Category Archives: Sports

In the shadows of greatness . . . on the shoulders of giants

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1942 Southern Conference Queen

Anne Geoghegan, 1942 Southern Conference basketball tournament queen.

Today’s post is by frequent contributor Jack Hilliard and is the second post on the 1942 Southern Conference Basketball Tournament

Background: When the 59th annual Atlantic Coast Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament tips off at noon on March 8th in Atlanta’s Philips Arena, the players and coaches of the twelve teams (soon to be fourteen) will be playing “in the shadows of greatness and on the shoulders of giants.”  Not only have the fifty-eight previous tournaments and players set a high standard, but the ACC’s parent conference, the Southern Intercollegiate Conference, played at an equally high standard for thirty-two seasons.

The Southern Intercollegiate Conference, or Southern Conference as it has been called over the years, or SoCon as it is often called today, was founded on February 25, 1921 when representatives from 14 of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association’s (SIAA) 30 member institutions met at the Piedmont Hotel in Atlanta.  Among the fourteen member schools were North Carolina State and the University of North Carolina. The decision to form a new conference was motivated in part by the desire to have a workable number of games by each member school.  It was impossible for the thirty member schools in the SIAA to play each other each year.  (Does that sound familiar Carolina and State fans?)

Play began in the Southern Conference in the fall of 1921 and men’s basketball was the first sport to hold a tournament.  The inaugural tournament was held in Atlanta’s Municipal Auditorium and was won by North Carolina.  Monk McDonald and Billy Carmichael led Carolina as they won five tournament games to claim the championship.

An interesting side note: Carolina went without a head coach during the 1921–22 and 1922–23 seasons because Fred Boye left after one year and they could not find a replacement.  Bob Fetzer, who coached football and baseball for North Carolina, would often accompany the team on road games but would sit in the stands.  Carolina would win seven more Southern Conference championships.  Duke joined the Southern Conference in 1928 and won its first of five tournaments in 1938.  NC State won its first tournament in 1929.

At the Southern Conference annual meeting on December 9, 1932, Dr. S.V. Sanford of the University of Georgia announced that thirteen of the then twenty-three Southern Conference schools would be forming the Southeastern Conference thus leaving the Southern Conference with ten members.  Wake Forest joined in 1936 and by 1942 there were sixteen teams.

A side note from the editor: an organization named the Naismith Memorial Committee dubbed the period of December 1941 to December 1942 as the “golden jubilee of basketball”—which was really their capital campaign to raise funds for the construction of a monument to honor basketball’s founder James Naismith in Springfield, Massachusetts.  The effort was delayed in the face of World War II, but it was an early effort to establish what is now the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Duke basketball team after winning the 1942 Southern Conference Tournament.

This Morton photograph appeared in THE CHARLOTTE NEWS, captioned "DUKE'S HAPPINESS BOYS with another basketball title: Clyde Allen, Garland Loftis, captain Ray Spuhler, Cedric Loftis, Bill McCahan, Sam Rothbaum, Coach Eddie Cameron. They grinned about the trophy, but they knew it was coming all the time."

1942 Southern Conference Basketball Tournament:  The Southern Conference held its 1942 basketball tournament in Raleigh’s Memorial Auditorium with its top eight teams.  On March 5th, 1942, the 21st Southern Conference Tournament tipped off with Duke playing Washington and Lee.  Greensboro Daily News sportswriter Frank Gilbreth’s lead sentence on March first was:  “Washington and Lee’s Generals today drew the suicide assignment of playing top-seeded Duke . . . in the opening round of the Southern Conference Basketball Tournament.”  The Duke–W&L game was followed by UNC vs. Wake Forest, and North Carolina State vs. South Carolina.  Yesterday’s post feature a photograph from the USC–State contest.  Duke prevailed in its contest, and the Deacons, led by Herb Cline upset the UNC White Phantoms 32-26.

UNC versus Wake Forest College in the 1942 Southern Conference Tournamant

Herb Cline of Wake Forest College and UNC's Reid Suggs during in the opening round of the 1942 Southern Conference Tournament

Two days later, Duke and NC State squared off in the finals with Duke winning its third Southern Conference Tournament.  Clyde Allen, Duke’s veteran center and Hap Spuhler led the boys from Durham, while the star of the North Carolina State “Red Terrors” (as they were called then) was Horace Albert “Bones” McKinney—easily the most memorable player in the ’42 tournament.  McKinney would go on to play for UNC after the war, and later coach at Wake Forest.  And he even had a Duke connection: McKinney played for Durham High where three of his teammates (Bob Gantt, Garland Loftis, and Cedric Loftis) went on to play for Duke in 1942.

Horace "Bones" McKinney drinking from a ladle at the 1942 Southern Conference Tournament

Horace "Bones" McKinney drinking from a ladle at the 1942 Southern Conference Tournament.

Several of Hugh Morton’s images from the ’42 tournament—featured throughout this post—appeared in newspapers thought the state, including the Charlotte News, Greensboro Daily News, Winston-Salem Journal and Sentinel, and, of course, the UNC student newspaper, The Daily Tar Heel. In future years, Morton would become a permanent fixture courtside at Southern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference tournaments well into the 2000s.

