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SORTS
Nobody cried when Bill Dooley packed his bags
Three yards and a puff of smoke. Uh Oh,
fourth and one at mid-field! Time out.
Dooley confers with his quarterback and
the crowd is tense. Uh Oh, a throng of
boos! Here comes the punter.
Situations like this has put former Tar
Heel footbaU coach Bill Dooley in such a
position that if a popularity contest were
held on this campus between he and for^
mer president Richard Nixon, Tricky Dick
would probably win by a landslide.
While Nixon clung to his seat a little
longer than he should have, Dooley left
Carolina after a more successful cam
paign, for greener pastures. And this is one
time the grass may be greener on the other
side of the fence. $25,000 greener.
Yes, you’ve been reading right. Bill
DAVID R. SQUIRES
Dooley, one half of the coaching Dooley
Brothers (the other half, Vince is a more
popular fella over at Georgia) left his Blue
Wave Defense, “Famous” Amos
Lawrence, a future All-American guard,
and a man called “Horse” for a luerative
(to say the least) 60,000 head coach and
athletic director post at Virginia Tech. (As
Vince Lombardi may have put it, money
“isn’t everything, it’s the oily tling.”
YET NOBODY SHED A TEAR! Nobody.
Unlike most unpopular coaches, Dooley
Sports Editor
was a winner. In fact, he won consistently.
In eleven years he only had four losing
seasons. But Dooley’s Hormation offense
did not set too well with the rich football
supporters at ‘‘Blue Heaven.” They
wanted excitment such as that created
Lou Holtz (now head coach at Arkansas)
while at N.C. State. They wanted a Tom
Landry who always comes out with
something new. Even when Dooley beat
Miami of Ohio with a “swinging gate” play
(in an otherwise dull game) last season,
his critics refused to hush up.
Then came Amos Lawrence, who
guaranteed excitement for every game
and a defense that was number one in the
nation in scoring defense.
A trip to the Liberty Bowl against highly
regarded Nebraska, and on Monday night
football too! The Tar Heels almost won but
couldn’t survive a Nebraska comeback.
But nobody expected us to win the game
anyway. Still, that loss was credited to
poor coaching. “We were out coached,”
said one upset UNC supporter after the
game. “If only we could get rid of that
Dooley,” another said, reflecting the views
of many others.
But after such a successful season it was
assumed that we’d be stuck with Bill
Dooley for a while. “He’ll stidi around
until Amos and the boys leave,” I was told
by one fan. But. . .
After proclaiming the 76 squad to be his
best team ever, Dooley shocked the
average fan by accepting the Virginia
Tech offer and carrying with him most of
his assistants (protobly his only friends).
But if it is so, how is it possible that a
football coach that fields good teams and
wins games could have so very few
friends.
Well, of course his I-formation offense
was a little out of date. (Gee, u.li this is the
20th century), and he was.« bit too co!i-
servative (the Barry Gold water of college
football) but many people even felt that
our gone and almo^ forgotten coach was a
little prejudiced (now that’s George
Wallace stuff) ...
Black fans had a lot of questions this
year. “Didn’t Dooley know that Amos was
good? If so, why did he move Billy Johnson
to tailback at the start of the season, thw
practically bench him for rest of the year?
Now we all Black and white know that the
“Horse” is one of the best pure fullbacks in
the country, don’t we?
And there’s been talk of other Black
players getting raw deals under Dooley.
How about the Charlie Baggett story, an
incident in which Dooley tned to move the
Black quarterback to another position.
Baggett left this southern school to go on to
be a star signal caller at Michigan State.
If Billy Johnny hadn’t hurt his knee
early in the season, Amos Lawrence may
be just another red shirt. When it became
apparent that Johnson wouldn’t have great
success at tailback, the fans and media
had to wait patiently for Dooley to end his
little experiment when he wanted to end it.
No class.
Surely, there was no love lost when Bill
Dooley packed his bags and called it quits
at Carolina. Maybe he’ll find new love at
Tech. After all Virginia is for lovers. But
surely, Bill Dooley must have an old cliche
tucked somewhere in the back of his mind
as he heads north leaving a small town
whidi he must feel is hard to please.
Moreover, he’d better remember it when
he reaches his destination.
It’s not whether you win or lose. It’s how
you play the game. And that’s the bottom
line.
Al Wood: Carolina’s share of a prize crop. Staff photo by James
Parker.
Tar Heeh^ Al Wood, one of the ACC^s best rookies
By JAMES H. ALEXANDER JR.
Staff Writer
The 1977-78 basketball season has
already been tapped as an unveiling
season of prize rookies, with Maryland’s
Albert King and Duke’s Gene Banks
grabbing the early headlines.
One tough freshman who will be hard not
to know when the season is over is UNCs
own Al Wood, a 6’6” ISS-pound freshman
front court man out of the small town of
Gray, Ga., near Macoa
Wood has figured in all of Carolina’s
victories this season, playing behind junior
Dudley Bradley in a sixth-man role. His
presence in Carolina's game is easily felt
as his pin-point shooting and tough board
play has spelled relief for the Tar Heels
after losing standout frontcourt star
Walter Davis to the Phoenix Suns of the
NBA.
Already, Wood has been compared to
“Sweet D” because of his smooth style of
play and seemingly calmness in clutch
situations.
Al starred for Coach Robert Curtis’
Jones County High School roundball squad
for three seasons and averaged 33 points
and 17 caroms his senior season.
•‘We never won any state titles or
anything, but we came out on top in a lot of
other tournaments such as holiday
classics,” said Wood of his high school
years.
The transition from high school ball to
top-level college basketball has been a
tough but short one for Wood, as he now
faces tougher competition, a new and
more complex system and the usual
pressures that plague standout ACC fresh
men.
CoachiDean Smith has Wood playing the
small forward position as the sixth man for
the time being. But Wood’s continued
strong play may catapult him into a
starting role by mid-season, when the ACC
season race is at its peak.
Wood sees his greatest on-court assets as
making fewer mistakes and turnovers and
being able to take advantage of bigger
opponents with his quickness. But, he also
notes that he needs to work a little more on
his defense.
"I love college ball It’s great [laying
before a Urge crowd,” said Wood of his
experience so far this season.
“As far as being at UNC is concerned,
Wood commented, “I like Coach Smith
because he’s a great coach. 1 also like the
academic prestige of Carolina. The
national recognition received here is
great The school has a pretty warm at
mosphere and the people here are real
nice.”
Wood spumed offers from hundreds of
other schools, notably Auburn, UCLA,
Georgia, Maryland, Qemson, Gardner-
Webb and Southern Mississippi to attend
UNC
His older brother Morris is a 6’8”
sophomore frontcourt man with Southern
Mississippi and played with Al for three
years in high school.
“I really didn’t know much about the
ACC until the summer before last,” Wood
said, “but it’s a great conference that can
compete with any other college league in
the nation.”
Wood is playing on a team that lost three
starters to graduation and the pros and
finished second in the NCAA fiivil” last
March.
This season the Tar Heels have the s^vue
expectations but caution their fans noi to
compare them with last season’s squad.
“We haven’t played up to our
capabilities yet, because we are definitely
a championship caliber team in the ACC
and NCAA. We do have great starters and
good depth though, and we are now Just
beginning to put it all together as a unit,”
assessed Wo^ of Carolina’s play so far
this season. The Heels are seconiranked
and had a 10-1 mark heading into the 1978
ACC campaign.
Fot Al Wood, it all began in the seventh
grade when he played his first organized
ball in junior hi^.
“I never really thought of being able to
play college ball until hi^ school,” said
Wood, “and in the 10th grade I had my first
real desire to play in college. My continued
development made me realize that I had a
real good chance.”
The scouts’ questions were answered
whoi Wood scored 49 points and collected
23 rebounds in one game last season. Most
scouting lists had his name in the top class
(rf prep players.
The real test began with the opening of
the six-week ACX season. By the time
the ACC and NCAA tournaments are over
and final selections for the rookie-of-the-
year honor are in, Wood’s now-
overshadowed name is expected to be in
the spotlight And the Cardina basketball
program may be collecting the dividends
from another investment