FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

July 26, 2010

Contacts:
Don Fish
919-845-3455

Nat Walker
336-2884226

North Carolina has had many great moments in its sports history, and the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame is asking the people of the state to vote for the one they think is most significant of all time. 

A committee of sports experts, led by Hall of Fame board member Wilt Browning, developed a list of 22 of the greatest moments.  From that list members of the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, the hall’s board of directors and advisory board and panelists from across the state selected the top five moments.

They are in order of when occurred:

• May 8, 1953.  The Atlantic Coast Conference was voted into existence at the Sedgefield Inn in Greensboro with seven charter members.

• March 23, 1957.  North Carolina defeated Kansas and Wilt Chamberlain to win the NCAA basketball championship with a 32-0 record.

• February 10, 1962.  North Carolina’s Jim Beatty became the first man to break the 4-minute indoor mile (3:58.9) at Los Angeles.

• March 9, 1974.  No. 1-ranked N. C. State defeated Maryland in “the greatest college basketball game ever played” for an NCAA berth.

• April 4, 1983.  In what some regard as the biggest upset in NCAA Tournament history, N. C. State beat Houston for the national title.

Now the citizens of North Carolina are being asked to choose from those five the one they think is the state’s greatest sports moment.  Citizens can cast their votes on the Hall of Fame’s web site at www.ncshof.org.

The event with the most votes will be announced in the spring of 2011.  Each year thereafter, another Great Moment will be added, all chosen by the citizens of North Carolina.

“We hope the Great Moments program will create interest and debate in the coming months,” said Nat Walker, president of the Hall of Fame board.  “Some months ago our board of directors launched far-reaching efforts to not only honor the state’s finest athletes through induction into the Hall of Fame, but to take steps to preserve the rich sports heritage of our state.

“Great Moments is one of the important ways we intend to do that.”

The Hall of Fame has created the Greatest Moments program as a way of underscoring the remarkable heritage of sports in North Carolina.  The list of Greatest Moments will be reviewed and expanded annually and recommendations from citizens of the state will be added to those proposed by the blue ribbon panel.

 Please follow the directions provided and vote for your choice (one vote only) from which the winner will be chosen.  Click here to vote.  The first-ever “Great Moment” will be unveiled at the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame Sports Gala hosted by the North Carolina History Museum Associates on May 11, 2011.

Click here for a more detailed description of the top five events listed above