The Cullowhee community found themselves on the top of world in March of 1996, thanks to the WCU men’s basketball team.
WCU Alumni Engagement celebrated the 25th anniversary of that special 1996 men’s basketball run via Zoom on March 17.
The ’96 mens basketball team won the Southern Conference Tournament and are the only WCU men’s basketball team to ever punch their ticket to the NCAA Tournament.
The webinar, brought back multiple players, coaches, and athletics staff from that special 1996 basketball roster. Most notably, head coach, Phil Hopkins, and 1996 SoCon player of the year and Tournament MVP, Anquell McCollum headlined the panel. Assistant Coaches, Thad Matta, Orlando Early and Martin Unger finished off the coaching staff, while Joe Stafford, Jarvis Graham, Brett Lamb, Kevin Kullum, Joey Bryson, and Scott Schultz were the remaining players.
Coach Early talked about how special it was to see all of his former players from that ’96 team.
“You have to remember, I met a lot of those guys when they were 18/19 years old,” said Early in a phone interview. “Seeing them as grown men with careers and families of their own was really special.”
The event, moderated by former WCU Sports Information Director, Steve White, went through the entirety of that spectacular season, while players, coaches, and others shared some of their fondest memories from that ’96 season.
One memory that stuck out was for Doug Mead, sports editor for the Asheville Citizen-Times in 1996, was Coach Hopkins proposing to his girlfriend directly following the trophy ceremony. When interviewing Coach Hopkins postgame, Mead asked, “Are you more excited about getting married or going to the NCAA Tournament?”, to which Hopkins replied, “Doug, I have been married before, I have never taken my team to the NCAA Tournament.”
McCollum, says the return back to Cullowhee following the title win against Davidson, is the memory that sticks out to him.
“Once we hit Balsam mountain we started seeing campus and Jackson County police and we were like ‘what’s going on?’. They were giving us a police escort all the way to the Ramsey Center” said McCollum in a Zoom interview, “…we drive into the Ramsey Center, they have the stage set up…Chancellor Bardo gets up and speaks…he canceled classes for the next day”.
Alex Gary, current Director of Athletics at WCU, announced on the panel that he will be submitting the 1996 WCU Men’s Basketball team for consideration to the Western Carolina Hall of Fame at the end of the year.
If you wish to relive the event or missed the zoom call, click the link to watch the ’96 team recount on that special season.
