Former UNC-Chapel Hill basketball players and coaches share their memories of the opening of the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill.
Steve Hale felt like a stranger in the Dean Smith Center.
It’s been 40 years since UNC basketball played its first game at the Dean Dome. On Jan. 18, 1986, the top-ranked Tar Heels had a dazzling debut against No. 3 Duke with a 95-92 victory in front of a crowd of more than 21,000 fans.
Hale, a senior on that 1985-86 squad, had a career-high 28 points, along with five assists, four rebounds and three steals. But that matchup against the Blue Devils isn’t what he remembers most about opening the new arena.
“The main thing was we hadn’t been in the Smith Center, hardly at all. I was actually talking to one of my kids about it over Christmas. I got lost, I didn’t know where anything was, ‘cause we practiced at Carmichael (Auditorium) and then we played at Carmichael,” Hale told the USA TODAY Sports Network in a phone interview.
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“. … It was huge, I couldn’t figure out how to get up to the court and not a lot of it was built. The gym was built, but downstairs there was the locker rooms and I just remember it being a maze. So, it was really surreal in that it didn’t feel like a home game, ‘cause it wasn’t really our home. It was just so huge compared to Carmichael. At Carmichael, it was a sea of people.
“. … There were people from the court to the ceiling and the sound would kind of bounce off the ceiling. Then we get to the Smith Center and it’s enormous, the sound disappeared and the fans were so far from the court and so high up. It was just this weird experience.”
Smith Center a ‘neat gym’ to Steve Hale, but Carmichael Auditorium is ‘home’
Dr. Hale lives in Vermont now, with more than 30 years of experience as a physician as a long-time pediatrician in the Burlington area. Before medical school, the smooth, shifty southpaw spent most of his career at Carmichael until the Tar Heels shifted to the Smith Center in the middle of his final season.
UNC played five games at Carmichael in Hale’s senior year before closing the home schedule with seven games at the Smith Center. The debut was a battle of unbeaten teams in the annual battle of the blues.
“It didn’t feel at all like a home game to us, because everything was new. It was the middle of the season and they kind of just plopped us in there,” Hale said of the Duke game in 1986.
“Parking was different. I used to walk to the games from Granville (Towers) and then I had to drive and find a parking spot. It was odd and there was a lot going on aside from the game that was different for us. It seemed more like an away game in terms of unfamiliar surroundings.”
So, when did the Smith Center start feeling like home for Hale?
“It never did,” he said. “In fact, it still doesn’t, because I don’t know how many games we had there. … Even now, when I go back, I’m like, ‘This is a neat gym, but it’s not mine.’ I still think of Carmichael as home.”
That’s not to say he doesn’t appreciate the Smith Center, it just was an oddity for Hale as he closed his college career.
“All the games there were just kind of surreal and awed, because it didn’t feel like my home and it was such a different environment. We were all pleased that they named it for Coach Smith and it was an honor to play there, but it’s the kind of stuff you think about after the season or when you’re done, and not in the midst,” Hale said.
“That’s a credit to him, because he always had this tunnel vision about the next game. … Nowadays, it would be all over social media. But back then, we could kind of isolate ourselves and it didn’t really come up. We were proud that they named it for him and we were proud to be able to play for him, but the physical facility itself was so new it didn’t even really sink in while we were there.”
Smith’s focus on the flow of the season rather than the site change was “one of his geniuses,” Hale added. Even when everything changed, everything was the same for the Tar Heels as they prepped to open the Smith Center against their archrival.
“(Coach Smith) formed a, ‘This is what we do, we focus on us’ mentality. We had the same pregame ritual, we ate dinner the same time before,” Hale said. “It was exactly the same schedule, so it didn’t feel unusual for that. With multiple big games a year, we kind of handled them the same.”
Hale also remembers that career-best scoring performance against Duke, “mainly because it came through the flow of the game” and not in a magical, just-my-day way.