Southern Conference . . . Atlantic Coast Conference:  Basketball in North Carolina changed forever in 1946 with the arrival of Everett Case at North Carolina State.  Starting in 1947 and continuing through the 1952 season, Case won six straight Southern Conference Tournaments.  Names like Dick Dickey, Vic Molodet, Ronnie Shavlik, Lou Pucillo, Cliff Dwyer, Sam Ranzino became familiar to almost everyone in the state.  It was a magical time in Raleigh.  State beat Carolina fourteen times between 1947 and 1952.

Enter Frank Joseph McGuire.  Coach McGuire was given two challenges when he came into Chapel Hill in 1952: beat State, then beat everybody else.  He did both.  On January 24, 1953 he finally broke the long losing streak by beating NC State 70-69.

Later, in the spring of 1953, there was another conference meeting.  This one at the Sedgefield Inn in Greensboro on April 8th, and yet another change for the Southern Conference was in order.  By then the conference had grown to seventeen teams so seven members withdrew to form what would become the Atlantic Coast Conference.  Among the seven were Carolina, Duke, Wake, and State.  And four seasons later, Frank McGuire was able to overcome the second part of that challenge by beating everybody else.  It’s often called “McGuire’s Miracle.”  During the 1956-57 season UNC won 32 games and a national championship.  New “giants” made the news: Lennie Rosenbluth, Pete Brennan, Joe Quigg, Bob Cunningham, and Tommy Kearns.  Plenty more from teams in North Carolina would follow, with NC State’s National Championships in 1974 and 1983, Duke’s in 1991, 1992, 2001, 2010, and UNC’s 1924, 1957, 1982, 1993, 2005, 2009.

Who knows what “March Madness” will bring in 2012?

1942 Southern Conference basketball tournament

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University of South Carolina versus North Carolina State University, 1942 Southern Conference Tournament

Today’s post the first of a combined effort between Jack Hilliard and Stephen Fletcher to report on the 1942 Southern Conference Tournament, which coincides with this week’s Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament.

UNC and WWII during the winter of 1942:  I’ve been living an on-again-off-again life in the winter of 1942 for some weeks now, researching images made by Hugh Morton before he enlisted in the United States Army in the early autumn later that year.  This double-life springs from the post marking the seventieth anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, which had a profound impact on the lives of Hugh Morton and his fellow students at UNC.  A few posts have examined Morton’s photographs depicting activities on campus related to America’s entrance into the second world war, especially those appearing in The Daily Tar Heel (DTH) student newspaper, for which Morton was the staff photographer.  The last post of this type focused on Eleanor Roosevelt’s visit to UNC on January 31st, 1942.

With the exception of one photograph (identified just this week) no Morton photographs depicting war related activities or subjects appeared in the DTH.  That photograph, an uncredited portrait of UNC business manager Livingston B. Rogerson in the February 15th issue, illustrated a front page article informing DTH readers that Rogerson was also serving as the Coordinator of the Office of Civilian Defense—a joint effort between the university and village of Chapel Hill.  Nearly all of Morton’s photographs published in the DTH during this period were sports photographs.

Basketball, 1942:  A blog post in early February 2012 on the day of UNC men’s basketball game against Duke included a minimally identified negative.  Investigations by two of our readers (thank you Jack and Jake!) led to more accurate identification for that image.  In one comment during the online deliberation, Jack Hilliard noted that the other, unidentified photograph (made on 11 February 1942 at Woollen Gym) was in the 1979 book The Winning Tradition: A Pictorial History of Carolina Basketball.  While I was looking for that photograph in the book, the above photograph on a different page caught my eye—or at least the author’s caption did:

This photograph is believed to be one of photographer Hugh Morton’s earliest action shots and captures all the excitement of Carolina basketball in the early 40s: a packed Woollen Gym, plenty of action underneath the boards and those crazy stripped [sic] socks.  There was, however, one problem—our editors searched high and low for the identification of the players but came up empty handed.

I both hate and love seeing captions like that!

One morning while preparing this week’s post, I took a peek into the beginning of the book Hugh Morton’s North Carolina.  On the first page, Morton stated that he had shot a lot of freelance work for the Charlotte News, especially sports, when he was a UNC student.  That made me wonder if the newspaper might have published a Morton photograph of the 1942 Southern Conference tournament played at Raleigh Memorial Auditorium in early March.  Some of the identification work I had been doing had led me to discover some photographs I suspected may have been made during that tournament.

The newspaper did indeed publish a few Morton photographs during that weekend, including the photograph above.  For today’s featured photograph, here’s most of the caption written by the Charlotte News for the March 6th issue, which will immediately reveal why the The Winning Tradition editors couldn’t identify the UNC players:

IN A PRETTY GOOD STATE yesterday afternoon were the Terrors’ chance of winning a tourney title at Raleigh as they ousted South Carolina, 56-43.  Photographer Hugh Morton’s camera caught this glimpse of a basketball ballet under the State basket in the first half with Buck Cavalho and Strayhorn of State; Brogden, Dunham and Westmoreland of South Carolina and Bernie Mock of State in a graceful array. . . .”

