Comments on: Was it the Final Four that Greensboro loved?

By: Lew Powell

Lew Powell — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 11:26:23 +0000

I’d never heard about the Chesley warehouse fire, Jack. Add that loss to all the missing kinescopes!

By: Jack Hilliard

Jack Hilliard — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 01:07:28 +0000

You’re right, Lew, the NC State 103 to 100 overtime win over Maryland on March 9, 1974 is considered by many as the greatest game in ACC basketball history.

Tragically, the videotape of the final 5 minutes and the overtime was destroyed in a fire at the CD Chesley warehouse. (Also lost in that fire was the videotape of the UNC-Duke game the week before on March 2nd. That’s the game where Carolina came from 8 points down in the final 17 seconds to send that game into overtime. UNC won in OT).

However, there is hope…kinda…

In 1980, the late Dr. Carl Sagan, noted professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences at Cornell University wrote a book and did a PBS TV Show called “Cosmos.”

In his book, on pages 286-287, Sagan talks about how “over the air” TV broadcasts are still traveling out into the cosmos. So if someone, sometime can figure out a way to recapture those broadcasts, the live TV events of March 2nd and 9th, 1974, could once again be seen.

By: Lew Powell

Lew Powell — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 20:30:08 +0000

Thanks, Jack. And just two weeks earlier, NC State’s OT win over Maryland for the ACC title — big month for the Coliseum!

By: Jack Hilliard

Jack Hilliard — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 18:58:55 +0000

Lew, your mentioning the 1974 NCAA Championship in Greensboro brought back some great memories. I remember directing a program for WFMY-TV on February 26, 1974 called “NCAA: One Month and Counting.” The program featured Smith Barrier from the city’s original NCAA Committee, Jim Oshust the Coliseum Manager and Bradley Faircloth, Chairman of the Mayor’s NCAA Committee. The program was produced and anchored by WFMY-TV Sports Director Woody Durham.

This was a huge deal for Greensboro and the Coliseum…an estimated 50 million watched veteran sportscaster Curt Gowdy call the play-by-play on NBC-TV nationwide on March 23 and March 25.