Sports Legends of the Carolinas

Richard Petty is 86 years old now, and his seven NASCAR Cup championships and record 200 wins at the sport’s highest level came long ago. But Petty is still going strong in Level Cross (pop. 3694), which sits right in the middle of Charlotte and Raleigh. Petty lives a stone’s throw from the house where he was born, and that house sits right next to the Petty Museum that houses an incredible amount of his stuff.

Nicknamed “The King” and a member of the inaugural class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, Petty long ago developed a signature look that is all his own: cowboy hat, black sunglasses, oversized belt buckle and cowboy boots. He showed up wearing exactly that to our interview. 

Honestly, I would have been a little disappointed if he didn’t.

This interview with Petty serves as the Season 3 kickoff for the “Sports Legends of the Carolinas” multimedia project. Petty and I sat inside his museum, on two high-back chairs, and talked about life, death, racing, autographs, Daytona, family and the time his own father took his first race win away from him via protest. 

After we were done, a surprisingly spry Petty hopped off the chair and said: “You got my whole history, didn’t ya?”

Not quite, but we did hit a lot of the highlights. On the eve of the 2024 NASCAR season and the Daytona 500, there’s no better way to rev up the racing anticipation than a visit with “The King.” 

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Loumay Alesali, Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends.

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From 1987-89, Steve Spurrier was the head coach at Duke, leading the Blue Devils to an ACC Football Championship in 1989. As a player, he won the Heisman Trophy in 1966 at the University of Florida. Coach Spurrier then returned to Florida as its coach in 1990.

Known as an offensive mastermind, Spurrier led the Gators to multiple SEC titles, as well as the national championship in 1997. Spurrier has deep connections to both Carolinas, because after Florida and a 2-year stint with Washington’s NFL team, Spurrier came to South Carolina, where he was the head coach of the Gamecocks for a decade, beating Clemson five straight times at one point, before abruptly retiring in the middle of the 2015 season.

We’d like to thank the Washington Duke Inn and Golf Club for providing space for this interview.

This episode is sponsored by Audi Charlotte. Celebrate the season with holiday savings on new Audis. You belong in an Audi from Audi Charlotte.

Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Loumay Alesali, Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. Our interns on this production are Zoe Williams and Christina Silvestri. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends.

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As a once-in-a-generation quarterback at Appalachian State in Boone, N.C., Armanti Edwards led the Mountaineers to FCS national championships in 2006 and 2007 as well as an extraordinary road win over then-No. 5 Michigan, often called the biggest upset in college football history.

Lightly recruited out of Greenwood, S.C., Edwards would become the first two-time Walter Payton winner as the FCS National Player of the Year. He was also a four-time All-American and led App State to a 42-7 record as a starter. Edwards then became a third-round NFL draft pick by the Carolina Panthers. The Panthers employed Edwards from 2010 to 2013, trying to switch him from a star quarterback to wide receiver and punt returner with little success.

That was a period where Edwards said he experienced “the darkest time in my football career.” In our "Sports Legends" interview he also discussed in detail for the first time the circumstances of his release from the Panthers in 2013. Edwards would then have a strong career as a wideout in the Canadian Football League, where he once played on a team that won the CFL’s equivalent of the Super Bowl. He now lives in Charlotte with his wife and two children.

Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Loumay Alesali, Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. McClatchy's director of audio is Davin Coburn. Our interns on this production are Zoe Williams and Christina Silvestri. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends.

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Steph Curry, the all-everything point guard for the Golden State Warriors, is still in the prime of his career and already a “Sports Legend of the Carolinas.” In this deeply personal retrospective, the eight-time All-Star, four-time NBA champ and two-time league MVP offers Scott Fowler never-before-heard details about Curry's high school career for the Charlotte Christian Knights; leading Davidson College to the Elite Eight in 2008 — and in the process, giving Roy Williams and Mike Krzyzewski a glimpse of the talent UNC and Duke never bothered to recruit; the challenges for Curry of following in the NBA footsteps of his famous father, Dell; the biggest wins of his own sterling career; and the one thing that could get Curry to leave Golden State.

This special bonus episode of Sports Legends of the Carolinas is free for all listeners in its entirety. The episode is sponsored by Parker Poe, a law firm representing many of the Southeast’s largest companies and local governments in business and real estate transactions, regulatory issues, and complex litigation.

Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. McClatchy's director of audio is Davin Coburn. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends .

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While Dell Curry is now known in public mostly for being the father of two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Steph Curry, he had his own stellar NBA career.

Known for his three-point sharpshooting at a time when the NBA was far less enamored with that long-distance shot, the elder Curry had a 16-year NBA career that included 10 years as a player for the Hornets from 1988-98 -- the team's first 10 seasons. Curry earned the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award in 1994 and retired as the Charlotte Hornets’ all-time leading scorer (a record that stood for 20-plus years before it was broken by Kemba Walker). He and Muggsy Bogues both came to the Hornets via the 1988 NBA expansion draft and quickly became fan favorites in Charlotte.

Curry has served as the Charlotte Hornets’ color analyst on the team’s TV broadcasts since 2009. Now 59, Curry grew up in rural Virginia and has lived in Charlotte since his 2002 retirement from the NBA. He is the father of two current NBA players -- Steph and Seth -- and talks in this interview about the time Steph nearly quit basketball in frustration. We conducted this conversation in between sessions at a basketball camp Dell Curry has conducted for decades at Charlotte’s Levine Jewish Community Center.

Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Loumay Alesali, Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. Our interns on this production are Zoe Williams and Christina Silvestri. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends.

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Kicking off Season 2 of Sports Legends of the Carolinas, this week's guest is Greg Olsen, who lit up opposing defenses for nine years as a Pro Bowl tight end for the Carolina Panthers, and has had an extraordinary start to his second career: calling color for the NFL on FOX.

Olsen lives in Charlotte with his wife Kara and their three children — Tate, Talbot and T.J. He is almost as well known in the Queen City for his charity work as he is for his football and broadcasting prowess. We did this interview at a Charlotte steakhouse called “Steak 48,” which on Feb. 27 will host an Olsen charity event to benefit his “The HEARTest Yard” initiative.

In this conversation, Olsen discussed Tom Brady (before Brady retired from the NFL on February 2); the upcoming Super Bowl; T.J.'s continued improvement after his heart transplant in 2021; and why Carolina’s loss to Denver in Super Bowl 50 still gnaws at Olsen.

Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Loumay Alesali, Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends.

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Tommy Burleson was the literal centerpiece of one of the best college basketball teams in the history of the Carolinas — the 1974 N.C. State Wolfpack.

Burleson, point guard Monte Towe and high-flying forward David Thompson led that N.C. State team to a national championship, ending UCLA’s streak of seven consecutive NCAA titles in the national semifinal in double overtime and then beating Marquette in the final. 

Anxious to christen Burleson as college basketball’s tallest player, N.C. State listed him at 7-foot-4. Burleson was actually 7-2, but he was also a far more athletic center than most people assumed. A mountain of a man, Burleson grew up in a tiny town called Newland in the mountains of western North Carolina. As a teenager, Burleson was nicknamed the “Newland Needle” due to his skinny build.

Burleson played for the U.S. Olympic team in 1972, where he had a terrifying experience. He was later named the two-time MVP of the ACC tournament, starring in one of the greatest college basketball games ever in the 1974 ACC tourney final against Maryland — a 103-100 Wolfpack win.

After a seven-year NBA career that ended in 1981, Burleson returned to North Carolina and his beloved mountains. Now 71, he’s been a larger-than-life presence in his home county of Avery, where he served as a county planner for decades and also had a Christmas tree farm with his three sons that helped fund his missionary work.

Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Loumay Alesali, Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends.

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In 1994, Jeff Gordon won his first race in NASCAR’s signature series, taking the checkered flag at the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway at age 22.

Gordon would win 92 more times after that, becoming racing royalty and a NASCAR hall of famer. Now he’s our latest subject of “Sports Legends of the Carolinas,” the multimedia project in which we interview sports stars about their journeys to iconic status and their struggles along the way.

Somehow, Gordon is 51 years old. He’s been a household name in NASCAR for the past three decades. After a six-year stint in the TV broadcast booth, he now works as vice chairman at Hendrick Motorsports, the place where he launched his own career in the sport. He and his family live in Charlotte.

In his racing prime, Gordon turned into such a crossover star that he became the first NASCAR driver to ever host “Saturday Night Live.” In this interview, which we conducted in his office at Hendrick Motorsports, he talked about his favorite character from that SNL appearance, as well as teaching his daughter how to drive, his early days as a breakdancer (yes, seriously) and his rivalry with Dale Earnhardt Sr.

Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Loumay Alesali, Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends.

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As a child growing up in Gibsonville, N.C., Torry Holt occasionally pulled tobacco for $5 an hour. Holt would later grow up to make millions in the NFL after starring at N.C. State, where the wide receiver was named the ACC’s Player of the Year in 1998.

Our interview subject this week for “Sports Legends of the Carolinas,” Holt once scored five touchdowns in a single game for the Wolfpack against Florida State. Following an All-American senior season at N.C. State, he was drafted No. 6 overall by the St. Louis Rams in 1999.

Holt quickly won a Super Bowl with the Rams as a rookie and became an essential part of an offense quarterbacked by Kurt Warner and known as “The Greatest Show on Turf.” He made the Pro Bowl seven times and had six consecutive seasons of 1,300 or more receiving yards.

Now 47, Holt has moved back to the Raleigh area. There, he and his brother Terrence, also a former NFL player, run Holt Brothers Inc., and are involved in a variety of business and philanthropic ventures, including a successful construction company and a charitable foundation that supports children who have a parent with cancer.

This conversation was conducted while Holt was visiting Charlotte, serving in his role as an NFL global flag football ambassador for a USA Football event. The interview is edited for clarity and brevity.

Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Loumay Alesali, Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends.

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This week on Sports Legends of the Carolinas, Alex Zietlow interviews Coach Mike Krzyzewski, or Coach K. Mike Krzyzewski served as an astonishing basketball coach for 47 years and has impacted the game and this state forever. In his 42 years coaching the Blue Devils, he led the team to 5 national titles, 13 Final Fours and 1,202 wins — the most all-time. As if that was not enough, Coach K was Team USA’s head basketball coach in three straight Olympic Games, earning gold medals every time, and he has a remarkable story attached to each and every one of his accomplishments.

Sports Legends of the Carolinas is hosted by Scott Fowler. It's produced by Loumay Alesali, Jeff Siner and Kata Stevens. McClatchy's director of audio is Davin Coburn. Our interns on this production are Christina Silvestri and Zoe Williams. For lots more on the show, visit https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sportslegends.

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