The Red Terrors was one of several nicknames used by North Carolina State University athletic teams before Wolfpack, and the photograph depicts a scene from the opening round game played on March 5, 1942.

Tomorrow’s post: Jack Hilliard presents an historical background of the Southern Conference.

A double honor

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Basketball was near and dear to Hugh Morton’s heart, and as we approach “March Madness” be forewarned: there are a few posts related to basketball in the offing.  Today,  A View to Hugh contributor Jack Hilliard takes a look at how the Justice Center at the University of North Carolina at Asheville got its name.

Charlie Justice standing outside the Charles Justice Sports, Health, and Physical Education Center

Charlie Justice standing outside the Charles Justice Sports, Health, and Physical Education Center

Last fall the Asheville City Council and the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners proclaimed Sunday, November 13, 2011 as “UNC Asheville Bulldog Day.”  On that day, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill head basketball coach Roy Williams, an Asheville native, took his Tar Heels to the “Land of the Sky” for a game with Eddie Biedenbach’s Bulldogs of the University of North Carolina at Asheville.  It was the inaugural game for the 3000-seat Kimmel Arena, the Bulldogs’ new home.  The Tar Heels won that game, but the Bulldogs have had a great season in their new facility, having won the Big South Conference regular season championship.

The road to the 2012 Final Four will pass through Kimmel Arena with the Southern Conference and the Big South Conference playing tournament games there.  For the thirty-five seasons leading up to the 2011–2012 campaign, however, UNC-Asheville played its home games in the Charles Justice Sports, Health, and Physical Education Center—a 1100-seat facility called Justice Center (sometimes called Justice Gym) which sits just south of the new arena on the UNCA campus.  For twelve seasons (1984-1995) this historic facility hosted the Southern Conference Tournament.  The complex, built between 1959 and 1968 when the school was the Asheville-Biltmore College, includes a basketball court, classrooms and offices, swimming pool, dance studio, gymnastics area, tennis courts, a track, and soccer field.

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On Monday, February 24th, 1975, UNCA trustee chairman G. Hoyle Blanton announced the dedication of the Justice Center at a dinner meeting of the board of trustees at the Great Smokies Hilton.  The following Sunday, March 2nd, an editorial titled “An Honor for Choo Choo” in the Asheville-Citizens-Times explained why the trustees of the University of North Carolina at Asheville had voted to name its $1.75 million physical education and athletic complex for Charlie Justice:

Mention his name in almost any place in this country, and in some places outside of it, and a flood of warm memories are evoked. . . . UNCA, which correctly places academics above athletics, has honored a native son who managed to keep his perspective and still win.

I recall sitting at my desk at WFMY-TV in Greensboro in the spring of 1975 when I got a call from Ian MacBryde, WFMY’s Public Affairs Producer.  He had gotten a call from Pete Gilpin, UNCA’s Director of Public Information.  Gilpin wanted to know if we had any film of Charlie Justice playing for the Tar Heels that they might show at the dedication ceremony.  MacBryde and I decided to produce a fifteen-minute mini-documentary for the occasion.  Our piece became a part of the formal dedication of “The Charles Justice Sports, Health, and Physical Education Center” on November 28, 1975.  The ceremony was held between first-round games of the 10th Annual Optimist Tip-Off Basketball Tournament.

Dr. William E. Highsmith, UNCA Chancellor, was master of ceremonies that evening and presented Justice with a framed photograph of the facility.  Also taking part in the ceremony were Asheville Mayor Richard Wood, and Hendersonville City Commissioner and Justice’s UNC teammate Joe Wright.  Representing the consolidated UNC trustees was another Tar Heel teammate Art Weiner.  Rev. John McReadie Barr delivered the invocation.  Barr was the former rector of St. James Episcopal Church in Hendersonville where Charlie and his wife Sarah attended church when Justice was in the oil business with Wright.  Also on the program was Coach Ralph James, Justice’s high school coach at Lee Edwards High during the 1941 and 1942 seasons.

In his comments, Coach James said, “Charlie didn’t need much coaching.  You just told him the general idea and he did it.  In fact, he didn’t really need a coach.  All he needed was someone to tape his ankles and pump up the ball.”  Weiner congratulated Justice and said, “All of his teammates feel he deserves this honor.  His records still stand and his contributions will never be surpassed.”  Said Justice, “I often dreamed of being an All-America and playing for the University of North Carolina but I never thought it would come true.  But it wasn’t all me.  A lot of people made it possible for me to do some things on the football field.  Those are the people who are really being honored here tonight.”  Justice praised his teammates and coaches and then in true Justice form, he thanked his linemen who opened up those holes in the opposing lines.  He then thanked his wife.  “Without Sarah and the support of my family, this evening would not have been possible.”

