LAHAINA, Hawaii — The game ball for Monday's North Carolina-Chaminade game was presented by Tom Butler, who played on Dean Smith's first freshman team in 1958 — 50 years ago.
Butler, who went to school at Broughton High and now lives in Wilmington, planned the trip to Maui with his wife, son and grandsons to coincide with his 48th wedding anniversary. It just happened to fall at the same time UNC was playing in the Maui Invitational, so his son contacted the organizers to find a way to buy tickets, and the organizers, in turn, asked Butler to be a part of the game ball presentation.
"It was a fun time,'' Butler said of playing on the freshman team, which boasted only four scholarship players at the time. "Coach Smith remembers everyone who crosses his path; he knows my children, which is amazing."
Five decades later, he's a proud season ticket holder to both Carolina football and basketball games, and was pleased at the chance to watch his alma mater play while on vacation.
"I cannot believe how good they are,'' he said of the current basketball team, "and what a good job Roy Williams is doing, and how successful he is — not just with his coaching, but with his recruiting. He's got the No. 1 team now with all these skilled athletes, and he's going to lose a lot of them, and he's got more coming next year."
Photo courtesy of EA Sports Maui Invitational
Robbi Pickeral has covered ACC sports for The News & Observer since 2003. She can be reached at 
Comments
To my brother BlackSheep
Thu, 12/04/2008 - 13:38 — InheretTheWadBlacksheep:
As you have seen many times it was a very emotional day for Dad. He teared up a little bit, but the best part of the story has still not been told. A few seconds before the ceremony, Dad was handed a "trophy ball" with Roy Williams signature on it as a Thank you from the tournament director for participating. He took this ball with him onto the court and immediatly after the photo you see above was taken, he attempted to leave the court with the signed ball. The official was chasing him, Roy got up and jestured for him to go back out to the court where he posed for a second photo and proceeded to walk off the court with the ball. He was not leetting that ball out of his hands. Jay Bilas later joked that the game was called due to lack of ball. The faithful as well as the team enjoyed this humorous moment and it was very special to see all the coaches as well as the current team and Carolina Faithful applaude Dad for his efforts 50 years ago.
I wish you could have mustered up the courage to attend a Carolina game not involving your beloved Wuffies. We had a wonderful trip and really enjoyed this special moment for Dad. Thanks for the Griswold reference. It did take some out of the box thinking to arrange this opportunity!!
Setting the Record Staight
Thu, 12/04/2008 - 12:59 — BlackSheepAs a WUFPAK grad and youngest son of the subject of this story I felt the need to get this right. Everyting in this story is true, even the part about Dean being an amazing individual, but one part is slightly off. This trip was planned to see the Heels the wedding aniversary just happened to coincide with the Tourney, sorry mom....
I know this because I was invited and respectfully declined as our interest in Tarheel basketball happens once a year at the RBC center, plus we've been to Maui before.
The real hero in the story is my older brother who used his veteran Grizwalding skills to get them in the gym. Otherwize all they would have gotten from this trip was a bad sunburn.
Why laugh at someone who did something that most of us could not
Tue, 11/25/2008 - 15:24 — UNC1998Just a question.
lol
Tue, 11/25/2008 - 10:27 — izzykareemi wonder if he was on that team when Dean the Genius instituted the 4-corners and won some game like 4-2 back before the internet.
What a neat story.
Tue, 11/25/2008 - 10:03 — UNC1998I guess it's true. Once a Tar Heel...forever a Tar Heel.