March 8, 1957: The toughest we faced
There were close calls all season, culminating
with a pair of triple-overtime victories in the
Final Four. But the key moment, the single
play on which everything pivoted, not only for
The semifinals at Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh, the tourna-
ment site from 1954 through 1966, yielded a rare, unwelcome
fourth meeting with Wake Forest.
Frank McGuire’s Tar Heels but for the future
of ACC basketball, came in the final minute of
the ACC Tournament semifinals.
Outside the arena, N.C. State students slashed tires and smashed
the windshields of two police cars because tournament spectators
blocked their parking spaces. Twenty-six students were arrested.
Lennie Rosenbluth ’ 57, whose three-point play provided the mar-
gin of victory that night, believed only internal dissension could derail
an undefeated season for the Tar Heels. “I thought we were going to
win every ballgame,” says Rosenbluth, who throughout the year
reminded McGuire how many games remained until a national
championship was achieved. “There was no doubt in my mind.”
Inside, the Tar Heels led the Demon Deacons by 11 points early,
five with 2: 17 remaining. They dominated the boards 45-21.
But they could not shake Wake.
“No question about it — Wake Forest was the toughest team
we faced,” Rosenbluth says of the entire ’ 57 season, Final Four
included. McGuire agreed. “They’re the smartest team I’ve ever
seen,” the veteran coach said. “They play like pros.”
Rosenbluth, a first team All-American and the 1957 ACC
The Deacs trailed the Heels for 34 minutes overall, but took the
Player of the Year, was a major
reason that prognostication
proved true. Ultimately, UNC
finished 32-0, the second
unblemished record in school
history after the disputed
national championship of 1924
(awarded retroactively more
than two decades later).
By securing an NCAA title
in the ACC’s fourth season, the
Heels immediately established
the league as a basketball power.
UNC’s success also boosted
ACC basketball by convincing
C.D. Chesley ’ 36, a former
UNC football player, to launch
a five-station regional television
network to cover his alma
mater’s march through the
NCAA tournament. The broadcasts in those early days of TV
riveted viewers throughout
North Carolina and encouraged
Chesley and the ACC to telecast a dozen conference games
the following season.
lead 59-58 on a pair of free
throws with 55 seconds remain-
ing. All year McGuire’s team
practiced what not to do in the
clutch. “He felt ballgames were
lost, close games, in the last two
minutes of the game,” Rosen-
bluth recalls. “Our team made
very few mental mistakes at the
end of games.”
Now, with contest and
season on the line, it took only
seconds for the Heels to get the
ball to their leading scorer at
the top of the key. Rosenbluth,
with 20 points already despite
“as many men hanging around
him as a high school belle,” as
one writer described it, immedi-
ately launched a sweeping hook.
Simultaneously, or nearly so,
he and Wake’s Wendell Carr
collided.
UNC PHOTO LAB/NORTH CAROLINA COLLECTION
The shot went in and a
whistle sounded with 46 sec-
onds left. A charging call could
negate the basket and give the
The NCAA accepted no
more than one entrant from a
league to compete in its tourna-
ment. To get there, the ACC
required its members to endure
an almost unique ordeal: It was
among three conferences that
used a postseason tournament to
determine a champion. So, after
winning 24 times in 24 tries
during the regular season, the
Tar Heels needed to win three
straight games in the ACC Tour-
nament to avoid staying home.
Deacons possession. “You can’t
tell if it was a block or a
charge,” says ACC historian Ron
Morris, who reviewed film of
the game. “You can watch it
over and over again. Block-
charge back then, who knows?”
Referee Jim Mills called a
blocking foul on Carr. Rosen-
bluth made the free throw, and
Lennie Rosenbluth ’ 57 harvests some net in Reynolds Coliseum during
the championship year. The Heels won both the Dixie Classic and the
ACC Tournament in Raleigh on their way to Kansas City.
UNC hung on for a 61-59 vic-
tory. Afterward McGuire said: “I
keep telling them we’re going to
lose. But they don’t believe me.”
