On the evening of January 28th, RJR honored its boys basketball team that was crowned 4-A State Champions 50 years ago. This took place during halftime of the game versus Parkland. That morning, the Winston-Salem Journal ran the following article on page B-1. that told about that team and the state championship game. It follows.

Golden Memories: Reynolds to honor its 1975 state title basketball team

MARC PRUITT Staff Reporter

The memories and laughter are sure to be flowing on Tuesday when members of the 1975 boys basketball team at Reynolds get together to reminisce about their NCHSAA 4-A state championship run 50 years ago.

The team will be honored at halftime of the boys game against Parkland on Tuesday night. They have also planned a get together at Little Richard’s before they head over to Bryson Gym to be recognized.

“I’ve asked everyone to bring a couple of memories from that year that they can share with everybody,” said Rich Habbeger, the team’s coach during their championship season. “I think it will be a fun time for the guys that we can relive that special season from 50 years ago. This is something that we’ve been trying to put together for a while. Brad Fisher (the Reynolds athletics director) had mentioned it to me before, that if we wanted to get the guys back together for a reunion and a recognition, he would be glad to work on it with us. And once we started the process, it was really easy to get in touch with everyone.”

Reynolds beat Raleigh Enloe 76-61 in the state championship game in Greensboro.

The team had 13 players: Willard Coker, James Cunningham, Steve Dillard, Ged Doughton, Mark Doughton, Bobby Gaither, Dee Hargrave, Carl Karpinski, Reg Lowery, David Morris, Ben Pitts, Steve Sims and Wesley Walker. Bill Wise was the team manager and John Hutchins was Habegger’s assistant coach.

All but two are confirmed to attend the celebration. Cunningham and Walker are both deceased.

“Cunningham has passed, and about two weeks ago, Wesley Walker died,” Habegger said. “I had spoken to him about coming to this and he was so excited. That was a shock to get that news. But everyone else will be there, and we have also invited Stephawn Kee, Cunningham’s son, to join us at Little Richard’s.

Habegger said that the only player he has had regular contact with since he left Reynolds in 1981 is Mark Doughton, who he runs into at Wake Forest basketball games. Habegger played for the Deacons from 1970-72.

“I see Mark’s brother, Ged, from time-to-time, and most of the guys live in the area and I have kept up with them, but haven’t really had a chance to get together with them since I left,” he said. “I went to a few class reunions from the ‘70s, but these guys weren’t there. Everybody’s always been in favor of doing something, we just all haven’t been plugged into each other until now. I’m glad we are having a chance to do this now.”

Cunningham, Ged Doughton, who went on to play at North Carolina, and Willard Coker were the captains and three of the starters. David Morris, who later went on to play at Wake Forest and coached at Reynolds in the late 1980s, and Reg Lowery rounded out the starting lineup.

“It was a great group to coach,” Habegger said. “We didn’t have a lot of height. Our tallest guy was Cunningham, who was 6-3. They had a lot of basketball savvy and a lot of determination. Cunningham was feared in the city. Everyone grew up playing against him and everyone knew who he was. He was a beast and an intimidating presence.

“Ged Doughton and Willard Coker were really intelligent and really good ball handlers. They knew how to run a team. David (Morris) was a junior and he loved the game and was so knowledgeable. He was a workaholic. His dad, Ed, played on the 1949 state-championship team for Reynolds. David gave us everything he had. And Reg, he was only 6-1 and played the four spot (power forward) for us. He was willing to do whatever we needed him to do. We usually put him on the other team’s best big guy. He played great defense and rebounded and it wasn’t always his duty to score, but he could do that when we needed it. We also had a great bench that could come in and spell them when we needed it.”

Habegger said that the Demons were languishing with a 9-6 record in late January that season before they found their rhythm.

“We just couldn’t find any traction or have any real winning streaks going,” Habegger said. “We had a lot of great teams in our conference then. Greensboro Page had a great team. They had a player named Reggie Spruill and we could never beat them. North Forsyth was really good. East Forsyth was really good. We finally got on a win streak and then things finally started falling our way. Everything just started to mesh at the right time.”

Reynolds went on to win 12 straight games to close out the season, culminating with the state championship.

“Back then, only one team from the conference went to the state tournament, and we ended up winning District 8,” Habegger said. “There were just 16 teams in the playoffs. Our first-round opponent was High Point Andrews, and we had already played them twice that season. We beat them in early December when they didn’t have their football players yet, and then they beat us by two points the next time. But in the playoffs, it was an unbelievable game. It was tied most of the way and we ended up beating them by two points.”

The Demons then beat Richmond County in the quarterfinals and Raleigh Broughton in the semifinals.

“Broughton was probably the favorite,” Habegger said. “They had Billy Williams, who went on to play at Clemson, and another big kid who was 6-8. And we ended up beating them by 25 points.”

Next up: Raleigh Enloe in the state championship game, a team that featured Tony Warren, who went on to play at N.C. State.

“We played the game at the Greensboro Coliseum as a preliminary game to a CIAA game,” Habegger said. “So all of our fans were sitting in the upper deck in the Coliseum and it was kind of a weird atmosphere. We got off to a slow start and were behind in the first half before we settled and ended up beating them by 15.”

Habegger said that Hutchins was a huge key in the championship win.

“We didn’t do a lot of scouting in those days,” Habegger said. “Our philosophy was that we were just going to play our game no matter what. But John and I had watched Enloe the day before, and he saw them do an out-of-bounds play from underneath their basket and he devised a strategy to defend it. He told the team, “I think we can draw a foul on them on this play, and this is what we need to do.’

“Sure enough, the next night, they had an out-of-bounds play under their basket. We did exactly what Coach Hutchins said, and Ged Doughton drew a charge on Tony Warren on the play. That was his third foul in the first half, and he had to go and sit. That ended up giving us momentum and we took over and never looked back. That was the crucial play that set us on our way. Everything just went right for us at the right time.”

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