There are just some things you just don’t forget doing with your parents. For us guys, that is especially true if you were lucky enough, as I was, to have that special time that you got to spend with your Dad. Following is one memory that occrurred when I was a little boy and has remained one of my favorites even in my “Golden Years”. It will always remain as a favorite Dad/Son story and annual adventure that we spent together.
Following is one of my earliest remembrances of doing something with my Dad (Dick Smith). For those of you who did not know my Dad, he was the manger for the Employment Security Commission in Rockingham. He moved to Rockingham with Mom in 1945 to accept this position. Dad always loved sports. He was even involved in textile softball when younger. Although he loved all sports, to him, there was none better than college basketball and old Southern Conference and later the ACC (as we know it now) basketball. Dad was always a nut about college basketball and a die-hard Demon Deacon. He had graduated from Wake Forest when Wake was physically located in Wake Forest, North Carolina. In fact, he had actually played on the team for a short while. Hank Garrity was their coach at the time.
Dad always made a big to do about what would become our annual trip to the now defunt Dixie Classic tournament that was played in Raleigh. Once I always wondered when I was younger why he wanted to drag a five-year old kid all the way to Raleigh with him, but now that I have a son of my own, I understand much better.
The Dixie Classic was an annual college basketball tournament played from 1949 to 1960 in Raleigh, North Carolina in the old Reynolds Coliseum. The field consisted of what was then known at the "Big Four" North Carolina schools, the host NC State Wolfpack , North Carolina Tar Heels , Duke Blue Devils , Wake Forest Demon Deacons, and four teams from across the country. Note that the other members of the then Southern Conference were not included. It was just the original “Tobacco Road - Big Four” . Even though Dad was a die-hard Demon Deacon, he always allowed me to pull for whoever I wanted. I was always, and still am, a die-hard Tar Heel fan. This also added a lot of fun to our trips, too. There was always a lot of needling each other, but always in fun, and it generally would last all year. Back then, neither of us had much to worry about as to bragging rights for the tournament winner, because it was normally Everett Case and his North Carolina State Woflpack that took home the trophy. We did share one thing in common, neither of us liked State at all, and we couldn’t stand Duke. The Dixie Classics began playing its first tournament in 1949 and the final one in 1960. During the entirety of the twelve tournaments played, the North Carolina State Wolf Pack won the championship game seven times, the Tar Heels won it three times, and the Demon Deacons and Blue Devils won once each. No team outside of the state of North Carolina ever won the tournament.
North Carolina State head coach Everett Case originated the idea of the Classic. His assistant, Carl "Butter" Anderson provided the name. The tournament was played over a three-day period every December, just after Christmas, on North Carolina State's home court.
Just after the Christmas holiday, Dad and I would load up in his old Plymouth and head out to Raleigh where we would stay with my Aunt and Uncle, who lived in Raliegh, for three days until the tournament was over. This was always like the height of the Christmas holidays for me, because it was just Dad and me. Good Stuff & Good Memories!
This proved to be annual trip for this father and son until the Dixie Classic Basketball Tournament was canceled. As I said, we would stay in Raleigh with my aunt and uncle, Uncle Millard & Aunt Bea Foggleman. Years later, I learned that Uncle Millard and Aunt Bea were not actually kin to us. Dad and Uncle Millard were roommates at Wake and had played basketball together. The two men had remained friends during and after college. Both men married during World War II, both couples became very close friends and remained so until their deaths. It really didn’t matter. They were then and always will remain Uncle Millard and Aunt Bea to me.
The Classic consisted of three rounds. In the first round the four North Carolina schools would each play a visiting team. The winners of the first round game would advance in the winners' bracket and the losers would advance in the losers' bracket. Each day would have four games played until the third and final day when a champion would be crowned. No team from outside North Carolina ever won the Classic.
I was born in 1946 and my Dad actually took me to my first Dixie Classics Tournament in 1951. Yes, I was only five. I know you’re saying to yourself that there’s no way that you can remember anything at that age. I don’t remember much but I do remember it being so loud that Dad had taken two cotton balls with them and put them in my ears because I had cried the night before because the crowd noise was so loud. I can also remember that one of the players for North Carolina State's name was Dick Dickey. His senior year in 1950, he had been selected as the Most Valuable Player when State defeated Penn State 50-46 in a thriller. I also remember being thoroughly confused about the teams nicknames. I can remember my parents laughing at me for calling Dick Dickey, Dick Dookey. In actuality, I was not referring to what all of you and Dad thought I was. In my young mind I thought Dick played for Duke. Why you might ask? Well, my Dad always referred to Duke as Dookey; therefore, Dick Dickey was close enough to Dick Dookey in my four-year old mind; therefore, my reasoning was very logical. Other than those two bits of information, you would be correct in saying that I didn’t remember too much about this particular game.