During the week following the dedication ceremony, the Greensboro Daily News published Hugh Morton’s portrait of Justice standing in front of the building (seen above).  The photo caption read, “Choo Choo and His Building.”  The late Smith Barrier, Executive Sports Editor of the Daily News, commented on that March 2nd editorial saying, “An Asheville Citizen-Times editorial calls the dedication announcement ‘An Honor For Choo Choo.’  I would add an honor for UNCA.”

It’s that time of the year once more

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Tonight, the University of North Carolina and Duke University will take to the hardwood for the 233rd time.  Their first contests took place in 1920, so its remarkable to think that when Hugh Morton photographed these two teams playing during his college years, today’s arch rivals had been playing against each other for “only” twenty years or so!

Duke at UNC basketball game, February 7, 1942

UNC vs. Duke University men's basketball game at Woollen Gymnasium, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC. Photograph (cropped) appears in the 11 February 1942 issue of THE DAILY TAR HEEL with caption, " SOME OF THE HEATED play in the first half of the Duke contest is seen in this action photo by cameraman Hugh Morton. Captain Bob Rose and Duke's Stark are on the floor trying to throw the ball in to teammates. George Paine and Clyde Allen are battling for possession of the elusive sphere while McCahan, (48), Reid Suggs, (17), and Rothbaum, (58), look on." Duke won the game 52-40.

As the caption above describes, The Daily Tar Heel cropped Hugh Morton’s photograph shown above—it focused on the players and left out the referee (before the striped jersey era!) and the basket above the action.  Without cropping, the full view gives a better sense of the atmosphere of Woollen Gymnasium.

Below is another photograph from a UNC–Duke basketball game, but this one is without a date.  Is this a different game at a different location? Anybody want to try their hand at identifications? (Clicking on the photograph will take you to the online collection, where you can use the zoom tool.)

UNC versus Duke basketball game, undated

 

Homecoming weekend harkens back to October 1947

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On Monday my e-mailbox contained a message with the subject line “Possible Post” from regular contributor Jack Hilliard.  Given the calendar—this weekend is UNC’s homecoming—Jack’s article is timely.  Charlie Justice and UNC football in the 1940s are his topics this time around and Justice was the focus of Jack’s post last week, so he suggested that using this story later in the year might be best.  Well maybe, but on the other hand . . . ,  “Go go go go Care-lina!”

1947 UNC football team members

1947 UNC football team members. Back Row L to R: #23 Jim Camp, #86 George Sparger, #40 Walt Pupa, #22 Charlie Justice. Front Row L to R: #29 Bob Cox, #51 Len Szafaryn, #60 Sid Varney, #58 Haywood Fowle, #65 Al Bernot, #42 Bob Mitten, #50 Art Weiner.

In August of 1947, a popular preseason football magazine predicted the UNC Tar Heels would be among the nation’s elite come football season.  Smith Barrier writing in the Illustrated Football Annual said, “with Charlie Choo Choo Justice, accompanied by a brawny crew of conductors, engineers, and brakemen, North Carolina is the high pride of the Southern Conference.”

Lath Morris

Lath Morris, known as "Tarzan," unofficial cheerleader for UNC-Chapel Hill football team. Note the cigar in Morris's left hand.

Tar Heel fans and alumni were in complete agreement when the Tar Heels started off the season with a second half victory over Georgia in Chapel Hill on September 27th.  Following a 0 to 0 first half, the Tar Heels were led back on the field for the second half by a rotund man named Lath Morris…known as “Tarzan” to Tar Heel followers.  With megaphone in hand he shouted, “Go, go, go, go . . . Care-lina!”  The students shouted back, “Go, go, go . . . Tarzan.”  UNC’s Art Weiner, with five catches, led the Tar Heels over the Bulldogs 14 to 7.

1947 Illustrated Football Annual

1947 Illustrated Football Annual cover

On Friday, October 3rd, the Heels took their first plane trip as a team, heading to Austin to meet All America Bobby Layne and the undefeated University of Texas.  Saturday, October 4th was a hot 86- degree-day in Texas and the Longhorns were even hotter.  They defeated Carolina 34 to 0.  When the Associated Press rankings came out on October 6th, Texas was number three . . . the Tar Heels were 19th.

The Tar Heel faithful said OK we’ll re-group and get back on track next week when Coach Peahead Walker’s Wake Forest Demon Deacons come to Kenan.  So on October 11th, 35,000 fans crowded into comfortable 63-degree- Kenan Stadium to see the Deacs and the Heels renew a rivalry that started back in 1888.  Carolina won the toss that afternoon, but that’s about all.  Wake Forest dominated play in the first half and led 19 to 0 at the break.

The second half wasn’t much better for Coach Carl Snavely’s troops; however, they did hold Wake scoreless and in the 4th quarter Charlie Justice completed a touchdown pass to Danny Logue.  In the end, Wake’s defense had held the highly regarded UNC offense to 29 yards on the ground and 75 through the air.  Wake Forest had entered Kenan Stadium that afternoon undefeated and left the same way.  The final score:  Wake Forest 19, Carolina 7.

“We were outclassed,” said Coach Snavely after the game.

Justice, emotionally upset, blamed himself for the loss and added, “we’ve got nothing left but our press clippings.”

