North Carolina Tarheels Tickets

Staff Writer Russell Puntenney
Long before Michael Jordan was promoting Hanes underwear, shooting GQ magazine covers, and winning championship after championship in the National Basketball Association, he was just another prospect in the talented lineup of the North Carolina Tarheels. Taken third overall in the 1984 draft, the player now widely considered the best to ever play the game was passed on by two teams despite hitting the game-winning shot of the 1982 National Collegiate Athletic Association Finals. For all the success that was soon to follow, however, those two short seasons spent in Chapel Hill, North Carolina were obviously very important to the superstar: he would continue to wear his Tarheel basketball shorts, underneath his Chicago Bulls shorts, his entire stint in the Windy City.

That sense of tradition is right on par with the University of North Carolina, which is the oldest public institution of higher learning in the United States. Officially chartered in 1789, UNC is the only public university to graduate students in the eighteenth century and currently has the second most Rhodes Scholars of any public university with 39 since 1902. Their basketball program is equally historic as the university itself, winning more NCAA championships than all but three other schools with four and sharing the record for the most NCAA Final Four appearances with the University of California, Los Angeles, both of whom had 16 as of 2006.

Their first official season began in 1910, and the Tarheels would acquire their first national championship fourteen years later. The NCAA tournament had not been established by 1924, but the team was more than worthy of recognition, finishing the season undefeated at 26-0. When the tournament was put in place in 1939, North Carolina found themselves among its fiercest competitors several times. They reached the “elite eight” in 1941, made their first Finals appearance in 1946, and won the entire tournament in 1957 after winning every game they played against teams in their conference.

Their most memorable team was of course that which featured Jordan, who was just a freshman when the Tarheels won their second championship. The 1981-82 squad was as solid as any before or after it, led by forward James Worthy and center Sam Perkins, both of whom would later star in the NBA. Rounding out the starting five were guard Jimmy Black and forward Matt Doherty, the latter of which would go on to become an Associated Press National Coach of the Year. This is hardly surprising, either, considering the bench of the 81-82 Tarheels consisted of four coaches that would also eventually win the award.

The head coach behind it all was Dean Smith, a Kansas native in his twentieth season that year who would wind up the winningest coach in the history of NCAA basketball before his retirement in 1997. Starting in 1975, Smith led the Tarheels to the NCAA tournament 22 straight seasons, making a tournament appearance in total 27 of his 35 years as coach. He won two national championships, made 11 Final Four appearances, won 879 games and is one of just two people to have both played on and coached a winning NCAA championship basketball team, the other being Bobby Knight.

Considered by many the best coach in basketball history, Smith’s legacy at North Carolina is well documented. Each of the next three head coaches that followed him at Chapel Hill had either played or coached directly under Smith, and each of them came to Smith for further advice once they were in charge. When Roy Williams took over the job from Matt Doherty in 2003, for example, he only did so after Smith encouraged him it would be best for the team.

And indeed it was, as Williams would soon lead the team to their fourth NCAA title in 2005, and continue to recruit the quality players that have kept this team among the best in college basketball for so long. Be it Jordan, Smith, or any of the program’s countless other impressive alumni, the Tarheel legacy consistently draws the nation’s best players and therefore remains a legitimate contender for the national championship virtually every season.

UNC plays in the tough Atlantic Coast Conference, where their rivalry with fellow North Carolina school Duke University is the most intense in college basketball. The Tarheels play in the aptly named Dean Smith Center, a multi-purpose arena that seats over 21,000 fans and celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2006.

For more information on North Carolina basketball, visit www.tarheelblue.cstv.com.