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It was 68 years ago this spring that the McCrary Eagles hung up their sneakers for good.
That same season the UNC Tar Heels were undefeated national champions after back-to-back, triple-overtime games in the Final Four.

So, what do those two items have in common? The Tar Heels’ first game of that magical season was an exhibition against the Eagles, in Asheboro’s venerable McCrary Gym.
For decades the Eagles had been one of the top industrial basketball teams in the South. And for years they had played against college teams such as UNC, Duke, State and Wake Forest, holding their own in most of those contests. Although they had never beaten Carolina in a series that began in 1939, they did come within four points a couple of years before.
UNC’s Coach Frank McGuire had said that he would always play the Eagles in an exhibition game each year because McCrary Gym was a first-class facility and the team gave them a good test before the college season began.
I was reminded of the game played on Dec. 1, 1956, after attending the UNC-Wake Forest game in February 2007 at the Dean Smith Center during which the 1957 team was honored on its 50th anniversary. A number of the Tar Heels had passed on but four of the five starters, including 1957 National Player of the Year Lennie Rosenbluth, were there. Now Rosenbluth and most of the others are gone.
Attrition, likewise, has hit the Eagles. I wrote an article for The Randolph Guide about the Eagles-Tar Heels matchup that appeared in the Jan. 27, 1993 edition. All of the five former McCrary stars I interviewed have since died.
The starters for the Eagles were Sammy Ranzino (former N.C. State All-American), Bill Atkins (who held scoring records at Guilford College), big man Cliff Dwyer (another State veteran), Jim Jordan (Western Carolina star) and Smith Langdon (who had played at Campbell). Among the others on the team were Don Nance, his brother Hilliard (a player-coach) and Ralph Hodges.
The UNC starters were Rosenbluth, Tommy Kearns, Bob Cunningham, Pete Brennan and Joe Quigg, who shot the two free throws that won the championship game against Kansas and Wilt Chamberlain.
Local interest in the game was strong since the Tar Heels were ranked between No. 1 and No. 3 in most preseason polls. Newspaper accounts of the game show that it was a close battle until the final minutes. UNC led 42-39 at halftime, but a Hodges shot from the corner put the Eagles ahead 59-58 with 10 minutes left to play.
However, foul problems and a short bench plagued the home team down the stretch and the Tar Heels prevailed 84-70.
When I interviewed Jim Jordan and Don Nance for the 1993 story, I remember them still frustrated that foul trouble cost them the game. “We could have won,” they said.
After UNC won the championship on March 23, 1957, Coach McGuire said on a radio interview that his team was actually 33-0, and that “the toughest game we played was with a semi-pro team we played in Asheboro, North Carolina.”
Maybe McGuire was stretching that a bit, but it was his way of showing respect to a team that deserved it. Unfortunately, the Eagles were disbanded on Feb. 21, 1957, just 30 days before the Tar Heels won it all. Some of the players came together without sponsorship the next season and even won a tournament. But that was the end for the Eagles.
In 21 years of competition, the McCrary Eagles compiled a record of 367-123, a winning percentage of .749, including against college teams.
Sometimes when I peek inside the gym, I think about a highly-successful home team, and a game played on that floor so many years ago. It’s the stuff of legends.

Larry Penkava is a writer for Randolph Hub. Contact: 336-302-2189, larrypenkava@gmail.com.