Sports

The Significance of UNC Women’s Basketball’s Annual BHM Game

Landon Bost

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Even though the North Carolina Women’s Basketball schedule was released in September, last Thursday’s Black History Month celebration game against Boston College took years to plan. 

It all began with a conversation over the phone between Tracey Williams-Johnson, former Carolina assistant basketball coach, and O.J. McGhee, Carolina Black Caucus Chair-Emeritus, four years ago. 

“He and I were just talking,” Williams-Johnson said, “and I was just telling him that I had a vision that I would love to be able to go back, and recognize some of the players, and some of the people in the community, and the university community, who had done some great things.” 

After their conversation, Williams-Johnson thumbed through vintage photos of Tar Heels Women’s Basketball dating back to the earliest pictures of teams. Upon further planning, Williams-Johnson, McGhee and a steering committee of members from the Carolina Black Caucus collaborated with the UNC Athletics Department. After ironing out logistical issues, they had gathered enough information to host the first ever BHM celebration game, which happened Feb. 18, 2016 against the University of Pittsburgh. 

(From left to right) O.J. McGhee, Hortense McClinton and Tracey Williams-Johnson. Picture courtesy of the Carolina Black Caucus.
(From left to right) O.J. McGhee, Hortense McClinton and Tracey Williams-Johnson. Picture courtesy of the Carolina Black Caucus.

“Well actually the very first time we did this,” Williams-Johnson said, “we didn’t really have a person, but what we did was we had a lot of pictures and lot of historic facts from UNC that we actually put on the jumbotron.”

The BHM celebration game recognized its first honorees in 2017.

The cohort included Karen Parker, UNC’s first African-American female undergraduate; Kathy Crawford, Henrietta Walls and Deanna Thomas, UNC’s first African-American female scholarship athletes; Rochelle Small-Toney, the first African-American to play for UNC Women’s basketball after walking on to the team in 1977 when Jennifer Alley was the Tar Heel’s head coach and Hortense McClinton, UNC’s first African-American faculty member.

“I went to Chapel Hill working as a teacher in 1966,” McClinton said when asked about how she felt when she was honored, “and I was very emotional, very appreciated, very honored that they would even think about me. And it was a very great honor, and people were very, very, nice. And I met some young ladies who played on the team. So, it was a very good experience.” 

The honorees for 2018, includes Dr. Deborah Stroman, the first African-American Carolina Women’s basketball coach, who’s also the first African-American female scholarship athlete at the University of Virginia; Edith Wiggins, the first African-American female vice chancellor of UNC; Howard Lee, the first black mayor of Chapel Hill or any predominantly white city in the south; and Tresa Brown, UNC Women’s basketball first Kodak All-American and All-ACC member. 

Also, in 2018, the event became so large that a reception was held in the museum, as well as the lobby of Carmichael Arena prior to tipoff. McGhee said that in the inaugural BHM game, “The first event was just a reception held in the UNC Women’s Basketball conference room.”

2019 Black History Month Celebration game honorees (from left to right), Rear Admiral Larry Poe, Tracy Reid, Charlotte Smith and Harry Stafford. Picture courtesy of the Carolina Black Caucus.

This year’s game honored Rear Admiral Larry Poe; Tracy Reid, the No. 2 scorer in Carolina Women’s Basketball history and first Tar Heels WNBA draft pick; Charlotte Smith, UNC Women’s basketball first National Player of the Year; and Dr. Harry Stafford, the Lady Tar Heels’ longtime team physician. 

“I loved it,” said Tar Heels’ head coach Sylvia Hatchell when asked about talking with guests at the at the 2019 BHM celebration game reception. “So many of those people I’ve known, and I’ve known forever, and they’ve helped me through my career. So many of the folks that were in there. And I just love them to death. We got some really, really, outstanding African-American people here in this community, and at this university, and I could just name them all off, but I just love them to death.” 

If tradition holds, next year will mark the fifth anniversary of the BHM celebration game. 

“It’s been an honor to be a member of the black caucus,” Williams-Johnson said, “and of course, work with UNC Women’s basketball on this joint effort. And I would just like to see this event be an annual event, continue to grow, and to make sure we honor people while they’re still living and not wait till they pass.”