“It wasn’t like I felt like I was really hot or I was on fire, I just think I had two or three backdoor layups, a couple of steals and so it just kind of flowed through the game,” Hale said. “At the end, when somebody said, ‘Oh, look how many points you scored,’ it didn’t feel that way. … I just remember how natural the game felt. It just happened to be one of the games where I got the opportunities.”
Jeff Lebo remembers ‘pressure’ of UNC basketball opening Smith Center
UNC assistant coach Jeff Lebo, a freshman on the 1985-86 team, is the only Tar Heel to have been a part of that first win and the 500th at the Smith Center. Lebo recalls Lebo’s “terrific” game against the Blue Devils, but like Hale, Lebo’s memory takes him back to the uniqueness of playing that first game during the middle of the season.
“There was a lot of pressure. There’s a lot of pressure when you play here, then when you play against Duke here, and then it’s the first game in the Smith Center. We wanted to win that one, obviously,” Lebo said in an interview with the USA TODAY Sports Network after UNC’s 500th win at the Smith Center on Jan. 10.
“Especially when your coach has the building named after him, you want to win that one. So, I remember feeling that extra weight. Luckily, we did (win), and we’ve had a lot of good years after that. I think there was a lot of unknowns for us as players.
“You were coming from Carmichael; it’s small, it’s tight, people right on top of you. We were wondering what it’s gonna be like to play in this big place, what the crowd is gonna be like, how loud it was gonna be. Would we be able to maintain a home-court advantage here. I think we were all thinking about that stuff.”
Unlike Hale, Lebo played most of the home games during his career at the Smith Center. And, in five seasons as an assistant coach on Hubert Davis’s staff, Lebo is even further connected to the venue.
“It was so cool, because we were coming from just a small, old, antiquated place. And, all of a sudden, we’ve got this big, new building, new locker rooms, big lockers, nice showers,” Lebo said. “. … It was all to ourselves here and it was pretty cool to come over here and be the first ones in it.”
After three of four games, Lebo added, “it didn’t take long for it to feel like home” at the Smith Center. But backtracking to that first game, aside from remembering Hale’s scoring and Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski getting tagged with a technical, Lebo’s mind takes him to what immediately followed the Tar Heels’ debut at the Smith Center.
“What’s odd about the game, what I remember more about the game, is right after the game we had to catch a flight,” Lebo said with a laugh.
“We played Marquette the next day on the road in the afternoon, and we almost lost that game. It was kind of an odd thing for us to have to do. I don’t remember much about the game other than Steve Hale had about 28 and having to get on that flight right away.”
What’s next for the Smith Center, Tar Heels basketball?
Even with mixed feelings about going from Carmichael to the Smith Center during his career, Hale understands the historic arena’s importance over the last 40 years. As discussions heat up about the venue’s future, Hale is in favor of the Tar Heels sticking around at 300 Skipper Bowls Drive.
“Personally, for me, I would like to see it to stay there,” Hale said. “I just like the atmosphere of the gyms and stadiums on campus. I’m sure there are a lot of other factors that go into it and I’m sure there are strong opinions.”
Whether at Carmichael Auditorium, the Smith Center or a future site, Hale is constantly reminded of how his experiences in Chapel Hill continue to influence and affect his daily life nearly 800 miles away in Vermont. No matter the arena, everything’s connected.
“One of the reasons I went there was there was always players from previous eras there and they always treated everybody the same. That history was, I felt, unique and strong. I think it still is. There’s that fraternity that’s always there. That’s been something special,” Hale said.
“. … The wins and the losses kind of fade over the years, but the relationships get stronger and there’s not a week that goes by where I don’t use something that Coach Smith or Coach Williams taught me in terms of when I’m working with kids, using wisdoms and sayings that they had. The group chats that we have with the players, we’re still in contact. That just gets stronger and more valuable as time goes on.”
Reporting by Rodd Baxley, Fayetteville Observer / The Fayetteville Observer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
