Lennie Rosenbluth was in his senior year in 1957 when the Tar Heels defeated Wilt Chamberlain’s Kansas Jayhawks 54-53 in triple overtime to win the NCAA championship.
Last year the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame recognized this epoch-making event by naming Rosenbluth and that momentous game as the first in its Great Moments series which highlights special accomplishments by individuals and teams. This year on May 9, Rosenbluth was also inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame during a reception at the North Carolina Museum of History.
All-American Rosenbluth, now 79, is living with his wife in Chapel Hill, but the accolades keep coming. In 2002, he was named to the ACC’s 50th Anniversary men’s basketball team as one of the 50 greatest players in Atlantic Coast Conference history. He is in the Helms College Basketball Hall of Fame as one of the “100 Greatest College Players of All-Time” and is a member of the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
He and his fellow team members gave credit to Coach Frank McGuire for that phenomenal season which finished 32-0. The Tar Heels won games in almost every imaginable way: they soundly defeated teams, such as their 32-point win over Clemson University in Chapel Hill; they won four overtime games, including two triple overtime wins in the Final Four; they won the coveted Dixie Classic, beating Wake Forest for the first of their four wins against the Demon Deacons that year; they won the Atlantic Coast Conference regular season and tournament championship; and, finally, they outlasted a Wilt Chamberlain-led University of Kansas team in a triple overtime contest played before a decidedly partisan Jayhawk crowd in Kansas City, MO, to secure the Tar Heels’ first NCAA national championship.
Today Lennie and his team members still give McGuire full credit for their success although Lennie had scored 20 points in the championship final and was the tournament’s overall top scorer (28.0 ppg). “Coach McGuire taught us what not to do… never yelled or embarrassed us on the court. When he got mad, he would go out to his car and loosen his tie.”
They never worked out with weights to build muscles, fearing they might become muscle-bound. They had one assistant coach, one trainer, and one manager for the entire team. “We were like brothers. We became part of the McGuire family. We were all crazy about Pat and the children.”
Fifty years ago games were not dictated by television schedules; million dollar product sponsorships were unheard of. Although college sports have changed, the heroes of yesteryear still shine above the rest.