marcus Paige and their teammates breezed through a couple of double-digit victories. Don't let the ultimate outcome of the 2016 title game cloud the fact that the '16 team won the previous five NCAA Tournament games by an average of 16.2 points per game.

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