Olympic Fan
08-04-2017, 02:25 PM
Noted on the front page, but Wake Forest's Dickie Hemric -- the ACC's first superstar -- died last night at the age of 83.
I know he's before most of us came along -- if he was before my time, that makes him really early!
His ACC scoring record that he held for more than 50 years was a bit flukey. Hemric was part of the last group of players allowed to play as freshmen, so he got four years. Two years came in the old Southern Conference. Indeed, as a soph, the 6-6, 220-pounder led Wake over NC State in the Southern Conference title game. It was Wake's only SC title in its three decades in the league and it was the only conference title that Everett Case at NC State lost in his first 10 seasons in Raleigh. A year later, State beat Hemric and Wake Forest in overtime in the title game -- after a controversial finish to the end of regulation.
That's kind of ironic. Hemric was just a small town unknown when he came out of Jonesville, NC. He wanted to play for Case at State. At that time, Case ran a tryout camp for prospective prospects (it was legal when Hemric tried out in the spring of 1951), but Case didn't see Hemric's talent and didn't offer him a scholarship. Murray Greason at Wake Forest did offer Hemric. Not only that, he saw so much potential in the kid that he asked former NBA big man Bones McKinney -- at the time a student at the Wake Theological Seminary -- to help tutor the kid. Bones eventually joined McKinney's staff, then succeeded him and became one of the great coaches in the early ACC.
Hemric was the ACC player of the year in the first two years of the league and finished his career with 2,587 points and 1,802 rebounds. Hemric's point totals remained a record until J.J. Redick passed him in 2006. Hemric's rebound record has never been approached (nobody has ever come within 200 rebounds of his total). I should point out that his high rebound totals are a function of his era -- when teams played a fast tempo and shot poorly ... there were A LOT of missed shots.
Hemric was drafted by the Boston Celtics. He played three years in the NBA and was a member of the Celtics' first championship team in 1957 -- a minor member (he averaged just over 5 points a game).
Still, a great player from the dawn of the ACC ... in fact, the greatest player in the league's first two years.
Note: The tryout camp where Case missed on Hemric was not his worst mistake. Two years later, he held another tryout camp and turned down Lennie Rosenbluth, who would enroll at UNC and help break Case's strangehold on the ACC. Worse, between 1951 and 1953, the NCAA outlawed tryout camps and the Rosenbluth camp cost State one year of probation. That turned out to be 1955 -- a year State beat Duke in the ACC title game. With State unable to go, Duke got its first NCAA trip.
I know he's before most of us came along -- if he was before my time, that makes him really early!
His ACC scoring record that he held for more than 50 years was a bit flukey. Hemric was part of the last group of players allowed to play as freshmen, so he got four years. Two years came in the old Southern Conference. Indeed, as a soph, the 6-6, 220-pounder led Wake over NC State in the Southern Conference title game. It was Wake's only SC title in its three decades in the league and it was the only conference title that Everett Case at NC State lost in his first 10 seasons in Raleigh. A year later, State beat Hemric and Wake Forest in overtime in the title game -- after a controversial finish to the end of regulation.
That's kind of ironic. Hemric was just a small town unknown when he came out of Jonesville, NC. He wanted to play for Case at State. At that time, Case ran a tryout camp for prospective prospects (it was legal when Hemric tried out in the spring of 1951), but Case didn't see Hemric's talent and didn't offer him a scholarship. Murray Greason at Wake Forest did offer Hemric. Not only that, he saw so much potential in the kid that he asked former NBA big man Bones McKinney -- at the time a student at the Wake Theological Seminary -- to help tutor the kid. Bones eventually joined McKinney's staff, then succeeded him and became one of the great coaches in the early ACC.
Hemric was the ACC player of the year in the first two years of the league and finished his career with 2,587 points and 1,802 rebounds. Hemric's point totals remained a record until J.J. Redick passed him in 2006. Hemric's rebound record has never been approached (nobody has ever come within 200 rebounds of his total). I should point out that his high rebound totals are a function of his era -- when teams played a fast tempo and shot poorly ... there were A LOT of missed shots.
Hemric was drafted by the Boston Celtics. He played three years in the NBA and was a member of the Celtics' first championship team in 1957 -- a minor member (he averaged just over 5 points a game).
Still, a great player from the dawn of the ACC ... in fact, the greatest player in the league's first two years.
Note: The tryout camp where Case missed on Hemric was not his worst mistake. Two years later, he held another tryout camp and turned down Lennie Rosenbluth, who would enroll at UNC and help break Case's strangehold on the ACC. Worse, between 1951 and 1953, the NCAA outlawed tryout camps and the Rosenbluth camp cost State one year of probation. That turned out to be 1955 -- a year State beat Duke in the ACC title game. With State unable to go, Duke got its first NCAA trip.