Hugh Morton’s image of Coach Snavely congratulating Coach Walker as his players carried him from the field, says it all.

Following October 11, 1947 UNC–Wake Forest football game in Kenan Stadium, UNC Head Football Coach Carl Snavely (in hat, right foreground) prepares to congratulate Wake Forest Head Coach Douglas "Peahead" Walker being carried by his players after Wake Forrest's victory over Carolina 19 to 7. This was the first time a Charlie Justice era (1946-1949) UNC team had lost in Kenan Stadium. Wake Forest players pictured left to right are: #15 Ed Haddox, Right Halfback; #22 Nick Ognovich, Quarterback; #2? (?); #44 Harry Dowda, Right Halfback; #55 Bernie Hannular, Right Tackle; #42 Bud Gregus, Left Halfback.

A promising season in early August had turned into a disaster by Mid-October.  Seven games remained on the 1947 schedule, so the season could be salvaged.  A trip to Williamsburg and a game with William & Mary was Carolina’s next challenge.  The Tar Heels won that challenge and never looked back. They reeled off seven straight wins, finished the season with an 8-2 season, and when the final AP poll was published on December 8th, Carolina was ranked 9th and received 2 first place votes.  Coach Snavely would later say the ’47 team was one of his best.

The Heels would not lose another regular season game until October 22, 1949.  The loss to Wake Forest on October 11, 1947 holds a place in the UNC football history book.  It was the first Justice Era (1946-1949) team loss in Kenan Stadium, and it’s the only Justice Era loss to any of the teams that would, six years later become the Atlantic Coast Conference.

The day the Redskins came to Raleigh

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Fifty-seven years ago, the NFL’s Washington Redskins made the team’s first trip to North Carolina to play one of the state’s first professional football games.  Since that day in 1954, the Redskins have played here twenty times and will return on October 23rd to play the Carolina Panthers in Charlotte.  Morton Collection volunteer Jack Hilliard takes a personal look back at that first game.

Charlie "Choo Choo" Justice on sidelines with Washington Redskins head coach Joe Kuharich

Charlie "Choo Choo" Justice on sidelines with Washington Redskins head coach Joe Kuharich during game versus the Green Bay Packers at Riddick Stadium, Raleigh, N.C., Septemb 11, 1954

As a little kid growing up in North Carolina in the 1950s, my only real exposure to professional football came on Sunday afternoons at 2:00 in front of my parents’ TV set—a General Electric 14-inch black-and-white model.  Thanks to Redskins’ owner George Preston Marshall’s Amoco–Redskins TV network, I could see all regular season Redskins games that were played east of the Mississippi River.  Marshall thought of his Redskins as the “Team of the South,” since Washington was the NFL’s southernmost city.  And Marshall took full advantage of that fact by drafting players like Charlie Justice from North Carolina, Harry Gilmer from Alabama, Harry Dowda from Wake Forest, and Billy Cox from Duke.

Then, during the final game of the 1953 season, a game between the Redskins and the Pittsburgh Steelers on December 13th, play-by-play announcer Mel Allen and analyst Jim Gibbons made an announcement that would change the North Carolina–Redskins perspective.  Allen and Gibbons told the TV audience that the Redskins would be playing an exhibition game (they are called preseason games today) in Raleigh, North Carolina on September 11th of 1954.  The game, sponsored by the North Carolina State University Wolfpack Club, would be a night contest against the Green Bay Packers.  In the 1950s NFL exhibition games were very different from the preseason games of today.  First string players often played the entire game and teams tried their best to win.  The games were played in stadiums across the country and provided an opportunity for teams to show off in front of fans that would likely never get to see them in person otherwise.

During the next nine months, my friends and I looked forward to being able to see our favorite team for real.  We had followed them for three years on TV, but none of us had ever seen them in person.  I saved my allowance and came up with enough money for a ticket—it was four dollars.  We talked one of our Sunday School teachers into driving us to Raleigh for the game.

The Redskins started off the ’54 season on August 6th in San Diego, then to Los Angeles . . . Sacramento . . . Detroit . . . Columbia, South Carolina, and then to Raleigh.

So on game day we loaded up a 1951 Buick in Asheboro and headed east to Raleigh—stopping at Raleigh’s S&W Cafeteria for a quick dinner.  Much of the conversation centered around the game in Columbia the weekend before.  The Redskins had lost to the Bears, but that didn’t matter.  Former UNC All America Charlie Justice had made a 47- yard run for the Redskins late in the game; that’s what mattered.  It also didn’t matter that the Packers were favored; we would get to see our football hero and that’s what mattered.

I remember walking into Riddick Stadium.  There were only 22,000 seats, but to me the place looked huge.  And through my binoculars, there on the field were the Washington Redskins warming up. Their burgundy and gold uniforms were spectacular.  I had always pictured the team in black and white.  Then I spotted #22 . . . he was walking over to the Packers’ side of the field to greet his UNC teammate Len Szafaryn who played for Green Bay.  They chatted for several minutes and were joined by Clayton Tonnemaker, the Green Bay center who Justice had teamed with at the 1950 Chicago College-All Star Game.

