North Carolina will mark its 100th year of college basketball with a season-long celebration that will begin in September.
An alumni game of North Carolina current NBA players will be played Sept. 4 at the Smith Center at 8 p.m.
Tickets for the game will be $20 and will go on sale June 27. Proceeds will go to the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and UNC's Children's Hospitals.
Coach Roy Williams said he wanted the celebration spread out over the season to honor a program that has won five NCAA Tournament championships and 1,984 games, the second most in major-college history.
"We've had a lot of discussions," Williams said. "I was involved in '98 with the 100-year anniversary of Kansas basketball. Some of the things that we're going to do we did then, and they were successful. I don't want to have just a reunion and say, ‘This is 100 years of North Carolina basketball.'
"This is a unique place. There's not many schools on that level that have the tradition and the history that we have, and have the family atmosphere and have people who care desperately about what happens."
North Carolina will play host to a reunion weekend on Feb. 12-13, 2010. All former players will be invited to the Smith Center for an alumni game that will not involve the current pros.
The alumni players will also be honored during a home Atlantic Coast Conference game.
The Tar Heels will also wear throwback uniforms, replicas of uniforms worn by past championship teams.
"I've OK'd the uniforms," Williams said. "We had to make a couple of changes in some of them, but I think the uniforms will be nice."
Williams said he wasn't sure that the previous seasons' short basketball shorts will be worn. He said that he wouldn't wear throwback clothes when the team wears the old uniforms.
"My corny attitude is retro enough," he said.
■ Bill Cole can be reached at bcole@wsjournal.com.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement