Erik Martin, who grew up in Carrboro and lives there today, is fascinated with Chapel Hill’s history. Martin recently started a new weekly blog looking back at Chapel Hill, week by week, in 1974. You can read and subscribe to Chapel Hill Rear View here. New posts go up on Sundays or Mondays about the week ahead, 50 years ago.
We are republishing one of Martin’s columns below, with his permission. He is interested in connecting with individuals who may have specific memories related to these stories. You can reach Martin at: [email protected].
January 6th – 12th, 1975 (link)
The beginnings of OWASA, acerbic movie reviews & the most absurd cold war sports story you’ve never heard
Incredible as it may seem, this Farcical Basketball Story is True
The Daily Tar Heel. Chapel Hill, North Carolina • Thu, Jan 9, 1975
50 yrs ago, one of the most bizarre & hilariously mismatched basketball games in UNC history took place – and almost no one knows about it During the Cold War in 1975, UNC faculty & students planned a cultural visit to the USSR over Winter Break.
The UNC group thought it would be fun to arrange a casual pickup basketball game between American and Russian students. The host organization Soviet-American Friendship Society never replied to the proposal, so UNC organizers considered the idea dropped.
Upon arrival in Russia, the UNC group discovered the pickup game idea they thought forgotten had mutated into a major international event. Through bureaucratic mix-ups & mistranslation, the Soviet organizers believed they were hosting not just a friendly match between students, but a marquee competition against the actual UNC varsity men’s basketball team—a top-ten powerhouse program led by future NBA stars Phil Ford, Walter Davis, and Mitch Kupchak.
The Soviets spared no expense. They assembled the “Lesgaft Institute of Physical Culture All-Stars” – essentially an Olympic-level squad drawn from across the USSR at great expense. They promoted the game Soviet-Style as a major International sporting spectacle!
Official radio announcements convinced two thousand Russian fans to stand in lines during Leningrad winter cold, hoping to secure tickets in the 1,200-seat gym. UNC Prof Gerry Unks, who led the group, recognized the mix-up upon arrival. Despite his repeated attempts to explain, Soviet officials refused to believe—or perhaps couldn’t admit—that he wasn’t the legendary coach Dean Smith, or that these weren’t the players from a top 10 team.
With no other choice, Unks & the tour group leaders cobbled together a team of “Woolen Gym Amateurs” who took the court in rolled-up jeans and some hastily assembled orange jerseys. The arena was turned into a “low-camp Olympics.”
The pre-game ceremonies featured Castro-style speeches and one-sided gift exchanges. International FIBA refs were even brought in to officiate the matchup. The amateur Tar Heels managed to score first, but what followed was a predictable massacre.
The UNC students spent most of the game laughing, even as they were being thoroughly outmatched by Soviet semi-pros who had trained for weeks preparing for what they thought would be a landmark victory over one of America’s top college programs.
Final score: Lesgaft Institute 92, “North Carolina University” 41.
The elite Soviet athletes must have been bewildered as they immediately realized this wasn’t the marquee matchup they’d prepared for.
It’s worth noting that international matches were common then – UNC’s actual team had played several international squads in Madrid just weeks before, with Walter Davis hitting a 30-foot buzzer-beater to beat Cuba 87-86.
Later in 1975, The Soviet National Team would visit Chapel Hill, and lose 82-78 to the actual UNC Men’s Basketball Team coached by the real Dean Smith.
But on this winter day in Leningrad, it was just some college students in jeans playing against what was essentially the Soviet national team reserves – creating one of the most lopsided and amusing “losses” in UNC basketball history.
The Early Beginnings of OWASA
The Daily Tar Heel. Chapel Hill, North Carolina · Thursday, January 09, 1975
The Chapel Hill News, Chapel Hill, North Carolina · December 24th, 1974
If you live in the the Carrboro-Chapel Hill area, you’re likely somewhat familiar with OWASA (Orange Water and Sewer Authority) since it’s the organization that sends the water bill. It’s easy to take OWASA for granted but years of planning and forethought went into the creation of our merged water system. Prior to OWASA, much of the municipal water service was handled by the University, which often didn’t have the necessary resources to meet the needs of all residents.
In 1977 OWASA was officially created as the nonprofit public utility that provides water and sewage services to Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Orange County. These 1974 & 1975 votes & decisions created the basis for this three-way partnership that still shapes our communities today. In an earlier statement on the entity that would become OWASA, visionary Chapel Hill Mayor Howard Lee said, “A water authority will give us a good bit of leverage in deciding what type of development takes place.”
When Movie Reviews Pulled No Punches
The Daily Tar Heel. Chapel Hill, North Carolina • Jan 8, 1975
The Daily Tar Heel. Chapel Hill, North Carolina • Jan 8, 1975
Perhaps more jarring than the $2.25 movies prices, is the reminder that movie reviews’ physical closeness to theater listings gave the opinions extra weight. These days there are endless & sometimes amazing places to read, curate & contribute movie reviews. For better or worse, it was different when sharp reviews were printed right beside the ticket prices. And DTH’s reviewers certainly weren’t holding back, even calling out sacred cows like James Bond & ‘Easy Rider:
“Sixties Hero James Bond has degenerated into a dirty old mannikin”, & “William Bayer calls [Easy Rider] one of ‘The Great Movies’ but I doubt it. It was simply in the right time at the right place, reinforcing our feelings of middle American harassment and waxing somewhat idyllic about dropping out.”