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True Team Spirit: Odom says 1995 ACC crown was a school achievement
Wake Forest University Photo
Tim Duncan, Randolph Childress and Coach Dave Odom celebrate Wake Forest's 1995 ACC basketball championship.
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Published: September 26, 2008
Updated:
Dave Odom remembers walking into the locker room after Wake Forest beat North Carolina in overtime to win the ACC Tournament in 1995, in what was the school's first ACC basketball championship in 33 years.
There stood Randolph Childress, the senior leader, who had capped the most incredible three-game individual performance in tournament history by scoring 37 points and hitting the game-winning shot moments earlier.
There stood Tim Duncan, then a sophomore, already a good player but still in the formulative stages of what would become one of the great careers in NCAA and NBA history.
Odom remembers something greater in that locker room, too. Something greater than him, something greater than Childress, something greater than Duncan, something greater than that team.
It was the spirit of Wake Forest University, the essence of Wake Forest University.
"Talking to the team in the locker room, my message to them was the same as it would be today," Odom said yesterday. "The championship was really not ours unto ourselves. Yes, our players did the playing and we did the coaching and our fans did the cheering and all that, and there's no taking away from that. But in truth, that championship was founded years before by those that came in front of us. They gave us the foundation to accomplish that championship, and those great moments. So it was a shared championship.
"That was the thing I tried to get across to the team that day. I hope they remember that. Wake Forest is the Murray Greasons, the Bones McKinneys, the Carl Tacys. It is truly a remarkable university, where everybody pulls for everybody."
On Saturday, Odom, Duncan, and three others will be inducted into the Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame during ceremonies at halftime of the Wake Forest-Navy football game. Childress has been voted in and would have been inducted, too, but cannot attend because of obligations with his professional team in Italy.
To Odom, the same spirit in that Greensboro Coliseum locker room in 1995 will be in the air at BB&T Field. He'll join the Greasons, the McKinneys, the Tacys, in a Hall that will increase its membership to 111. And just like in 1995, it'll be about something greater than any of them.
"It's something to share with those who have come before, and to offer to those who come after," Odom said. "It's not mine unto myself. It's not my time to say what I did. It's a collection of memories, a collection of accomplishments, a collection of things that happened that involved Wake Forest as a university, and as a community. And it gives me a chance to remind myself how fortunate I've been through the years to be associated with such a great university and great people."
Odom, Duncan and Childress will forever be linked because of their success together. So it is not only fitting that they would be honored together, it is the only way it should be. Odom was the national Coach of the Year in that first championship year of 1995, and the ACC Coach of the Year for one of three times in his 12 seasons as head coach.
Childress and Rodney Rogers, who was inducted in 2005, were the cornerstones of Odom's program when they committed in 1989, during Odom's first season. That gave the program the credibility to land others, including a big man from the Virgin Islands named Duncan.
"Randolph and Rodney came in together, and I think Randolph would tell you he actually made the decision based on the fact that Rodney had committed," Odom said. "Rodney was such a highly touted recruit that Randolph felt that Wake Forest was legitimate. And from that standpoint, Randolph was the one who exerted the confidence to play at the highest level. Up until then, we always wondered if we could. And then Randolph was in the mold of John F. Kennedy, he said, ‘Why not?' I remember the night before he committed, he said, ‘Coach, tell me we can win a championship at Wake Forest.' And I said, ‘Randolph, I wouldn't be here otherwise.' And then he said, ‘I'm coming.' That truly is the way it happened."
Duncan would get Odom and Wake Forest another ACC Tournament title in 1996. He was the national player of the year in 1997, and has since gone on to win four NBA championships and two NBA MVP awards with the San Antonio Spurs.
Odom could talk forever about his admiration for Duncan.
"I respect Tim in ways that others may never be able to appreciate," Odom said. "He was one that gave so much and asked for so little, which is so uncommon in most student-athletes today. He asked for nothing, he gave everything. And he still to this day is different than most pro athletes, because the athletes today basically want the world and want it yesterday. He wanted to earn everything he got, and he did. I still call him about once a month just to encourage him and tell him I'm so proud of him."
He's so proud to be a Deacon, too. Obviously.
There were two stints at Wake Forest, first as an assistant to Tacy for three seasons early in the 1970s, then as head coach from 1989 through 2001.
There have been stops at Virginia as an assistant and at East Carolina and South Carolina, where he coached until retiring last season, but none hold the spot in his heart that Wake Forest holds.
"I've always tried to take the best of everything from wherever I was at the time," Odom said. "But when I look at Wake Forest, it was probably a better fit than the other places I've been. Virginia I thought was a good fit, too. Here's a good way to put it. My roots go back to Wake Forest and they're deeper than at any other place. It goes back to my childhood. I grew up a Southern Baptist and my mother was a big Wake Forest supporter.
"So it all leads back there. I've been in love with Wake Forest longer than any of the other universities. I go back not only in my coaching career but in my life. Wake Forest has always been deeply imbedded in the hearts and lives of my wife, myself, and my family."
■ John Delong can be reached at jdelong@wsjournal.com.
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