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While Dell Curry is now known in public mostly for being the father of two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Steph Curry, he had his own stellar NBA career.
Known for his three-point sharpshooting at a time when the NBA was far less enamored with that long-distance shot, the elder Curry had a 16-year NBA career that included 10 years as a player for the Hornets from 1988-98 -- the team's first 10 seasons. Curry earned the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award in 1994 and retired as the Charlotte Hornets’ all-time leading scorer (a record that stood for 20-plus years before it was broken by Kemba Walker). He and Muggsy Bogues both came to the Hornets via the 1988 NBA expansion draft and quickly became fan favorites in Charlotte.
Curry has served as the Charlotte Hornets’ color analyst on the team’s TV broadcasts since 2009. Now 59, Curry grew up in rural Virginia and has lived in Charlotte since his 2002 retirement from the NBA. He is the father of two current NBA players -- Steph and Seth -- and talks in this interview about the time Steph nearly quit basketball in frustration. We conducted this conversation in between sessions at a basketball camp Dell Curry has conducted for decades at Charlotte’s Levine Jewish Community Center.
Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Loumay Alesali, Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. Our interns on this production are Zoe Williams and Christina Silvestri. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends.
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As the NFL Draft approaches, the Carolina Panthers can only hope to hit a second-round home run like they did with Muhsin Muhammad.
The Panthers hold two high second-round picks — the 33rd and 39th overall — in the draft that starts April 25. In 1996, Muhammad was a promising wide receiver out of Michigan State that Carolina nabbed with the 43rd overall pick.
“Moose,” as most everyone calls him, went on to play 14 NFL seasons, including 11 with Carolina, and was known for his physicality, great hands and knack for making the biggest plays in the biggest games, He still owns the Super Bowl record for longest touchdown catch, at 85 yards against New England in the 2003 postseason.
Now 50 years old, Muhammad and his wife Christa have raised their six kids in the Charlotte area, and those kids have produced numerous college diplomas and athletic accolades. The Panthers, meanwhile, inducted Muhammad into the team’s Hall of Honor in 2023, and his name is now displayed at the top of Bank of America Stadium.
We met Muhammad at his office in Charlotte for his “Sports Legends” interview. He talked about shushing the crowd in Philly, his thoughts on the 2024 Panthers and Nick Saban’s viral comments about Moose that are still making the rounds on social media a decade later.
Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Loumay Alesali, Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends.
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Ahead of the Women's Final Four, in this special rebroadcast episode (originally aired on October 5th, 2022), Scott Fowler sits down with legendary USC coaching legend Dawn Staley.
Dawn Staley, star of this week’s episode of “Sports Legends of the Carolinas,” has had one of the most sensational careers in women’s basketball history. Currently the head women’s basketball coach at South Carolina, Staley’s Gamecock squads won national titles in both 2017 and 2022 and lead the nation in women’s basketball attendance every year. Under Staley, USC has also made the Final Four in four of the past seven seasons, and will be favored to repeat as national champions during the 2022-23 season.
Before her standout coaching career, Staley, 52, was the ACC Player of the Year in 1991 and 1992 at Virginia; a three-time WNBA All-Star for the Charlotte Sting; and a three-time Olympic gold medalist. Staley looks back at her road to South Carolina; the possibility of someday coaching in the NBA; and why her former players think she's going soft.
Then, Staley talks about sharing pieces of her national championship nets with Black coaches and journalists; her 5-year-old gray-and-white Havanese rescue dog, Champ, who’s become a star in his own right; and how she motivates players who have already won a national title.
This episode was originally published in two parts, with the second exclusive to premium subscribers. Now, for the first time, the full interview is combined here.
Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Loumay Alesali, Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends.
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Alonzo Mourning would have become the greatest player in Charlotte Hornets history — if he had only stuck around.
Mourning played his first three NBA seasons with Charlotte after the Hornets drafted him No. 2 overall in 1992. He quickly turned into an intimidating, 6-foot-10 star for a Charlotte team on the rise. His scowl could scare you. His dunks could dent the hardwood. But a salary dispute led to the Hornets trading Mourning in November 1995 to Miami, where he became an even bigger star, won an NBA title in 2006 and eventually made the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 2014.
For his “Sports Legends of the Carolinas” interview, we met Mourning in Miami, where he still lives and works for the Miami Heat, now as the team’s vice president of player programs.
