Dec. 13, 2007

By Adam Lucas

The Smith Center hasn't seen a Carolina home basketball game in almost a month. But during that long hiatus from hosting Tar Heel fans, the building has seen a significant change.

Over the last two days, workers have replaced every banner and completely changed the way the banners are arranged in the rafters. It's the culmination of a process that began three years ago when preliminary discussions were held about changing the honored and retired jerseys.

That change was made last year--from the old, laundry-looking shirts to more formal banners that also feature color coding that makes it easier to understand which jerseys are retired and which are honored. But Steve Kirschner and Jerod Haase, the driving forces behind the rafter reassembly, wanted the jerseys to be part of a larger reorganization.

The primary reason was simple: space was getting tight. The NCAA Final Eight and ACC championship banners from 2007 originally had to be hung behind the existing 2006 banners rather than in the circular chronological method that's been used throughout the life of the Smith Center. With five huge championship banners occupying one end zone and 43 jerseys (with the imminent addition of a 44th for Tyler Hansbrough) filling the opposite end zone, rafter real estate was very limited.

Haase and Kirschner thought they could create some space by organizing the banners differently. Their first stop, of course, was the office of Roy Williams. The Carolina head coach had one primary concern--checking with Dean Smith and Bill Guthridge to make sure they'd be OK with shifting some banners. In a building where it's not unusual to bump into either--Guthridge walked onto the floor Wednesday while banners were being lowered and raised--Williams wisely didn't want to make any changes that wouldn't be well received with the coaches that came before him.

Both former coaches gave their blessing, and Kirschner and Haase proceeded to come up with several new grouping options. The eventual winner is what's been put into place over the last two days:

Stretching the length of the sideline across from the benches are 21 5-by-8 blue banners commemorating Carolina's ACC championships from 1956-1987.

In the corner above the visiting tunnel (between those banners and the existing jersey banners) are three larger (10-by-15) banners--one honors Carolina's Southern Conference titles, one honors the 1957 perfect season and Frank McGuire, and one honors Carolina's NIT champions.

All the new jerseys that were hung last year remained the same.

In the corner above the home tunnel (between those jerseys and the sideline behind the benches) three more of the larger (10-by-15) banners were hung--one listing all Carolina's NCAA Tournament appearances, one listing all the NCAA Sweet 16 appearances, and one listing all Elite Eight appearances.

Stretching the length of the sideline behind the benches are 11 blue banners commemorating Carolina's ACC championships from 1988-2007.

In perhaps the most impressive display, the corner between the 1988-07 ACC titles and the national championships holds a white banner for each of Carolina's 16 Final Four appearances.

The national championship banners remained the same.

And in the corner between the national championship banners and the 1956-87 ACC banners, a series of white banners recognize all the teams that finished the season ranked number-one nationally.

Carrot Top Industries of Hillsborough manufactured all the new banners. To hang the new banners, the athletic department turned to Local 574, also known as Starcrafters, the same group of riggers that handles all Smith Center shows and events. They were the ones who spent most of this week walking the 97 to 125 feet above the ground to hoist all the new decorations.

The finished impact is one of a much more uniform display, but it retains the sheer overwhelming quantity that still causes some visiting teams to spend part of their warmup period gazing skyward.

"What's impressive when you see all those ACC championship banners in a row is that there are so few missing years," Haase said Wednesday as he watched the transformation take shape.

Oh, and the banner revisions also retained one important quality essential for Tar Heel hoops fans: plenty of room for future additions.

Adam Lucas most recently collaborated on a behind-the-scenes look at Carolina Basketball with Wes Miller. The Road To Blue Heaven is available now. Lucas's other books on Carolina basketball include The Best Game Ever, which chronicles the 1957 national championship season, Going Home Again, which focuses on Roy Williams's return to Carolina, and Led By Their Dreams, a collaboration with Steve Kirschner and Matt Bowers on the 2005 championship team.