Basketball by the Book: Learning the ABCs of ACC
Barry Lawing remembers the first time his dad took him to a Wake Forest game, nearly four decades ago. He’s been hooked on Atlantic Coast Conference basketball since.
Now a history instructor at Forsyth Technical Community College, Lawing has found a way to bring that passion to academia. For the second straight winter, he is teaching a class on the league’s highest-profile sport, a veritable ACC History 101 featuring everything from old game footage to guest lecturers, some better known for scoring than speechmaking.
In a state obsessed with ACC basketball -- and for a teacher who claims to have attended about 400 league games -- the mere existence of such a class is as sweet as a J.J. Redick jump shot.
“It’s almost like it’s a part of your childhood that you never lose,” Lawing said. “You grow up with this intense rooting interest as a child, and you follow it through to adulthood. And it’s a way you kind of connect with your childhood.”
“It’s a part of your whole life, and you never really outgrow it,” he added. “And to some extent, you don’t want to outgrow it because you can always be a kid when you go to a basketball game and scream.”
For Lawing, who has taught at Forsyth Tech for about 20 years, the course offers a break from his Western civilization classes. This eight-week class is strictly for fun and doesn’t have an official title. And unlike Jim Harrick Jr.’s infamous class at Georgia a few years ago, where students were asked on the final exam how many points a three-point shot is worth, this is a noncredit course designed as a community service program.
The 23 enrolled students need attend only six of the eight classes -- “or be a Wake Forest fan,” Lawing says -- to earn a satisfactory grade.
Lawing gives a midterm and final, though each takes only about 20 minutes and the teacher reads the answers aloud after the tests are finished. The students grade themselves, and high scorers can win a prize.
The syllabus resembles that of any college class, breaking down each week’s topic and guest speakers. But in few courses do students crowd the visitors after a two-hour class to seek autographs and photos.
For the first class, the focus was University of North Carolina basketball, and the speaker was former Tar Heel coach Bill Guthridge.
The second class focused on North Carolina State and Duke, and the guests were a trio of former all-ACC performers: Duke’s Mike Lewis; N.C. State’s Vann Williford; and 7-foot-4 Tom Burleson, who led the Wolfpack to the 1974 NCAA championship.
The rest of the lesson plan betrays Lawing’s hometown bias. The last six classes focus primarily on Wake Forest, the subject of Lawing’s 2000 book “Demon Deacon Hoops,” though the schedule also calls for him to cover national titles won since 1982 by North Carolina, N.C. State, Duke and Maryland.
While the course concentrates almost entirely on the “Big Four” North Carolina-based ACC schools, Lawing is prepared to cover more if the class attracts backers of other conference schools. Last year, that meant touching on Georgia Tech for one student.
“It’s easy to focus on the ‘Big Four,’ knowing almost all of the fans will be from here,” Lawing said.
It’s not clear if college courses highlighting other leagues are offered elsewhere around the country. But ACC commissioner John Swofford, though not officially sanctioning Lawing’s course, likes the subject matter.
“The sport of basketball in the Atlantic Coast Conference has a remarkable history, and we are excited to know that opportunities are offered for the passionate fan that follows this league,” he said.
During the recent class on N.C. State and Duke, Lewis, Williford and Burleson sat at a table facing the students, occasionally talking among themselves and pointing at the large screen in the auditorium while watching highlights from their era.
When a student walked in late wearing a North Carolina hat and jacket, Lewis grinned and cracked, “The Tar Heel guy is late.”
Lewis, who played for the Blue Devils from 1966-68, recalled a recruiting trip when Duke All-American Jeff Mullins got him a date for a party that night.
He also talked about matching up against UCLA’s Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, then Lew Alcindor: “I didn’t really play against him; I was just out there in his way.”
Burleson told of being cussed out by Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp when the North Carolina prep star said he wanted to play in the ACC. He also demonstrated his hook shot for the class, posting up the 5-foot-8 Lawing.
“Only people who were born here and raised here can completely understand the hysteria that goes on during basketball season,” said 18-year-old Annie Weir, who went to class in a Duke shirt. “It’s just a way of life to support basketball in ACC country.”