ACC Barnstorming Tour

[WhatTheHeel?]

I'm sure some of you are old enough to remember when ACC basketball seniors would do a barnstorming tour of NC high schools after the season ended? I think it happened more than one year, but I went and saw them in 1981. Only UNC, Duke, NCSU, UVA, and Clemson were represented, so they included some Davidson players to fill out the squads.

Here were the teams:

Gold: Al Wood, Mike Pepper, Pete Budko, Eric Kenney, Craig Watts, Todd Haynes (Dav,) and John Gerdy (Dav)

Blue: Jeff Lamp, Lee Raker, Terry Gates, Marc Iavaroni, Gene Banks, Kenny Dennard, Frank Johnson, Will Singleton, Chuck Dahms, and Larry Nance.

Afterwards they hung around to sign autographs. All the kids were mobbing anyone who just looked like a player. I think I got Al Wood's brother's autograph. LOL.

My program says the coaches were Gene Banks and "Bones" McKinney. I guess Banks was a player/coach and McKinney coached against his former team, though I think he actually graduated from UNC--or at least he played there one year.

 

[bluetoe]

I'm sure some of you are old enough to remember when ACC basketball seniors would do a barnstorming tour of NC high schools after the season ended? I think it happened more than one year, but I went and saw them in 1981. Only UNC, Duke, NCSU, UVA, and Clemson were represented, so they included some Davidson players to fill out the squads.

Here were the teams:

Gold: Al Wood, Mike Pepper, Pete Budko, Eric Kenney, Craig Watts, Todd Haynes (Dav,) and John Gerdy (Dav)

Blue: Jeff Lamp, Lee Raker, Terry Gates, Marc Iavaroni, Gene Banks, Kenny Dennard, Frank Johnson, Will Singleton, Chuck Dahms, and Larry Nance.

Afterwards they hung around to sign autographs. All the kids were mobbing anyone who just looked like a player. I think I got Al Wood's brother's autograph. LOL.

My program says the coaches were Gene Banks and "Bones" McKinney. I guess Banks was a player/coach and McKinney coached against his former team, though I think he actually graduated from UNC--or at least he played there one year.

Bones is a legend. He played some at Carolina but later ended up coaching Wake Forest, and then did color commentary on ACC BB broadcasts. He was a likeable, homespun character.

You mentioned another character I had forgotten about. Frank Johnson, played for WF. The details are cloudy anymore but I remember that he was one of those players that really loved to kick it into high gear against us and that we really loved to see get a personal hard time for doing so. Just one of those fun special rivalry deals from the good old days of ACC BB.

 

[WhatTheHeel?]

It could be selective memory, but I remember Jeff Lamp loved baseline jumpers and never seemed to miss them--against UNC, anyway.

This didn't happen during this "All Star" game, but I have a memory of Eric Kenney getting a dunk on a fast break and hanging onto the rim too long and actually bending the rim. I guess it was before break-away rims. I can't remember if they played out the half with UNC having to shoot on a bent rim, or they stopped the game to replace the rim.