NC State hero Charles killed in bus wreck

[June 28, 2011]  RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- It's one of the most lasting images from the NCAA basketball tournament.

A buzzer-beating two-handed dunk by muscular forward Lorenzo Charles gives heavy underdog North Carolina State a stunning national championship game win in 1983 versus powerhouse Houston -- known as Phi Slamma Jamma. Wolfpack coach Jim Valvano spills onto the court, scrambling for someone to hug.

Charles, 47, the hero from that memorable game, was killed Monday when an empty bus he was driving for Elite Coach crashed along Interstate 40 in Raleigh, said general manager Brad Jackson.

Charles grabbed Dereck Whittenburg's 30-foot shot and dunked it to give the Wolfpack the 54-52 win over the Cougars, led by stars Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon. It was N.C. State's second national title and gave Charles a place in school history.

Whittenburg was despondent when discussing his teammate and friend with The Associated Press.

"It's just an awful day," Whittenburg said. "An awful, awful day."

That game in Albuquerque, N.M., capped an improbable run to the championship. N.C. State entered the NCAA tournament with a 17-10 record, having beaten Virginia to win the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament and an automatic berth into the national field. No one expected much.

"It's still kind of amazing to me that ... people are still talking about it," Charles said in an excerpt from his comments about the championship game on his N.C. State Web page. "I remember when (it) first happened, I figured I would have my 15 minutes of fame and that would be it. Here we are and it is still a conversational piece. I don't really think that was the only great Final Four finish that has been played since then, but for some reason people just single out that game and talk about it. Maybe because it was such a David and Goliath thing."

Police released little about the one-vehicle crash that took Charles' life. Video shows the windshield broken out with tree limbs sticking through the window frame. The rear wheels of the bus were on an embankment, leaving the right front tire elevated from the road.

Charles finished his college career two years after the championship win with 1,535 total points -- 15th on the school's scoring list -- and his .575 shooting percentage in 1985 remains a school record for seniors.

In the 1983 run, Charles hit two free throws with 23 seconds left in the West Regional finals against the Cavaliers to give the Wolfpack a 63-62 win and the spot in the Final Four.

Their semifinal win over Georgia sent them to the matchup with the Cougars.

Michael Young, director of basketball operations at Houston, was a member of the team that let a national championship slip away. He told KRIV-TV in Houston that he had never quite gotten over Charles' heroics.

"For him to dunk the ball at that moment to win the game, it was one of the most heartbreaking moments I have ever felt in my whole career," Young said. "Twenty-eight years later, it's still with me. Every day somebody asks me about it. I thought I was going to get away with it today and then you called me. I'm very sorry to hear what happened."

Valvano also became famous for his emotional burst onto the court afterward, running around almost in disbelief. Jimmy V died in 1993 after a very public fight with cancer.

N.C. State retired Charles' No. 43 jersey in 2008, the 25th anniversary of the championship.

Current coach Mark Gottfried said his staff had just gotten acquainted with Charles and was saddened to hear the news.

"He holds a special place in Wolfpack history and in the hearts of generations of fans," Gottfried said in a statement. "We just reconnected with him last week and our staff was stunned to hear this terrible news."

ACC Commissioner John Swofford said Charles' play had an uplifting effect.

"As a former player, he made us believe in the amazing and all of us in the ACC send out our thoughts and prayers to his entire family," Swofford said in a statement.

Charles played one season in the NBA, averaging 3.4 points in 36 games with the Atlanta Hawks in 1985-86, and played internationally and in the Continental Basketball Association until 1999.

A message left on a phone listed to Charles wasn't immediately returned Monday night.

Thurl Bailey, one of Charles' teammates on the championship team, said it's tough to accept that the player who made the game-winning dunk is gone.

"But I heard someone say, I was talking to them on the phone about this, that Jimmy V finally found somebody to hug," Bailey told WRAL-TV.

[Associated Press; By TOM FOREMAN Jr.]

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