By Johnny T. Landrum

There’s no greater motivator than feeling like you were denied a shot at a state championship on a bogus call. This is what happened to our Hendersonville High School team in 1971.

I was a sophomore, the sixth man on a 20-5 team that advanced all the way to the 2A state semifinals in Winston-Salem. I even started three games.

We had a very good team and we believed we could win the championship. Our confidence surged when we dispatched Burgaw in the first round, earning a showdown with Whiteville.

I played some, scored a couple of buckets and was sure we had the game in the bag with a one-point lead with one second to play.  Whiteville had the ball but had to go the length of the floor and score to win the game.  They threw the ball the length of the court, their guy catches the ball right inside of the foul line, turns, takes a dribble and lays the ball in--- supposedly all within a second, which we all knew was impossible.  The two officials on the floor looked at each other and froze. They then looked at the official scorer in the press box, who signaled that the shot was good. I was in absolute disbelief.  No way should that shot have counted.

To top it off, we were forced to play a consolation game for third place the next night.  I hated having to play that game. No one wanted to play in a game for third place and it showed in our play as we lost to North Pitt by 20 points to end our season at 21-7.  Thank goodness that was the last year consolation games were played in the state of North Carolina.  I was dejected as could be because I felt like we had been robbed.

But I was also highly motivated to help us get back to state in the 1971-72 season.

Four starters from that near-miss team graduated. I would be one of four new starters, along with senior Harold Albany, our leading scorer.  Coach Pardue would have one of his smallest teams ever: four guys around six feet and a 6-6 center. We were moving up in classification, from 2A to 3A.  Everyone said it was a step up in competition, but we didn’t think so.

Hendersonville had been playing a 2-1-2 or 2-3 zone for years but Coach Pardue decided to switch to a pressing man-to-man defense.  Because of our lack of size, it would have been difficult to rebound out of a zone defense and because of our size, quickness and defensive prowess, man-to-man fit us perfectly.

Coach Pardue also decided to start four black players, which had never happened at Hendersonville.  The other starters were Dennis Braswell, Henry Creswell, and Brian Talent.  Jimmy Wheelon was our sixth man and was a major part of our success.

We reeled off nine straight wins to start the season. Then we go to Waynesville before the Christmas break and lose to our conference foe, the Tuscola Mountaineers, 66-53.  We had defeated them earlier in the season at Hendersonville. I think that game was a wake-up call for us because we realized that we couldn’t just show up and win every game on skill alone, but we knew if we came mentally prepared to play, because of our defensive tenacity and shot making ability, it was going to take a heck of a team to beat us.  We ran off a 10-game winning streak to close out our regular season at 19-1.

Next up was our four-team county tournament, which was for bragging rights. We won the tournament with ease and moved on to the District 8 tournament. Back then the state was divided into eight districts and each district tournament champion qualified for the state tournament. It didn’t matter if you won the regular season. If you didn’t win the district tournament, you didn’t go to the state tourney.

We went into the district tournament itching for a rematch with Tuscola. Both of us won our first-round games.  We won our semifinal and as we’re heading back to the dressing room, Tuscola’s players are getting ready to play their semifinal.  We crossed paths with each other, and we tell them “We’ll see y’all tomorrow night in the championship game.”

Well, low and behold, Tuscola gets upset in their semifinal by the Pisgah Black Bears.  I don’t know this for sure, but I think Tuscola probably got caught looking ahead to playing us.  Anyway, we cruised by Pisgah in the championship game, 71-44, and gained another state playoff berth for Hendersonville---our first in the 3A ranks. 

We headed to the state tournament with a 24-1 record but as an afterthought as championship contenders.  The 3A tourney was being played in Durham, about 250 miles from Hendersonville, at Durham High School. We arrived on Wednesday March 1st but didn’t have to play until Thursday night. 

Our first-round matchup was against the trash- talking Washington Pam-Pack. They called us country boys and hillbillies. We trailed the whole first half and much of the second half by six to eight points and were in deep foul trouble.  At some point in the second half Washington’s best player, Sam Leggett, sprained his ankle and didn’t return to the game.  The momentum swung our way, and we pulled out a 69-63 win.  I’m thinking, “OK, they know we’re here now, so let’ go win this tournament!”

Next up in the semi-final was 26-0 Madison-Mayodan, which was led by Jerry Moore, one of the top 10 players in the state of North Carolina. Even though Moore hung 34 points on us, we were up by almost 20 points at halftime and cruised to an 88-78 victory. 

The championship game pitted us against the  defending state champion Pinecrest Patriots. They were making their third straight appearance in the 3A championship game.  We were decided underdogs, but we didn’t feel like we were underdogs at all. We knew we had our hands full but felt up to the challenge. A few of the Pinecrest players told us we had no chance as we converged in the hallway on our way out onto the court. 

The first half was a see-saw affair.  Harold Albany, our senior leader, was having maybe his best game of the year. We went into the dressing room leading 38-36.  We were right where we wanted to be and in the second half, picked up the pace.  Late in the third quarter, Albany picked up his third foul and Coach Pardue took him out for a breather.  Even without Harold, we kept on rolling and stretched the lead to 10 or 11 points.

You could sense Pinecrest’s confidence starting to wane. In desperation they started fouling. We knocked down our free throws and walked away with a 74-63 victory.  We’d won 18 straight games to end the season and headed back home to the mountains with the trophy as 3A state champions.

We were met at the Henderson County line by the police and were escorted back to the school where we received a hero’s welcome. It all seemed surreal. We had come full circle, from the devastation of being denied in 1971 to the jubilation of winning it all in 1972.  

You know what? It felt every bit as good as I’d imagined it would.

Johnny Landrum graduated from Howard University, where he played basketball, before enjoying a long career with Bell South/AT&T. He lives in Atlanta.