KANSAS CITY, MO.—It never occurred to Charlie Scott that he would make history when he accepted a scholarship offer from Dean Smith to play basketball at North Carolina in the late 1960s.
He just wanted to play the game he loved.
But his coach, who died in February, knew that things were changing across the sociopolitical landscape with Scott's arrival. The moment Scott stepped on campus in Chapel Hill, he had become the first black player in any sport under scholarship at North Carolina.
"Being the first black in the South was not something I understood the importance of.