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By Brian Pitts
Enterprise Record

On the night of March 25, 1985, Rodney Barker was a whirlwind every time he touched the rock. Johnny Miller banged underneath with Lorenzo Charles. Ronnie “Jungle” James bodied up with gigantic Cozell McQueen. Chris Hendrix faked out Buzz Peterson on a fast break. Jake Cornelison discarded Terry Gannon with a behind-the-back dribble. Barry Chunn competed against Spud Webb in the dunk contest.
Something pretty fascinating happened on that Monday night 40 years ago: The ACC All-Star Basketball Classic came to Davie High, the Davie County All-Stars took on the ACC All-Stars, the local ballers lost by 40 and it was wonderful.
No, young’uns, we’re not making that up. Twenty-two locals suited up against seniors from North Carolina, Wake Forest and N.C. State. The event was sponsored by the South Davie Junior High Parent/Teacher/Student Association to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association of North Carolina.
Tickets were $5. The dunk contest was held at halftime, the winner decided by fan approval. There was an autograph session after the game; you could get a program-autograph book for a buck. A raffle was held for the game ball, which was autographed after the game. Raffle tickets were 50 cents and Tracy Deal won the autographed ball. The South Davie cheerleaders performed.
Game time was scheduled for 8 p.m., but it was almost 8:30 before most of the ACC players arrived due to N.C. State’s plane from Denver not landing in Raleigh until late afternoon. Over 900 fans packed Davie’s gym to watch the 135-95 extravaganza that created unforgettable memories.
Davie rolled out three teams. Representing the South Davie PTSA were Jerry Callison, Vanessa Carter, Charles Crenshaw, Phil Deadmon, Ricky Hendricks, Donna Ireland, Tim Johnson and Stan Morgan. Team two was Mocksville Builders: Milton Auman, Cornelison, Perry Creason, Hendrix, James, Miller and Craig Ward. The third squad from Drexel-Heritage Company: Barker, Chunn, Dwayne Gaither, Randy Mayfield, Lefty Stewart, Mike Stewart and Buster White.
The ACC All-Stars featured UNC’s Peterson, Cliff Morris and Gary Roper; Wake Forest’s Delaney Rudd; and N.C. State’s Gannon, Charles, McQueen, Webb and Mike Warren.
The referees were Mike Garner and Don Eaton. The ball boys were Charlie Crenshaw and Scott Callison.
As far as the ladies were concerned, the coolest ACC player was Peterson, who is famous for being Michael Jordan’s roommate when they were freshmen at North Carolina in 1981. The Enterprise wrote that Peterson was the “heart throb of the teeny boppers.”
“I was obsessed with Buzz,” said Julie Phelps, who was 15 and a South Davie cheerleader at the time. “I remember some of his sweat dropped on the picture he was signing for me and I thought I was gonna die. I had his sweat stain forever.”
“That was the best day ever when they came to Davie,” Carrie McGuire said.
Rudd poured in 34 team-high points for the ACC All-Stars. Peterson threw alley-oops to Webb and McQueen and put up 17 points.
The Davie participants remember it like it was yesterday. It was like being in the middle of a country music song.
“Guess who I got to guard?” Miller said. “Lorenzo Charles. I’d done better trying to move the gymnasium than move him off the block. We had a lot of fun.”
“(McQueen) covered the whole lane,” Charles Crenshaw said. “I mean, he was a giant. Ronnie was a horse and I remember Cozell completely stymied Jungle. Jungle couldn’t even move and Jungle was like a bull.”
“Cozell posted me up two or three times,” Hendrix said. “I told him if he wouldn’t dunk on me, I promise I won’t dunk on him. I was all over him. He scored and they called a foul on me. I said: ‘Are y’all gonna call touch fouls in this game?’ We were laughing and cutting up.”
Webb, who would win the 1986 NBA Dunk Contest at 5-foot-7, could jump small buildings, and he was breathtakingly quick.
“Man, Spud Webb was quick,” Hendrix said. “I don’t see how anybody anywhere could keep up with him. I know we were all nervous the first three or four minutes.”
“The place was packed with people,” Cornelison said. “It was a pretty big deal. It was a lot of fun. They were all good guys, too.”