One of my favorite memories of the tournament in 1956 was the championship game between my Tar Heels and Dad’s Demon Deacons.
That year the Tar Heels took down the Wake Forest Demon Deacons in the championship game by a score of 63-55 and my favorite player ever, Lennie Rosenbluth, was selected as the Tournament Most Valuable Player. There was a lot of good natured needling with Dad and me that night, but the thing I remember most about this night was my statement to him that my mighty Tar Heels would not loose a game that year and would win it all. I really was just blowing smoke, but little did I know that when that season began with a victory on December 4, 1956 over Furman (94-66), it would continue with all wins and end with a perfect season (32-0) record on March 23, 1957 in triple overtime against the highly favored Kansas Jayhawks and Wilt Chamberlain by a score of (54-53). When all was said and done, my mighty Tar Heels, “McGuire’s Miracles”, had finished the season a perfect 32-0, were crowned the NCAA National Champions and Lennie Rosenbluth and been declared the most valuable player over the highly touted “Wilt The Stilt”. The Tar Heels NCAA Tournament scores that year were as follows:
·East
* North Carolina 90, Yale 74
* North Carolina 87, Canisius 75
* North Carolina 67, Syracuse 58
·Final Four
* North Carolina 74, Michigan State 70 (3OT)
* North Carolina 54, Kansas 53 (3OT)
The awards and honors for the tournament as far as Carolina was concerned were:
* Lennie Rosenbluth, Helms Foundation Player of the Year
* Lennie Rosenbluth, ACC Player of the Year
* Lennie Rosenbluth, 1st Team All-ACC
* Frank McGuire, ACC Coach of the Year
* Tommy Kearns, 1st Team All-ACC
* Pete Brennan, 2nd Team All-ACC
Much to my dismay, in 1961 the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) canceled the Dixie Classic due to a national point shaving scandal that included four N.C. State players (Don Gallagher, Stan Niewierowski, Anton Muehlbauer, and Terry Litchfield) and one North Carolina player (Lou Brown). As a result of the scandal, both N.C. State and North Carolina de-emphasized basketball by cutting their regular-season schedules. Sadly, the tournament came to an end after a point-shaving scandal in 1961 never again to be played.
Even though the tournament had been cancelled, Dad remained a loyal an avid Demon Deacon and college basketball fan. I too have also remained a die hard Tar Heel fan, and still love college basketball. During our Father/Son trips to the Dixie Classics Tournament I was privy to have watched some of the best Southern Confrernce and ACC basketball players of all time. I got to see players like Lennie Rosenbluth (UNC), Billy Packer (Wake Forest), Dick Dickey (NC State), Ron Shavlik (NC State), Lou Pacillo (NC State), and Pete Brennan (UNC) compete. I was fortunate to meet and talk to some of the greatest coaches that ever coached the game like, Everett Case (NC State), Murray Greason (Wake Forest), Frank McGuire (UNC), Horace “Bones” McKinney (Wake Forest). Shoot, this tournament had Vic Bubbas as a participant when he played for Everett Case during the Dixie Classic Days. Bubbas was also selected All Southern Conference twice. He remained at State after graduation and served as the freshmnan coach and later the assistant varsity coach. He was finally hired in 1959 as coach of Duke and coached Duke in the Dixie Classics until its demise in 1961.
Since the era of and the demise of the Dixie Classics Basketball Tournament and the Southern Conference, I have become and remained an avid fan of the Atlantic Coast Conference. Dad lived and died a Demon Deacon and I will always remain an avid Tar Heel, but all this was birthed from a love of college basketball that was first nutured by his taking me to see the annual the Dixie Classic’s Torunament in Raleigh, NC.
There are just some things you just don’t forget doing with you father. This will always be a fond memory of times I spent with my Dad. The Dixie Classics basketball tournament has long since faded with time, but it is a memory that I shared with my Dad that most definitely will remain with me forever. Along the way, he was responsible for passing on to me one of life’s greatest lessons of how to spend quality time with your son, a lesson that hopefully I have been able to pass on to my own son. Thanks for the memories, Dad! I haven’t told you in a while, but it sure was fun. Miss Ya!