Great Moments in North Carolina Sports History      

Did you ever wonder what is the single most significant moment in the history of sports in North Carolina?
The North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame has put into motion a new program, Great Moments in North Carolina Sports History, designed to answer that question. Part of the answer will come at the Hall’s Gala, to be held on May 12, the night before the Class of 2010 is inducted. The event will take place in Raleigh at the North Carolina Museum of History, the home of the Sports Hall of Fame’s permanent exhibit.

At the Gala, five of the most important moments in sports history in the state will be unveiled. Members of the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, its directors and advisors, and panelists from across the state were sent ballots this spring to choose the top five most significant dates from a list of 22 possible Great Moments.

From the five selected by the panel, citizens from across the state will be asked to choose their favorites and the single most significant Great Moment as determined by the voting will be unveiled at the 2011 Gala. And each year thereafter, another Great Moment will be added to the list, all chosen by the citizens of North Carolina.

“We are excited about Great Moments,” said North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame President Nat Walker. “Some months ago, our board launched far-reaching efforts to not only honor the state’s finest athletes through induction into the Hall of Fame, but to preserve the rich sports heritage of this state.

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

“We held our first-ever Gala prior to the 2009 induction banquet and we used that occasion to unveil our latest Museum display, one of the Dale Earnhardt cars presented by Richard Childress,” said Executive Director Don Fish. “It was such a success that it became clear that the Gala would become the perfect platform for the annual unveiling of our Great Moments year after year.

“We ask all North Carolina citizens to participate in choosing those Moments.

 “We believe this is a great opportunity for corporations to get involved,” said Fish, a former marketing executive. “We need corporate sponsors to support this program. It is a great affiliated marketing opportunity to use in store product promotions to solicit sales and have their customers vote.”

After the five final Great Moments are chosen and announced on May 12, balloting will be available on the Hall’s website, NCSHOF.org. or by mail to Great Moments, North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, P.O. Box 33035, Raleigh, NC 27636.

Once chosen by sports fans across the state, each Great Moment will become a part of a permanent display in the Hall’s exhibit at the Museum.

Here in chronological is the list of 22 Great Moments from which five finalists will be chosen:
          October 16, 1895: College football’s first forward pass, thrown by North Carolina in a game against Georgia.
          January 1, 1942: The Rose Bowl football game is played in Durham less than a month after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Oregon State defeated Duke, 12-7.
          July 1, 1946: N.C. State hires Everett Case, the driving force behind the Tobacco Road basketball phenomenon.
          September 26, 1948: North Carolina defeats Texas, considered the nation’s best college football team, with Choo-Choo Justice playing a prominent role.
          May 8, 1953: The Atlantic Coast Conference is voted into existence with seven original institutional members.
          March 8, 1957: North Carolina maintained its perfect record with a controversial win over Wake Forest in the ACC Tournament.
          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) in Los Angeles.
          March 2, 1974: North Carolina’s basketball team trailed Duke by 8 with 17 seconds left, and won dramatically in overtime, 96-92.
          March 9, 1974: No. 1-ranked N.C. State defeated Maryland in “the greatest college basketball game ever played” for an NCAA berth.
          March 23, 1974: N.C. State snapped UCLA’s 38-game post-season streak in double overtime to advance to the national title game.
          April 4, 1983: In what some regard as the biggest upset in NCAA Tournament history, N.C. State best Houston for the national title.
          July 4, 1984: Richard Petty won his 200th and final automobile race beating Cale Yarborough by one foot at the finish line at Daytona.
          March 30, 1991: Duke upset UNLV en route to the NCAA crown the year after losing to the Runnin’ Rebels by 30 points in the title game.
          March 28, 1992: Christian Laettner hit a dramatic turn-around shot just before the buzzer and Duke beat Kentucky, 104-103, in the East finals.
          March 15, 1997: Dean Smith passed Adolph Rupp for his 877th career victory, beating Colorado in the East Region in Winston-Salem.
          January 18, 2004: Just two seasons after a 1-15 record, the Carolina Panthers defeated Philadelphia and advanced to the Super Bowl
          February 13, 2006: Greensboro’s Joey Cheek became one of North Carolina’s most unlikely heroes winning the gold in Olympic speed skating.
          June 19, 2006: The Carolina Hurricanes beat Edmonton, 3-1, in a dramatic seventh game in Raleigh to bring the Stanley Cup to the state.
          March 24, 2007: Anthony Atkinson scored 10 points in 39 seconds to lead Barton College to the NCAA Division II basketball crown.
          September 1, 2007: Appalachian State shocked the college football world with a 34-32 victory over fifth-ranked Michigan in Ann Arbor.
          April 6, 2009: North Carolina’s basketball team won its fifth national championship beating Michigan State, 89-72, in Detroit.