The Davie teams rotated. The South Davie teachers took the court first. The Mocksville Builders were next. Then came Drexel-Heritage. One of the few Davie players who seemed unfazed by the large specimens from the ACC was Morgan, who paced the South Davie squad with 10 points.
“I remember we went out there on the floor and we were kinda nervous,” Crenshaw said. “And Stan Morgan just went out there and hit about three shots in a row. He played somewhere (in college). He was probably 35 or 40 years old and it didn’t bother him at all.”
Hendrix’s improvisation on a two-on-one fast break was a thing of beauty.
“Buzz Peterson got me hung in the air – he had it played good – and I just threw it off the backboard,” he said. “I threw a pass to myself and tapped it in. Buzz was just shaking his head. They were fun to be around. They could have stopped us from scoring 95 points if they wanted to. They put on a show and they let us compete.”
Cornelison remembers his highlight moment vividly. He also remembers his lowlight.
“It was all within about 20 seconds of each other,” he said with a chuckle. “I brought the ball upcourt and Terry Gannon was going to cut me off. I dribbled behind my back and went right around him. The next time I got the ball, Gannon and Spud Webb double-teamed me and took the ball away from me.”
The ACC All-Stars made back-to-back appearances to Davie, making a return visit in 1986. Crenshaw found himself matched up against Johnny Dawkins, who was so quick he could cut off the light and get in bed before dark.
“I was guarding him and he kept saying: ‘Come on out here and guard me,’” he said. “I was staying about 10 feet back because I knew he was gonna just blow right by me. Of course, he’d do whatever he wanted to do. He stole the ball from me and Mike Garner called a foul (on Dawkins). It probably was a clean steal, but I appreciated Mike calling it.”
Drexel-Heritage’s Barker brought bulldog intensity to the game, and he’s never forgotten what it was like scoring a team-high 17 points in a span of eight minutes.
“It was very exciting,” Barker said. “Me, Barry Chunn and Randy Mayfield, we were real excited about it because we were really wanting to see what we could do. We kept telling ourselves they’re not going to play hard against us. They’re just going to be playing around, so we were going to do everything we could to try to make them play when we got in the game. Delaney Rudd was sticking me for a while; him and Spud Webb would switch up on me. All three of us were determined that we were going to make those guys play hard, and we did. They ended up having to play a little bit, and they just could not believe that me and Barry were not playing in college somewhere. I got 17 in one quarter. When we got in the game and started scoring and going to the hole, it was like: ‘Wait a minute, we’re gonna have to play.’ We talked about that a long time after that.”
Barker was 20 at the time, and he could really ball. One time he was in the air so long it’s as if somebody hit pause so they could watch it later.
“I had a little hang time then,” he said. “I’ll never forget I went to the basket one time, hung in the air, brought it way back and kissed it high off the glass. Cozell was going to block it – he thought he had it blocked easy – and I kissed that thing high off the glass and it went in. He looked at me like: ‘Wait a minute.’ I’ll never forget it. I don’t think I hit many jumpers. They were up on me pretty tight, so I said I’m gonna take them to the hole.”
The 6-4 Chunn, who was second for Davie with 14 points, was always Superman in the local men’s leagues. He was the only Davie player to enter the dunk contest, and his performance was more than respectable. Webb, of course, was the winner.
“Barry had some real good dunks,” Barker said.
The stories keep coming. On the opening tipoff, McQueen had eight inches on his opponent in the jump circle – the 6-3 Deadmon.
“He got the tip, of course,” Deadmon said. “That was pretty brutal.”
Deadmon’s most vivid memory was Webb jumping to the roof.
“I remember Spud Webb was on a breakaway and was going in for a dunk,” he said. “He left the floor at about the foul line. He slammed it and his hand was around the square on the backboard. He was that high. It was incredible.”
The always-entertaining Hendrix possesses a gift for a good line, this one at the expense of his lifelong friend.
“Johnny had about a 10-footer on the baseline,” he said. “Cozell just took a step toward him and Miller missed it by three feet. He didn’t come close.”
After wowing everybody with his outside shot, after signing tons of autographs for the adoring girls, Peterson put a fitting end on the night.
“After the game, Charlie and Scott went to Miller’s and Buzz was out there eating,” Charles Crenshaw said.