Soon after the start of the game, it became obvious that the Packers were the better team, but that didn’t matter.  My friends and I were there to see Charlie Justice, and he didn’t disappoint.

Washington Redskin running back Charlie Justice rushing along the left sideline.

Washington Redskin running back Charlie Justice rushing along the left sideline during an exhibition game against the Green Bay Packers at Riddick Stadium, Raleigh, N.C. on September 11, 1954. This photograph may depict the play described below; the photograph was not published in the News and Observer.

Early in the first half, he took a pitch-out from quarterback Jack Scarbath around the left side of the line . . . you could feel the excitement and hear whispers of “Choo Choo.”  Bottled up, he cut back to his right.  By now the crowd was on its feet.  He went 20 yards to the Packers’ 11 yard line.  As the TV sports guys say, “the crowd went wild.”

In the second half, Justice punted to Green Bay’s Al Carmichael who returned the punt 50 yards but was tackled by Justice at the Redskins’ 5 yard line . . . another standing ovation for the former Tar Heel.

In the fourth quarter, quarterback Al Dorrow hit Justice with a pass on a crossing pattern for an 11 yard pickup.  As Justice dodged a would-be tackler near the Redskins’ sideline, a series of flash bulbs lit up the night.  Hugh Morton’s Justice picture along with five others appeared on the front page of the Sports section of the Raleigh News and Observer on Sunday, September 12th.

Charlie Justice evades tackler

Washington Redskin running back Charlie Justice evades a tackler after catching a pass for an eleven-yard gain during an exhibition game against the Green Bay Packers at Riddick Stadium, Raleigh, N.C. on September 11, 1954.

[Editor's note: The photographs that appear on the News and Observer microfilm in the North Carolina Collection do not show the photographs mentioned above.  It's likely, therefore, that the edition of the N&O sold in Asheboro was different edition.  The edition on microfilm shows two uncredited photographs, one of which depicts Charlie Justice drinking water from a ladle.  The photograph above did appear (although more tightly cropped) in the edition distributed in Asheboro, which Jack Hilliard clipped from the newspaper and he still has today.]

Washington Redskins' Charlie "Choo Choo" Justice signing autographs, September 11, 1954.

Redskins' Charlie "Choo Choo" Justice signing autographs at Washington Redskins versus Green Bay Packers football game in Riddick Stadium, Raleigh, N.C., September 11, 1954.

When the game ended, the Washington Redskins had come up way short on the scoreboard, but that didn’t matter to a group of kids from Asheboro, North Carolina.  We had seen our hero up close and personal, and as was often the case, Justice stayed on the field long after the game and signed autographs.  Charlie would say in a 1973 interview, he had no problem when kids ask for an autograph.  “The problem,” said Justice, “is when they stop asking.”  (Charlie never had that problem).

Forty-nine years later, on October 20th, 2003, at Charlie Justice’s memorial service in Asheville, Woody Durham, UNC’s voice of the Tar Heels, said:  “There are folks in North Carolina who cannot commit to the Carolina Panthers, because Charlie Justice first made them Redskin fans.”

I guess I’m one of those fans.

Another Award for Woody

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UNC football star Charlie Justice, sports announcer Woody Durham, and UNC Athletics Director John Swofford during a “Roast and Toast, ” held in Durham’s honor, as charity event for Orange County Volunteers for Youth. Swofford was an honorary chairman of the event, and Justice was a “roaster, ” The event was sponsored by the UNC Athletic Department and The Village Companies, and held at the Hotel Europa in Chapel Hill on January 25, 1986.

Today’s post comes from Jack Hilliard, frequent contributor to A View to Hugh.

In Tar Heel territory you don’t need to add his last name . . . all you need is “Woody” and all will know of whom you speak.  Since he announced his retirement back in April, his name has been in the news on a regular basis.  But today, August 18th, brought the biggest announcement since his retirement news conference on April 20th.  Woody Lombardi Durham, “the voice of the University of North Carolina Tar Heels” for the past forty years, has won the National Football Foundation’s Chris Schenkel Award for 2011.

Woody adds this prestigious award to a resume that already lists memberships in four halls of fame.  He has called play-by-play on 1,805 football and men’s basketball games on the Tar Heel Sports Network since the fall of 1971.  A 1963 graduate of UNC, Woody is a thirteen-time recipient of the North Carolina Sportscaster of the Year Award.  His hall of fame memberships include the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, the North Carolina Broadcasters Hall of Fame, the Stanly County Sports Hall of Fame and the Mebane Sports Hall of Fame.  Durham was recently the guest of honor at the Sanford Area Chamber of Commerce and Central Carolina Community College Small Business Center’s annual Small Business Banquet, where he was presented with their Lifetime Achievement Award.

Over the years, Woody has received:

  • a distinguished service medal from the UNC General Alumni Association for outstanding service to the University and the alumni association;
  • the William R. Davie Award, given by the UNC Board of Trustees to recognize extraordinary service to the University;
  • the Skeeter Francis Award for special service to the Atlantic Coast Conference;
  • the Russell Blunt Legends Award from the North Carolina High School Athletic Association for being a true legend in athletics;
  • the Lindsey Nelson Outstanding Sportscaster Award from the All-American Football Foundation;
  • with his wife, Jean, the Outstanding Service Award from the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center Board of Visitors;
  • a Priceless Gem from UNC Athletics; and
  • a Distinguished Service Award from the North Carolina High School Athletic Association.

