Holliday: Eric Montross was one of the best people in sports

By Bob Holliday, WRAL Sports contributor

In 50 plus years of covering sports in the Triangle, Eric Montross was one of the best people I ever met.

He was a warrior on the basketball court. This is a guy who once said, “If you don’t get a little blood on you you’re not playing hard enough.”

Eric also exhibited great character off the court. He started a basketball camp for fathers and their sons, conducted each Father’s Day weekend. This camp became a huge fund-raising vehicle for the UNC Children’s Hospital.

My favorite thing about Eric is that he never turned me down for an interview. Not once. No matter what the outcome of a game, Montross answered every question. And he was so articulate. That of course led him to spend 18 years as basketball analyst on the Tar Heel Sports Network.

It’s impossible to overstate the importance of Eric Montross choosing Chapel Hill in the first place. At seven feet, Montross was a pure center from basketball-crazy Indiana. Bob Knight wanted Montross. Eric’s father Scott was a Michigan man. The Wolverines wanted Montross. But Dean Smith won the recruiting battle, and this was arguably the signature signing in Smith’s final decade as coach. You see, Montross was the type of player that other talented guys wanted to join.

Back in the 70s, Smith signed another star from Indiana, Dave Colescott. Colescott was in fact Indiana’s Mr. Basketball before coming to Carolina. Bob Knight didn’t really pursue Colescott though, as he preferred bigger, more physical guards. But Knight did recruit Indiana’s 1990 Mr. Basketball Damon Bailey, and he desperately wanted Montross to sign with IU as well.

33 years later, I would maintain that Montross’ decision to leave Big Ten country created shock waves that defied description. Indeed during the 1991 Final Four in Indianapolis – a destination the freshman Montross helped his new team reach – I visited Eric’s high school Lawrence North. I discovered that students and teachers there were still coming to terms with Montross’ departure for Chapel Hill. A few intimated that they were still struggling to forgive the man who led the Lawrence North Wildcats to the Indiana State Championship in 1989.

Montross was a part-time starter on UNC’s 1991 Final Four team. He made some great friends on that team, including Rick Fox and Hubert Davis. Davis and Montross renewed their friendship after Hubert returned to Chapel Hill as a coach, first an assistant and then the head coach. Understandably, Davis canceled his weekly radio show after learning of Montross’ passing.

1992 saw Montross make huge strides at UNC. Montross became a double figure scorer who shot 58% over his Tar Heel career. He was a top rebounder, especially on the defensive end. Montross gave Carolina a shot blocking presence that the 1990 team did not have. He secured almost 70 steals during his four years, a surprising number for a big man. But then, this was a seven footer who would dive for loose balls.

The Bloody Montross Game

It was one of those loose balls that led to a scene from the ’92 Duke-UNC game that is forever etched in the memories of the Tar Heel faithful. Montross was on the floor, chasing a 50-50 ball when the tooth of another player opened a gash on his forehead. Then, as he was trying to get up, Montross took an elbow just below the eye socket. More blood. Montross went to the free throw line but was ordered by officials to leave the floor to get stitches.

Montross later recalled in an interview with “The Daily Tar Heel” that having to leave the game just infuriated him. When he returned he took his anger out on the Blue Devils. Montross’ extra fire rallied his teammates. UNC beat Duke that night. This was the Blue Devil team with Christian Laettner, Grant Hill and Bobby Hurley that lost only one other game all season en route to the Blue Devils’ second consecutive national championship.

UNC’s 1993 Championship

I remember sitting down with Eric before the 1992-93 season began and asked him about New Orleans, where the Final Four was to be played. “There are 15 teams that have a chance to win the National Championship,” Montross told me. “We are one of those teams.”

How right he was. George Lynch, one of the great leaders at UNC, was joined by both experience and talent. Brian Reese played the forward opposite Lynch. Derrick Phelps was a mainstay at point guard. Garner’s sophomore sensation Donald Williams emerged at shooting guard. Montross of course, was the main man inside.

Carolina won the ACC regular season with a record of 14-2. The Tar Heels needed two late threes by Williams to subdue a good Cincinnati team and earn the trip to New Orleans. Once at the Superdome, the Heels beat Roy Williams’ Kansas club in the semi-finals, and then took on a Michigan team that had beaten them three months earlier in Hawaii.

Williams, arguably the best dome shooter in the program’s storied history, continued his hot shooting to put Carolina in front. Williams made 5-7 from beyond the arc and finished the game with 25 points. Montross played with extra emotion against his father’s school, adding 16 points.

Still, for most of the final 14 minutes, neither team could build more than a four point lead.

This UNC team had cohesion. It also had depth. With six minutes left, Dean Smith decided to make use of that depth and turned to his bench. Pat Sullivan, Henrik Rodl, and Kevin Salvadori among others, all rewarded Smith’s confidence in them with some very solid minutes while some of the tiring starters rested. Yet, the game remained close even with subs on the court at crunch time. And as a result of that coaching decision Montross, Williams, and the other starters once rested, pulled away late in the game.

Everyone of course remembers Chris Webber’s time out-when Michigan was out of time outs. It resulted in a technical foul and Williams, who would be voted the Most Outstanding Player, drained the free throws.

Many pundits suggested Webber’s gaffe swung the game Carolina’s way. Montross bristled. “That clinched the game,” he said emphatically. Eric told me the Tar Heels had already put themselves in position to win prior to Webber’s unfortunate moment.

Montross was the ninth player selected in the 1995 NBA draft. He played nine seasons in places like Boston and Toronto. Upon retirement, he went to work for the Rams’ Club, the fundraising arm for athletics at UNC. Montross served as Senior Director of Principal Gifts. His mission was to set fund raising goals and then prospect with the top givers to identify future contributions. Eric was often called on to speak at Rams’ Club functions. I’m told he was quite effective in both of his roles.

Yet the part of Eric Montross that endures most today is that of humanitarian. Montross invested a great deal of himself in charity work. He served on the board of directors for the Be Loudi Sophie Foundation and the Vaccine Ambassadors, which he also co-founded.

And then there’s the basketball camp.

While a player at UNC, Montross developed a close friendship with a 15-year-old cancer patient named Jason Clark. Eric was so moved by the hours he spent with Jason that he decided to do whatever he could to make things better. First Montross asked his teenage friend to make a list of things that could be improved in terms of services at UNC’s Children’s Hospital. Then Eric, along with his wife Laura, came up with the idea of holding a fathers and sons basketball camp on Father’s Day weekend, with all proceeds going to the hospital. At last report, the Father’s Day camp has raised nearly $2 million. And that says nothing about the experiences those fathers and sons had learning basketball from this ultimate family man.

How ironic, how sad, that nine months ago Eric became a cancer patient. He lost his battle Sunday, just six weeks after the passing of the great Walter Davis.

I can’t even imagine what it’s like being Hubert Davis right now, losing his uncle and former teammate in such a short span. Walter Davis was just 69. And Eric Montross, like Walter Davis, a pillar in the Carolina community, was just 52. He is gone entirely too soon.