Mourning, 54, discussed his years in Charlotte in detail and said he wanted to stay in Charlotte badly enough that he would have given the Hornets a substantial financial discount if they would have valued him correctly and kept him.
“I’m going to be extremely transparent to everybody out there,” Mourning said at one point in our interview. “Listen, I was willing to take a lot less money than I received in Miami.”
Mourning also discussed his life-threatening kidney disease and subsequent transplant in 2003, as well as his memory of making the greatest shot in Charlotte Hornets history in 1993.
Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Loumay Alesali, Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends.
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In Gastonia, Leonard Hamilton remembers restaurants he wasn’t allowed to come inside due to his skin color. He sat in the balcony of a movie theater because Blacks weren’t allowed to sit downstairs. He drank from one water fountain; whites drank from another.
With the help of faith and family, Hamilton rose from those circumstances to a coaching career that has now spanned more than 50 years. At age 75, Hamilton has directed the Florida State basketball program since 2002 and will lead the Seminoles in the ACC tournament, which begins Tuesday in Washington, D.C. He previously was the head coach at Miami, Oklahoma State and, for one season, with the NBA's Washington Wizards. A major gospel music fan, Hamilton also has his own gospel music recording label.
In his “Sports Legends of the Carolinas” interview, the three-time ACC Coach of the Year opened up about Gastonia, segregation and a coaching career where Hamilton has always been entrusted with teams that need “a little fixing up.”
Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Loumay Alesali, Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends.
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The siren song of a bouncing basketball led Bobby Cremins all over the Carolinas.
Cremins crisscrossed both states during his hoops journey. He played basketball under Frank McGuire at the University of South Carolina in the late 1960s. He left for North Carolina to become the head coach at Appalachian State at age 27. At the end of his career, he would coach at the College of Charleston.
It was in between those two jobs where Cremins made his greatest mark nationally. Cremins coached Georgia Tech from 1981 to 2000 while earning multiple ACC championships, winning three ACC Coach of the Year honors and directing the Rambling Wreck all the way to the Final Four in 1990.
After 31 years as a college basketball head coach, Cremins now lives in Hilton Head, S.C., not far from the beach, with his wife, Carolyn. At age 76, he’s as charming as ever and surrounded by memorabilia from his career. His pickleball paddles are stowed by the front door. He remains a huge fan of the “March Madness” NCAA Tournament and claims he will fight anyone who ever tries to mess with basketball’s greatest month.
Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Loumay Alesali, Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends.
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Richard Petty is 86 years old now, and his seven NASCAR Cup championships and record 200 wins at the sport’s highest level came long ago. But Petty is still going strong in Level Cross (pop. 3694), which sits right in the middle of Charlotte and Raleigh. Petty lives a stone’s throw from the house where he was born, and that house sits right next to the Petty Museum that houses an incredible amount of his stuff.
Nicknamed “The King” and a member of the inaugural class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, Petty long ago developed a signature look that is all his own: cowboy hat, black sunglasses, oversized belt buckle and cowboy boots. He showed up wearing exactly that to our interview.
Honestly, I would have been a little disappointed if he didn’t.
This interview with Petty serves as the Season 3 kickoff for the “Sports Legends of the Carolinas” multimedia project. Petty and I sat inside his museum, on two high-back chairs, and talked about life, death, racing, autographs, Daytona, family and the time his own father took his first race win away from him via protest.
After we were done, a surprisingly spry Petty hopped off the chair and said: “You got my whole history, didn’t ya?”
Not quite, but we did hit a lot of the highlights. On the eve of the 2024 NASCAR season and the Daytona 500, there’s no better way to rev up the racing anticipation than a visit with “The King.”
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Loumay Alesali, Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends.
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From 1987-89, Steve Spurrier was the head coach at Duke, leading the Blue Devils to an ACC Football Championship in 1989. As a player, he won the Heisman Trophy in 1966 at the University of Florida. Coach Spurrier then returned to Florida as its coach in 1990.
Known as an offensive mastermind, Spurrier led the Gators to multiple SEC titles, as well as the national championship in 1997. Spurrier has deep connections to both Carolinas, because after Florida and a 2-year stint with Washington’s NFL team, Spurrier came to South Carolina, where he was the head coach of the Gamecocks for a decade, beating Clemson five straight times at one point, before abruptly retiring in the middle of the 2015 season.