Woody Durham has a full set of journalistic and broadcasting tools. His voice is distinctive. His writing is superior and his research and preparation techniques are legendary—and he brings all those professional skills together with a personal, down- home touch. Folks who combine all those qualities are rare these days and UNC was fortunate to have Woody behind the mic for forty seasons.

When the red light comes on, Woody’s at the top of his game.  He’s been Tar Heel fans’ trusted companion and has set a standard that will be tough to match.

I had the privilege of working with Woody for thirteen years while he was Sports Director at WFMY-TV in Greensboro and during that time I got to see the masterful job he does with everything he undertakes. Be it a one-hour documentary with Charlie Justice or a ten second tease for the 11 o’clock news, the approach was the same: carefully research, then script it and deliver it with dignity, class, and style.

On December 6, 2011, Woody will be honored at the 54th Annual National Football Foundation Awards Dinner at the Waldorf=Astoria in New York with the Chris Schenkel Award.  Every year, the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame presents this award to “a sports broadcaster who has had a long and distinguished career broadcasting college football.” The selection committee seeks to recognize broadcasters with direct ties to colleges and universities.  First presented in 1996, the award bears the name of its first recipient, CBS and ABC sports broadcaster Chris Schenkel, whose commitment to excellence in broadcasting and a longstanding association with the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame, reflect the spirit of the award.

In December of 1961, Hugh Morton attended this event and photographed his friend Charlie Justice as he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.  I think we can assume that Hugh will be there in his own way for Woody.

Congratulations Woody . . . this award is truly deserved and long overdue.

In addition to the picture above, Hugh Morton photographed Woody Durham on several occasions throughout his career.  Please visit the online collection of Morton photographs to see more images of Woody Durham.

Charlie and Sarah and Life After Football

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In an interview with Tom Sieg of the Winston-Salem Journal in September 1987, UNC’s great All-America football star Charlie Justice said, “I’d like to be remembered more for what I’ve done for humanity and the state of North Carolina than for my athletic abilities.”

On this day, the day that Justice would have turned 87 years old, Morton Collection volunteer Jack Hilliard looks back at some of the many ways Charlie and wife Sarah carried out his wish.

Charlie and Sarah Justice, and Norma and Doak Walker at Airlie Gardens during the 1950 Azalea Festival The drive down Interstate 85 from Greensboro to Lexington took only about 50 minutes, but it was long enough for me to let my mind wonder back to a time in 1984 when Charlie Justice came to a sporting goods store in Winston-Salem to sign books and tapes for the Charlotte Treatment Center.  Many of the folks who came to greet the UNC football legend brought treasured souvenirs for him to sign.  One man brought a newspaper from Bainbridge Maryland when Charlie was playing service ball.  Another brought a 1948 issue of Varsity magazine, an issue that featured a Hugh Morton photograph on the cover.  The man opened the magazine and pointed to a picture of Charlie standing on a street corner in Chapel Hill talking with two young boys.  “Do you remember that,” he said to Justice, “that’s me.”  The parade of admirers and memories continued for a couple of hours.

I was brought back to reality by the announcer on the radio saying, “go out and see UNC football great Charlie ‘Choo Choo’ Justice this afternoon at Frazier’s Bookstore.  He’ll be there all afternoon.”

When I arrived at Frazier’s in downtown Lexington, the line snaked all the way through the store.  Seated at a table in the back were Justice, author Bob Terrell, and Sarah Justice, Charlie’s wife of 53 years.  It was not unusual for Sarah to be there.  She had been there for him since their high school days at Lee Edwards High in Asheville.  In the stands at Kenan, Sarah could be seen in her special good-luck hat during the late 1940s.  She was among the 88,885 fans at Soldier Field in Chicago on the night of August 11, 1950 to see her husband’s MVP performance in the College All-Star game.  She could often be spotted in old Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C. at Redskins’ games during the early 1950s.  UNC Athletics Director Dick Baddour said at the dedication of the Justice statue in 2004, “I always thought of them as a team.”

It had been forty-six years since Charlie played his final varsity game for UNC, but the front page headline in the Lexington paper on April 19, 1996 read, “Choo Choo Justice Comes To Lexington.”

His name was, and still is, magic to many North Carolinians.

On the football field, Charlie Justice was a hero of epic proportions.  After football, his legendary status grew even more.  Said Dr. William Friday, President Emeritus of the University of North Carolina in Hugh Morton’s 1988 book, Making A Difference In North Carolina:  “The Charlie Justice I knew best is the civic leader, the great humanitarian, the great giver of himself.  I have never seen anybody that did as much as he did for causes from the American Heart Association to Crippled Children to Christmas Seals to the University itself.”

