Outstanding article! Many things I learned about Hank Finkel that I didn't already know.
I was a sophomore Finkel's senior year. I didn't play basketball but I knew Eddie Kwest really well and spent a lot of time in the training room and knew many of the players. That team had a lot of practical jokers. As I remember, two juniors, John Samanich and Jim Wannemacher, sore back and all, were the biggest offenders but on one occasion, sophomore, Bobby Jo Hooper was the guilty party. The players used to put their Converse All Star gym shoes next to their lockers after practice so they would dry out for the next day. Hooper put honey all over Finkel's size 16's or 18's (I can't remember the exact size) and Eddie Kwest came in the next morning and there were hundreds of ants crawling all over Finkel's Converse! Everyone got a big laugh out of it!
I agree Don Donoher deserves this award and it is kind of ironic that it is named after Dean Smith because in Smith's 6th season coaching and Donoher's 2nd season they went head to head in 1966-67 in the Final Four in Louisville, Ky and we all know how that game came out! The Flyers won handily as Don May made his first 13 shots in a row at the beginning of the game! I was sitting in the middle of the North Carolina cheering section and some guy behind me tapped me on the shoulder and said, "****, doesn't that guy ever miss"? I said, "No".
