Former UNC standout and 1982 Player of the Year James Worthy will be inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame on Nov. 20. Worthy was part of the 1982 national championship team that was Dean Smith’s first NCAA title-winning squad. That team also featured Michael Jordan and Sam Perkins.

For two hours on Tuesday night, a North Carolina basketball team was performing what many take for granted as a simple Tar Heel duty: making history.

UNC celebrated a century of basketball with a game featuring alumni and interviews with Carolina greats.

I owe Dean Smith an apology.

Dean Smith reluctantly made his way onto the court Friday night to the sound of an emotional standing ovation inside the building that bears his name. True to the form he showed during his coaching days, he tried to quiet the crowd with a few hand gestures in order to deflect attention from him to his former players.

DETROIT — It all started when they decided to come back. Four players declining the riches of the NBA, motivated to make one more run at history. One more run at a national title.

DETROIT — It all started when they decided to come back.

Four players declining the riches of the NBA, motivated to make one more run at history. One more run at a national title.

And everything that happened this season — the expectations, the No. 1 rankings, the blowout wins — pointed toward this one signature moment.

This week, The Daily Tar Heel is celebrating 100 years of North Carolina basketball. Visit our special 100 years page.DTH sports desk’s picks: Why now?

Fans swarm Franklin Street to celebrate North Carolina's fifth NCAA National Championship victory.

Nine hundred and thirty-one images were taken to create this timelapse of the scene that gathered to celebrate North Carolina's fifth NCAA National Championship. This camera was set above the intersection of Franklin and Columbia on the rooftop of Spanky's restaurant.

ST. LOUIS — They started their careers by getting cut down.

Three cocky college freshmen with dreams of stardom and championship banners were humbled, humiliated. 

That’s what a 20-loss season will do, especially at a program where 20-win seasons are viewed as a birthright.

It had been more than a decade since North Carolina ended a season on a sweet note. The exit of Dean Smith and the subsequent struggles eventually led to that 8-20 rock bottom in 2002.

Roy Williams, too, had been stymied in his pursuits of the promised land, as four close calls in the Final Four produced no championships for his Kansas program.

The following story originally ran in the March 24, 1957 issue of The Daily Tar Heel.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — North Carolina’s Tar Heels proved they are the nation’s No. 1 team here last night.

They did it by beating Kansas and Wilt the Stilt Chamberlain, 54-53, in a triple-overtime battle that left 10,500 fans gasping after the hectic conclusion.

Joe Quigg, 6-9 center, who did a miraculous defensive job on Chamberlain, was directly responsible for Carolina’s bringing home the national collegiate basketball championship from this midwestern city.

The following story originally ran in the April 6, 1993 edition of the Daily Tar Heel.


NEW ORLEANS — The Big Easy has never lived up to its surname for Dean Smith.

But the North Carolina head coach has persevered, as he did the last time he played for the national championship in New Orleans.

And my, how the Crescent City has rewarded him.

Smith won his second national title Monday night — both coming in New Orleans — as the Tar Heels edged the Michigan Wolverines 77-71 in a classic title confrontation before 64,151 at the Louisiana Superdome.

Lynch. Montross. Williams.

Not exactly the awe-inspiring 1982 trio of Jordan, Worthy and Perkins.

But whatever the 1993 version of the North Carolina men’s basketball team lacked in star power, it made up for with style.

Michael Jordan’s shot with 17 seconds remaining. James Worthy’s dunk over Patrick Ewing. Dean Smith’s first ring.

The 1982 national championship is the most iconic title in UNC basketball history. But the banner was also accompanied by both a No. 1 national ranking and a 32-2 record — the best record of any North Carolina team since 1957.

The following story originally ran in the March 30, 1982 edition of The Daily Tar Heel.

NEW ORLEANS — And on the seventh try, Dean created national champions.

UNC coach Dean Smith, after six previous trips to the final four, finally came away with the big one — the NCAA collegiate basketball title — as the North Carolina Tar Heels beat the Georgetown Hoyas 63-62.

Staring down the biggest game of their season, the 1957 North Carolina Tar Heels trotted out their smallest starter to tip the ball.

When faced with a Goliath such as Wilt Chamberlain — who was five inches taller than UNC’s starting big man Lennie Rosenbluth — head coach Frank McGuire wanted to have a little fun.

You might have noticed we missed something.

In our coverage commemorating North Carolina’s 100 seasons of basketball, we’re running the game stories from national championship years — starting today with 1957.

That also means that our coverage won’t quite match up with the banners hanging in the Smith Center.

We decided just to stick with The Daily Tar Heel’s coverage of national championship games from the NCAA tournament.

No NCAA tournament existed in 1924, when Jack Cobb and Cartwright Carmichael led UNC to a perfect 26-0 season.