You didn’t need to be around Charlie for more than a couple of minutes, before you became aware of the importance of his storybook marriage to Sarah Alice.  Charlie Justice and Sarah Alice Hunter were married on November 23, 1943 . . . a time when the rest of the world was at war.  How miraculous it must have seemed then to find a reason for happiness and hope for the future.

Jane Browne, a Justice family friend, described Sarah this way:  “She was definitely a person in her own right, but she was always thought of as Charlie’s wife.  She was always in the background, not in the spotlight, but was always there, so dependable. . . .  She was an angel on this earth.”

So together Charlie and Sarah offered their name, their time, their talent, and their money to just about every cause in the Tar Heel state.

In 1989, when the Charlotte Treatment Center named a wing of its facility for Charlie, he said, “I had one goal in life set way back in high school . . . to win the Heisman Trophy.  Well, I came close twice.  But this honor makes up for the Heisman I never won.”  The Center also named a wing of the facility for Sarah Justice as well.

Justice was named general chairman for the American Heart Association in Greensboro and he made numerous appearances to help them raise money.  He had a special connection with this group.  In the twenty years between 1974 and 1994, Justice had three heart attacks and three open heart surgeries.

Be it a fundraiser for Special Olympics in Cherryville, celebrity roasts for Multiple Sclerosis in Greensboro and Juvenile Diabetes in Charlotte, or a March of Dimes Event in Winston-Salem, Charlie and Sarah were always ready to lend a hand.

Hugh Morton's last photograph of Charlie Justice

Sarah and Charlie Justice.

Made on an unknown date at the Justices’ home sometime around Christmas, the above photograph is the first of three similar exposures—likely Hugh Morton’s final portraits of Charlie Justice.

In September of 2000, Charlie Justice granted his final interview. . . it was with Scott Fowler of the Charlotte Observer.  Fowler describes his day in Cherryville with Charlie and Sarah Justice this way.  “Gosh, it was fun.”  Toward the end of the day, Justice was relating the story of his famous jersey #22, when he suddenly paused in mid story.  He had thought of something extremely important.

“I’ve had quite a life, I guess,” said Charlie.

Sarah gently patted his shoulder.

So, eleven football seasons have come and gone since that special fall day in Cherryville in 2000 . . . a lot has happened.  Charlie and Sarah Justice are no longer with us but I choose to believe that:

Somewhere in a Carolina Blue Heaven,
The Spirit of #22 is once again running free.
And so it is, as it has been for almost 70 years now,
His Special Angel Sarah continues watching over him
just outside the spotlight.

The 103rd Run for the Roses

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Finish Line, Kentucky Derby, 1977

This post, the 201st on A View to Hugh, comes from the keyboard of contributor Jack Hilliard and is prompted by 137th running of the Kentucky Derby—post time this Saturday at 6:24 E.D.T.  Photographs cropped by the editor.

It has several names.  Some call it “The Most Exiting Two Minutes in Sports.”  Others call it “The Fastest Two Minutes in Sports.” And then there are those who call it “The Run for the Roses,” because the winner is presented a lush blanket of 554 red roses. It is the first jewel in thoroughbred racing’s triple crown and is held the first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky.  Of course, it’s the Kentucky Derby.

In addition to the race itself, a number of traditions play a part in the Derby atmosphere.  The Mint Julep, an iced drink consisting of bourbon, mint and a sugar syrup is the traditional beverage of choice at the race.  Burgoo, a thick stew of beef, chicken, pork and vegetables is also a favorite Derby dish.  As the horses are paraded before the grandstands, the University of Louisville Marching Band plays Stephen Foster’s “My Old Kentucky Home.”

“Millionaire’s Row” is the name given to the expensive box seats that attract the rich, the famous and their guests.  And that’s where we find Hugh and Julia Morton on May 7, 1977 . . . special guests at the 103rd running of the Kentucky Derby.

Post Parade, Kentucky Derby, 1977

124,038 people jammed into Churchill Downs that spring day to see the best of the best run the famous mile and a quarter.

“Hugh took pictures from the finish line while I sat in the box,” said Julia Morton in a recent email. Hugh’s photographs from that day would later take on extra meaning because on that day the winning horse was Seattle Slew, who would go on to win the “Preakness” and the “Belmont,” thus becoming the tenth horse to win the Triple Crown and the only horse to do it with a perfect winning record.  Only once since 1977 has there been a Triple Crown winner.

So on May 7, 2011, 34 years to the day, that Hugh Morton photographed Seattle Slew’s winning run, and 9 years to the day that Seattle Slew passed away peacefully in his sleep at age 28, the 137th Kentucky Derby will be staged . . . and once again Churchill Downs will become the center of the Thoroughbred Racing World.

“Hugh saved the two dollar tickets on Seattle Slew instead of cashing them, got a friend to buy tickets on the other two Triple Crown races for him, and planned to frame them with his picture of Slew.  (Like a perfect bridge hand),” said Julia Morton. Then she added, “but he never got around to it.”  That framed shot of Seattle Slew may not be available but the Morton pictures from the 1977 Kentucky Derby are preserved in the North Carolina Collection at Wilson Library on the UNC campus.