Could UNC really lose to high school team?
By Jim Pettit
Assistant sports editor

‘‘North Carolina is so bad,’’ a friend grumbled the other day, ‘‘they couldn’t beat some of the high school teams I’ve seen.’’

I chalked it up to the usual discontent fans feel when their favorite team is in a slump, but history may be on his side.

A letter from James O. Guthrie Jr. of Lumberton tells an interesting story. I make no claims for its validity, but the story appeared in The Warren Record newspaper in Warrenton on July 28, 1999, a column written by Frank Newell.

As Newell reported, ‘‘It’s not in the record books and not many people remember it, but it did happen. I interviewed three people with firsthand knowledge of the event, and each gave an identical account of what happened.’’

The story goes like this:

In the early 1930s, the small community of Stem in northeastern North Carolina’s Granville County had a very good high school basketball team. In fact, the team had won its district championship two straight years and reached the finals again.

As extra incentive, the team’s coach, a Coach Pegram, told his players that if they won a third title, he would treat them to a college basketball game at the University of North Carolina.

Trip is earned

Perhaps it was the lure of a special trip, or maybe just the collective pride of a team used to winning, but Stem High won the championship.

Coach Pegram was as good as his word. One day, he loaded up the team, drove them to Chapel Hill and personally bought each player a ticket.

North Carolina came out for warmups, but the opponent was conspicuously absent. A heavy snowfall about 3 p.m. was the suspected culprit.

Sure enough, shortly before game time as a packed gymnasium waited, word came that the visiting team was unable to get to Chapel Hill.

The disappointment was evident.

Coach Pegram went to the Carolina bench and said that his high school team was in attendance and, if someone could find uniforms, they would be happy to play the Tar Heels so that the spectators would at least get to see some kind of game.

This was before NCAA regulations and hundreds of other reasons why such a contest might not be feasible. The decision was made. Sure, why not?

Team managers rounded up some old Carolina uniforms and the Stem High team trooped to the locker room. When they came out, there was no time to warm up. They hit the court and the game began.

Five men of iron

Coach Pegram’s five starters played the entire game. Their names were Thomas Farabow, Clyde Cates, Wallace Bowling, Brent Meadows, and a Guthrie boy whose first name Newell’s sources could not recall.

Amazingly, the game stayed close. The Tar Heels started off taking the high school players lightly, but started to bear down when they wouldn’t fold. The longer Stem matched baskets, the more confident the youngsters became.

With seconds remaining and the score tied, Stem had the ball with the length of the court to go. The ball was passed to the Guthrie boy, a good shooter, as he crossed midcourt. A step or so later, he launched a long one.

Time expired with the ball in flight. The ball began its descent, tracking toward the basket. Swish.

A stunned hush gave way to a tumultuous roar.

Stem High School had beaten the University of North Carolina.

‘‘The ‘Guthrie boy’ reference is to my father, James O. ‘Bunk’ Guthrie,’’ his son wrote. ‘‘He lived in Rowland (Robeson County) from the fall of 1932 until his death in 1998 and was a longtime subscriber to your newspaper.’’

Lucky for UNC, Stem High no longer exists.

See? Things could always be worse.