Lucas: UNC Basketball Mailbag
Dec. 24, 2007
By Adam Lucas Best wishes from all of us at the Mailbag to all of you. We're among friends here, so it's OK to admit this--just on this one day, of course. Watching the Tar Heels dismantle another opponent is one of the best thrills in the world. But it pales in comparison to hearing your daughter lean over with a megawatt smile while she's singing "Silent Night" to say, "This is my favorite time of the year and I'm so excited that tomorrow is Christmas!" This week's column belongs to the readers. Enjoy the best of their favorite Tar Heel-related Christmas memories (and make sure to watch the video in the first one!). Like many Carolina families, ours has a long lineage of Tar Heel roots. Counting my wife, parents, and sister, we are 100% Carolina blue blood, having all matriculated through Chapel Hill. After the kids moved out of the house, my parents decided to take on another challenge and hosted a foreign exchange student for a school year. As luck would have it, our new "brother," Vlado Milanovic, turned out to be a basketball fanatic. Through the wonders of satellite television, Vlado had grown up watching hundreds of NBA games with this family, right from his home in Barr, Montenegro. When he arrived in Greensboro, NC for the start of school, Vlado had understandable trouble with the intricacies of the English language - but he could name the starting point guard for every NBA team! After only a few weeks in North Carolina, Vlado had been indoctrinated in all things Carolina. And while he enjoyed football Saturdays at Kenan, you could really see his eyes light up when he learned about the rich history of Carolina basketball. It wasn't long before Vlado would fall in love with Lawson's quickness and Hansbrough's tenacity. And like any true Tar Heel, he developed a healthy disdain for our friends in Durham who wear a darker shade of blue. As basketball season ticket holders, my parents were able to take Vlado to several UNC games, where he was able to experience the pageantry and passion that make college basketball such a special game.
Yet there was one game that was impossible to find tickets for - UNC vs. Duke. We took special care to explain to Vlado that a Duke ticket is like gold in Chapel Hill, and that extra tickets just didn't exist. Yet, through a little Christmas magic (and a whole lot of luck!), my mom was somehow able to secure one extra pass to the coveted event. So on Christmas Day the whole family could hardly wait for the big moment - when Vlado would open his final gift. As he opened the gift wrap and then stared in disbelief, I was worried that the young guy was going to hyperventilate. In his utter excitement he had seemingly forgotten to breathe - until he was finally able to scream with joy, "North Carolina/Duke game YESSSSSSS!!!!!!" Needless to say, it was a Christmas moment this family will never forget. Words will never do it justice - that's why we're so glad we caught it on video. You can see our unforgettable Carolina Christmas memory here. I'm a Mountaineer by graduation and became Tar Heel by marriage in 1990. For Christmas 1992 my husband and I took our parents to Hawaii to see the Heels play in a basketball tournament. At our first game, with no pep band, one lady stood up with a kazoo to play the fight song. The next day we scoured the island looking for kazoos and gave out all we could find that night. We weren't as loud (or as in tune) as the pep band, but it sure was fun. Unfortunately we saw the Heels lose in the finals to Michigan--Ah but revenge was sweet at the Championship game in March! In December of 2004 I received an autographed ball through the athletic department. It actually arrived around noon on Christmas Eve. I was awestruck, but realized I just couldn't keep the ball. I decided to let Santa leave it under the tree for my son, who was nine at the time. The look on his face when he saw his gift the next morning was everything Christmas was meant to be. We watched every televised game together that year, went to one over the holidays, and watched the team win a national championship the following spring. That ball will always represent our time together sharing a passion for UNC hoops. He keeps that ball in a case in his room - and I'm sure he will for the rest of his life. My mom went to Chapel Hill and has been a diehard Carolina basketball fan for as long as I can remember. Since I grew up in Germany this was no easy feat. Most of the time there was no way to follow games at all until we checked the scores the next day. On the rare occasion they did air a game on AFN (Armed Forces Network) my mom would try to get friends to tape it for us because we did not even get that station. The best nights were when a Carolina game came on the radio station - the only justifiable reason my mom could find for a middle schooler to stay up until two in the morning. By the time I went to Chapel Hill myself, I almost felt bad relaying all my basketball viewing stories to my mom overseas, but at the same time I believe she was happy to live vicariously through me. Due to a series of events, this is the first time in 18 years my mom will be in North Carolina during basketball season. Luckily I was able to purchase two tickets to the Kent State game, and I cannot wait to see the look on her face when she opens them. One of my favorite Tar Heel holiday memories took place in December 1972 and involved both our basketball squad, and the football team too! Dean Smith brought the Tar Heels to Honolulu for the Rainbow Classic. I was living there at the time, and was thrilled to be able to buy tickets for the whole tournament with the Honolulu chapter of the Carolina Alumni Association. To my surprise, I ran into friends of mine from Chapel Hill that came for the tournament as well. It was great to hang out with them, and also to watch the Heels play so well. On the last day and final round of the Rainbow Classic, the local alumni organization hosted a football brunch at one of the local hotels to watch the Football Heels play in the Sun Bowl in El Paso. Happily, the Heels won both the Sun Bowl that afternoon, and the Rainbow Classic that evening. Tar Heels celebrated Aloha-style all through the night, and that was the best of the `72 holiday season. I grew up and moved from Winston-Salem the April after the 1982 National Championship game and have claimed to be a Tar Heel fan ever since. I never saw a game in person until Christmas of 2006 at the age of 36. I drove myself and my then 4 year old Shawn to St. Louis, Mo which is a short six hours from where we live in Arkansas. Within five minutes of pulling up to our hotel in St. Louis, we discovered that not only were we going to watch UNC play, but we were booked into the same hotel that the team was staying in!!! We both thought we were in Tar Heel Heaven without being in the Dean Dome!!! I have pictures of my son sandwiched in between Ty Lawson and Brandon Wright and I managed to get almost every players autograph on that year's Sports Ill with Tyler Hansbrough and Reyshawn Terry on the cover!!! Christmas 2006 is far and away the best Christmas I have ever had!!! 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. |
