Light Blue Reign
How a City Slicker, a Quiet Kansan, and a Mountain Man Built College Basketball's Longest-Lasting Dynasty
PROLOGUE
One for the Ages
THE chartered jet carry ing the 2009 national champions broke through the clouds on its approach to Raleigh- Durham Airport and entered a wide expanse of Carolina blue sky. The team, coaches, support staff, and university administrators aboard were finally home after six days of sun, cold, and snow in Detroit and the NCAA Final Four.
Their approach was smooth— not aborted twice, which had happened fi fty- two years before when North Carolina’s fi rst national championship team returned from Kansas City on an Eastern Airlines propjet. That plane almost did not land because an estimated 5,000 fans had broken through what ever security they had in those days and swarmed near the runway.
This time, the North Carolina Tar Heels were greeted by the high- tech stuff of the twenty- first century, or at least the 1990s. Cameras replaced people for the moment.
ABC- TV’s Chopper 11 hovered in the airspace above the terminal, waiting for the team ...
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