Nineteen hundred and sixty-eight is on my mind right now.

I woke up with memories of 1968. I must have dreamt about it for two reasons. One, it was the year I really got interested in politics. And, second, I had seen Larry Miller play his last season at UNC.

Let me explain.

I was home for the summer and working at Howard Johnson’s on the grill, the morning shift. So I set my clock radio to 6:30 and woke up to whatever song was playing at that time each day.

Through my morning fuzz, I kept hearing the name Kennedy on the radio and about his assassination. I wondered why they were still talking about that, since JFK had been shot and killed almost five years before. Then, I sprung up in my bed.

They were talking about Bobby Kennedy, and HIS assassination late the night before in Los Angeles. He had become my new hero, thinking he was the second coming of his older brother. Truly, I have never gotten over either of their careers in politics and their deaths.

I had just come off my first year at Carolina and loved it. I had found my place and, by working with the Daily Tar Heel, my career as a sports writer. The Tar Heels were the new kings of ACC in basketball, mostly behind two-time Player of the Year Larry Miller.

And, another reason for my dream, I had just finished reading “Larry Miller Time,” an autobiography co-written by Stephen Demorest of Hillsborough. The book’s subtitle is “The Story of the Lost Legend Who Sparked the Tar Heel Dynasty.” If you like history and Carolina basketball, get a copy. You will enjoy it and learn a lot.

It traces the college career of Miller, who was the embodiment of an All-American. At 6-feet-4 and left-handed, Miller played all over the court with his floppy hair and St. Christopher’s medal bouncing around as he led the Tar Heels to the second of three straight ACC titles and Final Fours. And then, after graduation and a short pro career, Mills disappeared from public life.

Bobby Kennedy and Larry Miller – in my dreams before election day. Because sports and politics are my two true loves.

 

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