July 10, 2003

Tar Heel Monthly is the premier magazine devoted to the stories and personalities behind UNC athletics. Click here for subscription information.

The following is a story from the August issue of the magazine.

By Adam Lucas

You might know Stack, but you don't know Jerry Stackhouse.

Every Tar Heel fan remembers Stack, of course. Stack was the guy who threw down a vicious dunk against Virginia Tech in Greensboro in 1995 that had even Hokie players admitting it was the best dunk they had ever seen. Stack followed that up by stuffing two cowering Blue Devils through the basket later that season in Cameron Indoor Stadium, a reverse jam that still elicits shivers when it passes through the mind's eye.

You know Stack, right? You saw him strut after making that dunk in Durham, you remember when he and Rasheed Wallace carried the Tar Heels to the 1995 Final Four, you remember when he won the Most Valuable Player Award at the 1994 ACC Tournament.

That's Stack. Now meet Jerry Stackhouse. You'll be the better for it.

Jerry Stackhouse is the man who was only the second player in NBA history to win the league's Community Assist Award twice. Jerry Stackhouse is the man who was named Washington, D.C.'s Father of the Year in June, the man who sponsors the Stackhouse Most Improved Student Awards in the Lenoir County (NC) Public School System and the George and Minnie Stackhouse at Kinston High School. Jerry Stackhouse addressed Congress just two weeks after joining the Washington Wizards and now says--only half-jokingly--that he might want to follow Bill Bradley from basketball into politics.

Stack knows how to make a big impact on the court. But Jerry Stackhouse knows how to make a big impact on society, and it's those efforts that will bring him back to Chapel Hill the weekend of August 22-23.

Last year, Stackhouse staged the "World's Greatest Alumni Game," which included a squad of Carolina alums challenging a team made up of alums from the other eight Atlantic Coast Conference schools. Players included Vince Carter, Rasheed Wallace, Antawn Jamison, Stackhouse, Sam Perkins, and numerous other Tar Heels, many of whom have their jerseys dangling in the Smith Center rafters.

The event, which was held at Raleigh's RBC Center in 2002, will come home for 2003, as the Smith Center will play host to the festivities. Proceeds from the game, which will be played on August 23, will go to the North Carolina chapter of the American Diabetes Association.

Diabetes has been an important issue to Stackhouse ever since his older sister, Jean Dawson, died when he was in high school. Dawson, who had suffered from diabetes for many years, was like a mother to the basketball prodigy. Another sister, Delores Meadows, also passed away from the disease, and both of Stackhouse's parents are currently battling diabetes.

"I had a big loss from diabetes," Stackhouse said. "I want to give back to make sure other people don't have the same loss and the same hurt that I did. It seems like the things that hurt you the most are the ones you grab hold of, and that's been the case for me with diabetes."

His efforts aren't limited to diabetes. Every Tar Heel basketball fan has dreamed of what might have been during the 1995-96 season, when Antawn Jamison and Stackhouse--'Twan and Stack--would have been teammates if Stackhouse hadn't gone pro early. But the duo are still teaming up off the hardwood in the Chapel Hill community. In 2002, they purchased 150 turkeys for the current Tar Heel basketball squad to hand out to needy people around Chapel Hill.

To help streamline his charitable efforts, Stackhouse created the Triple Threat Foundation in 2002. Its goal is to make a positive impact on the lives of the underprivileged while also allowing him to spread his message about diabetes awareness.

"I've been working with the American Diabetes Association and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation for about four years," Stackhouse said. "I finally decided I wanted to do something by myself. Those are great organizations, but having my own foundation enables me to choose where I want the funds to go and target certain areas. If I want to do something for diabetics in my hometown, now I can do that."

It just so happens that the beneficiaries of those efforts are Carolina basketball fans. All of last year's participants in the World's Greatest Alumni Game--won by the Carolina squad, 154-148--have committed to return, and Stackhouse said he expects this year's player list to be even longer.

Although it's an offseason event, the game still generates plenty of excitement, and last year's narrow margin of victory included some intense moments at the end.

"It definitely got competitive," Stackhouse said. "Guys were running around doing all the highlight stuff, but in the fourth quarter when it was time to win, that old Carolina competitiveness came out. When I saw Vince (Carter) during the season this year, the first thing he asked me was if we were going to have the game again this year. Word got around pretty quickly about how fun the game was."

"There was support all the way down through guys who played 15 or 20 years ago," said Sam Perkins, who came off the bench to hit several three-pointers last year. "We played against the ACC, and that's how it's always been at Carolina. We try to support each other in different ways. As soon as I heard about the game, I knew I was going to play. If I needed Jerry, he would do the same for me."

The excitement generated by the game and the return to the hallowed floor of the Smith Center will no doubt create even more goodwill for Stackhouse. He's amassed a pile of awards for his endless charity efforts, but they don't seem to make much of an impression on the man who still speaks in that baritone voice that became famous in Chapel Hill.

"All those awards, if I could trade them for having my sister back it would be no comparison," Stackhouse said. "That's what it's all for, and I think my sisters would be proud of what I'm doing, so that maybe other people won't have to suffer and be in the same kind of pain that they were in."

There was never any doubt that Stack was among the best Tar Heel hoopsters of all time. But after getting to know Jerry Stackhouse, you have to wonder if his basketball talent might just be the least of his gifts.

Tickets to this year's game are not yet on sale, but are expected to eventually be available through TicketMaster and the UNC ticket office at 800-722-HEEL. TarHeelBlue.com will have more information as it becomes available.

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.