Coach Guthridge Cooks Out
One of the most anticipated events for
student managers working at Dean Smith's Carolina Basketball School in the 1970s and
80s was the “managers only” steak dinner on the last day of camp, which
always fell on a Friday.
In appreciation for our work at camp,
Coach Smith and Coach Guthridge graciously treated the managers to a steak
dinner at one of Chapel Hill’s finest restaurants at the time, Slug’s at the
Pines.
As soon as Coach Guthridge checked out the
last camper and Greg “Chi Chi” Miles handed out the last blue and white camp basketball,
we made plans to tie up loose ends around Granville Towers, get a quick shower,
and head out for a thick, juicy steak with all the trimmings.
During the summer of 1986, the last day of
camp happened to fall on Friday, July 4. Unfortunately, this meant that none of
the area’s nicest steakhouses would be open for business. Never one to be
daunted by a challenge, Coach Guthridge came up with the ultimate “Plan B” – he
would purchase and grill steaks for each of the managers at his home in Chapel
Hill.
Are you kidding me?! One of the most
respected basketball coaches in the land cooking up steaks for his
student managers after he’d spent the last three weeks overseeing a myriad of
details at one of the most high-profile basketball camps in the country.
Unheard of!
Coach Guthridge and his wife, Leesie, made
us all feel right at home, and every detail of the steak dinner was perfect.
Coach Guthridge proved to be quite a grill master and his willingness to serve
each of the student managers with a heartfelt appreciation for the work we’d
done spoke volumes about the kind of person he was. It was a meal I’ll never
forget prepared by a man whose imprint I’ll carry with me the rest of my life.
- Lindsay Reed, Class of 1981
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