We’d like to thank the Washington Duke Inn and Golf Club for providing space for this interview.
This episode is sponsored by Audi Charlotte. Celebrate the season with holiday savings on new Audis. You belong in an Audi from Audi Charlotte.
Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Loumay Alesali, Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. Our interns on this production are Zoe Williams and Christina Silvestri. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends.
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As a once-in-a-generation quarterback at Appalachian State in Boone, N.C., Armanti Edwards led the Mountaineers to FCS national championships in 2006 and 2007 as well as an extraordinary road win over then-No. 5 Michigan, often called the biggest upset in college football history.
Lightly recruited out of Greenwood, S.C., Edwards would become the first two-time Walter Payton winner as the FCS National Player of the Year. He was also a four-time All-American and led App State to a 42-7 record as a starter. Edwards then became a third-round NFL draft pick by the Carolina Panthers. The Panthers employed Edwards from 2010 to 2013, trying to switch him from a star quarterback to wide receiver and punt returner with little success.
That was a period where Edwards said he experienced “the darkest time in my football career.” In our "Sports Legends" interview he also discussed in detail for the first time the circumstances of his release from the Panthers in 2013. Edwards would then have a strong career as a wideout in the Canadian Football League, where he once played on a team that won the CFL’s equivalent of the Super Bowl. He now lives in Charlotte with his wife and two children.
Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Loumay Alesali, Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. McClatchy's director of audio is Davin Coburn. Our interns on this production are Zoe Williams and Christina Silvestri. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends.
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Steph Curry, the all-everything point guard for the Golden State Warriors, is still in the prime of his career and already a “Sports Legend of the Carolinas.” In this deeply personal retrospective, the eight-time All-Star, four-time NBA champ and two-time league MVP offers Scott Fowler never-before-heard details about Curry's high school career for the Charlotte Christian Knights; leading Davidson College to the Elite Eight in 2008 — and in the process, giving Roy Williams and Mike Krzyzewski a glimpse of the talent UNC and Duke never bothered to recruit; the challenges for Curry of following in the NBA footsteps of his famous father, Dell; the biggest wins of his own sterling career; and the one thing that could get Curry to leave Golden State.
This special bonus episode of Sports Legends of the Carolinas is free for all listeners in its entirety. The episode is sponsored by Parker Poe, a law firm representing many of the Southeast’s largest companies and local governments in business and real estate transactions, regulatory issues, and complex litigation.
Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. McClatchy's director of audio is Davin Coburn. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends .
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While Dell Curry is now known in public mostly for being the father of two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Steph Curry, he had his own stellar NBA career.
Known for his three-point sharpshooting at a time when the NBA was far less enamored with that long-distance shot, the elder Curry had a 16-year NBA career that included 10 years as a player for the Hornets from 1988-98 -- the team's first 10 seasons. Curry earned the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award in 1994 and retired as the Charlotte Hornets’ all-time leading scorer (a record that stood for 20-plus years before it was broken by Kemba Walker). He and Muggsy Bogues both came to the Hornets via the 1988 NBA expansion draft and quickly became fan favorites in Charlotte.
Curry has served as the Charlotte Hornets’ color analyst on the team’s TV broadcasts since 2009. Now 59, Curry grew up in rural Virginia and has lived in Charlotte since his 2002 retirement from the NBA. He is the father of two current NBA players -- Steph and Seth -- and talks in this interview about the time Steph nearly quit basketball in frustration. We conducted this conversation in between sessions at a basketball camp Dell Curry has conducted for decades at Charlotte’s Levine Jewish Community Center.
Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Loumay Alesali, Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. Our interns on this production are Zoe Williams and Christina Silvestri. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends.
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Kicking off Season 2 of Sports Legends of the Carolinas, this week's guest is Greg Olsen, who lit up opposing defenses for nine years as a Pro Bowl tight end for the Carolina Panthers, and has had an extraordinary start to his second career: calling color for the NFL on FOX.
Olsen lives in Charlotte with his wife Kara and their three children — Tate, Talbot and T.J. He is almost as well known in the Queen City for his charity work as he is for his football and broadcasting prowess. We did this interview at a Charlotte steakhouse called “Steak 48,” which on Feb. 27 will host an Olsen charity event to benefit his “The HEARTest Yard” initiative.
