More Will Be Revealed

• I was at my girlfriend's apartment, listening to the game on the radio, when the Tar Heels upset #1 Dook, I think it was 1988 or 1989. I remember hearing that people were gathering on Franklin Street to celebrate -- I think it was the first time in my college years that happened.
• Senior year, 1991, Duke beat the Heels in my last game as a student at the Smith Center.
• Later, I become a sportswriter, and I covered both UNC and Duke home games. There is nothing quite like sitting courtside at Cameron, with the rabid and obnoxious Dook fans pressing against your chair and spilling drinks down your back and leaping over your head to storm the court.
• One UNC game, when the Heels came back to win, I was in press row, behind one of the baskets, and my ability to suppress my rooting instincts faltered briefly as I signalled a travel or something against Dook. Or was it a timeout? Memory fades, but those were cool days in any event: 22 years old, sitting in press row at ACC basketball games and NCAA Tournament games, doing what I loved and getting free hush puppies in the press room.
• I should have documented my time a little better, no? I covered the NBA for a year, for god's sake, and my memory of that is super sketchy. Two and a half hour drives each way to get paid $25 per game for covering the Charlotte Hornets. But I did get a free dinner!

I'll try to post tonight after the game. Go Heels...please win! I've been on such a nice streak -- Red Sox, Patriots, etc. And the first regular season Carolina game I had seen in 10 years was in November, on my 35th birthday, and Santa Clara upset North Carolina (which was missing Raymond Felton). That sucked. So let's shut up those Dookies and Coach K and his ill-deserved holier-than-thou attitude and JJ Redick's smug mug. It is so easy to work up the hatred!

// posted by Bill @ 8:15 AM