In this conversation, Olsen discussed Tom Brady (before Brady retired from the NFL on February 2); the upcoming Super Bowl; T.J.'s continued improvement after his heart transplant in 2021; and why Carolina’s loss to Denver in Super Bowl 50 still gnaws at Olsen.
Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Loumay Alesali, Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends.
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Tommy Burleson was the literal centerpiece of one of the best college basketball teams in the history of the Carolinas — the 1974 N.C. State Wolfpack.
Burleson, point guard Monte Towe and high-flying forward David Thompson led that N.C. State team to a national championship, ending UCLA’s streak of seven consecutive NCAA titles in the national semifinal in double overtime and then beating Marquette in the final.
Anxious to christen Burleson as college basketball’s tallest player, N.C. State listed him at 7-foot-4. Burleson was actually 7-2, but he was also a far more athletic center than most people assumed. A mountain of a man, Burleson grew up in a tiny town called Newland in the mountains of western North Carolina. As a teenager, Burleson was nicknamed the “Newland Needle” due to his skinny build.
Burleson played for the U.S. Olympic team in 1972, where he had a terrifying experience. He was later named the two-time MVP of the ACC tournament, starring in one of the greatest college basketball games ever in the 1974 ACC tourney final against Maryland — a 103-100 Wolfpack win.
After a seven-year NBA career that ended in 1981, Burleson returned to North Carolina and his beloved mountains. Now 71, he’s been a larger-than-life presence in his home county of Avery, where he served as a county planner for decades and also had a Christmas tree farm with his three sons that helped fund his missionary work.
Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Loumay Alesali, Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends.
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In 1994, Jeff Gordon won his first race in NASCAR’s signature series, taking the checkered flag at the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway at age 22.
Gordon would win 92 more times after that, becoming racing royalty and a NASCAR hall of famer. Now he’s our latest subject of “Sports Legends of the Carolinas,” the multimedia project in which we interview sports stars about their journeys to iconic status and their struggles along the way.
Somehow, Gordon is 51 years old. He’s been a household name in NASCAR for the past three decades. After a six-year stint in the TV broadcast booth, he now works as vice chairman at Hendrick Motorsports, the place where he launched his own career in the sport. He and his family live in Charlotte.
In his racing prime, Gordon turned into such a crossover star that he became the first NASCAR driver to ever host “Saturday Night Live.” In this interview, which we conducted in his office at Hendrick Motorsports, he talked about his favorite character from that SNL appearance, as well as teaching his daughter how to drive, his early days as a breakdancer (yes, seriously) and his rivalry with Dale Earnhardt Sr.
Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Loumay Alesali, Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends.
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As a child growing up in Gibsonville, N.C., Torry Holt occasionally pulled tobacco for $5 an hour. Holt would later grow up to make millions in the NFL after starring at N.C. State, where the wide receiver was named the ACC’s Player of the Year in 1998.
Our interview subject this week for “Sports Legends of the Carolinas,” Holt once scored five touchdowns in a single game for the Wolfpack against Florida State. Following an All-American senior season at N.C. State, he was drafted No. 6 overall by the St. Louis Rams in 1999.
Holt quickly won a Super Bowl with the Rams as a rookie and became an essential part of an offense quarterbacked by Kurt Warner and known as “The Greatest Show on Turf.” He made the Pro Bowl seven times and had six consecutive seasons of 1,300 or more receiving yards.
Now 47, Holt has moved back to the Raleigh area. There, he and his brother Terrence, also a former NFL player, run Holt Brothers Inc., and are involved in a variety of business and philanthropic ventures, including a successful construction company and a charitable foundation that supports children who have a parent with cancer.
This conversation was conducted while Holt was visiting Charlotte, serving in his role as an NFL global flag football ambassador for a USA Football event. The interview is edited for clarity and brevity.
Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Loumay Alesali, Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends.
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This week on Sports Legends of the Carolinas, Alex Zietlow interviews Coach Mike Krzyzewski, or Coach K. Mike Krzyzewski served as an astonishing basketball coach for 47 years and has impacted the game and this state forever. In his 42 years coaching the Blue Devils, he led the team to 5 national titles, 13 Final Fours and 1,202 wins — the most all-time. As if that was not enough, Coach K was Team USA’s head basketball coach in three straight Olympic Games, earning gold medals every time, and he has a remarkable story attached to each and every one of his accomplishments.
Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Loumay Alesali, Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. McClatchy's director of audio is Davin Coburn. Our interns on this production are Christina Silvestri and Zoe Williams. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends.
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Thomas Davis is one of the most popular players in Carolina Panthers history, as well as one of the toughest.
The Panthers’ all-time leading tackler, Davis is also the only player in NFL history to successfully come back from three ACL surgeries on the very same knee. Not only that, he played in Super Bowl 50 following the 2015 season after breaking his arm only two weeks before.
Now age 40, Davis was the Panthers’ first-round draft choice in 2005 and played the next 14 years for the Panthers as a heat-seeking linebacker who was also a community servant off the field. for much of that time, he was paired with Luke Kuechly to form perhaps the NFL's best linebacker tandem. But what he believes is his highest individual honor came in 2014, when he was named the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year for his community service.
Remarkably, Davis had his best seasons in the NFL late in his career, with all three of his Pro Bowl appearances coming after his three ACL surgeries. He played elsewhere in 2019 and 2020 before returning to Charlotte, where he and his family have long kept their permanent home. Davis signed a one-day contract in March 2021 so he could retire as a Panther and now owns and operates a sports bar and lounge called TEN58 in uptown Charlotte.
Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Loumay Alesali, Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends.
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Not too many former college football players can point to a Heisman Trophy sitting in their TV room and persuade you to pick it up to feel its weight, but former South Carolina running back George Rogers can.
As we anticipate Saturday night’s season opener between South Carolina and North Carolina in Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium, one of the greatest Gamecock athletes of all time is the star of this week’s “Sports Legends of the Carolinas.”
Rogers had 27 games in which he rushed for more than 100 yards for USC. In 1980, he won that Heisman Trophy (which turns out to be surprisingly heavy) after an extraordinary senior season.
Following his college career at USC, Rogers became the first overall pick of the 1981 NFL draft by the New Orleans Saints and immediately led the NFL in rushing yards as a rookie. He played for seven seasons in the NFL, for New Orleans and Washington, and was a two-time Pro Bowler who once scored 18 touchdowns in a single season. In his final NFL season, in 1987, Rogers won a Super Bowl ring with Washington.
Now 64 years old, Rogers and his wife, Brenda, live about 20 minutes from Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, S.C. A 13-foot statue of Rogers stands near the stadium.
Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Loumay Alesali, Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. Our interns on this production are Zoe Williams and Christina Silvestri. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends.
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Erin Matson was arguably the best field hockey player in NCAA history. While at UNC, she led the Tar Heels to four national championships, and three times she was named the national player of the year.
Then came a startling twist -- at age 22, only one month after graduation, Matson was named the head coach of the very UNC team she had been starring for, replacing Karen Shelton.
Shelton won 10 NCAA titles at UNC, so Matson (now age 23) begins her coaching career with big shoes to fill. Think of it like this: What if Mia Hamm had finished her college career at UNC and then had immediately started coaching the Tar Heels' women’s soccer team? That’s what has happened here, just in a different sport. In this interview, Matson talks about coaching players who some cases are literally older than she is, as well as her upbringing in Pennsylvania and the part of coaching she just hasn't mastered yet.
Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Loumay Alesali, Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. Our interns on this production are Zoe Williams and Christina Silvestri. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends.
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Bobby Richardson, this week’s star of “Sports Legends of the Carolinas,” was a notable New York Yankee who never really left his South Carolina hometown.
Born and raised in Sumter, S.C., about 110 miles southeast of Charlotte, Richardson still lives there today, with his wife Betsy, in a house he built in 1960. He turns 88 years old in August but still has a remarkable memory, especially for the time he spent wearing the Yankees’ famous pinstripes.
Richardson played for the Yankees for his entire major league career from 1955-1966, competing in seven World Series and winning three of them with teammates like Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Yogi Berra. He was a seven-time All-Star, then retired at age 31. Richardson remains the only World Series MVP in a losing cause, winning the award in 1960 despite Pittsburgh winning the World Series that year.
After retirement, Richardson would become a college baseball coach for three different teams -- including the University of South Carolina -- as well as a well-known Christian speaker who evangelized alongside Billy Graham and spoke at a dozen of his former Yankee teammates' funerals. We spoke in the family room of his home in Sumter, surrounded by mementos of his career.
Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Loumay Alesali, Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. Our interns on this production are Zoe Williams and Christina Silvestri. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends.
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