The 1956–57 North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball team was the varsity

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

team that represented the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...

. The head coach was

Frank McGuire Frank Joseph McGuire (November 8, 1913 – October 11, 1994) was an American basketball coach. At the collegiate level, he was head coach for three major programs: St. John's, North Carolina, and South Carolina, winning over a hundred games at e ...

. The team played its home games at

Woollen Gymnasium The Charles T. Woollen Gymnasium (commonly known as the Woollen Gymnasium or Woollen) was the home of North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball team from January 2, 1939, through February 27, 1965, across twenty-six seasons. Due to increased dem ...

in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and was a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The team was the second undefeated national champion in

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

basketball history and was the first ACC team to win a title. The team notably won its last two games in triple overtime. The Tar Heels leading scorer was player of the year, small forward

Lennie Rosenbluth Leonard Robert Rosenbluth (January 22, 1933 – June 18, 2022) was an American professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA), but he is remembered, first and foremost, for his college basketball player days. He play ...

. In the semifinal against Jumping Johnny Green and

Michigan State Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States. It i ...

, to tie the game in regulation, Pete Brennan, usually the power forward, after gathering the rebound, ran the floor like a guard and put in a jump shot with a soft touch. Three overtimes later, UNC won 74 to 70. This placed undefeated North Carolina for the championship against

Wilt Chamberlain Wilton Norman Chamberlain (; August 21, 1936 – October 12, 1999) was an American professional basketball player who played as a center. Standing at tall, he played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for 14 years and is widely reg ...

and Kansas. Again the game went to triple overtime. Center

Joe Quigg Joe Quigg is a retired American basketball player. He was a key player on the 1957 National Champion North Carolina Tar Heels and a second round draft pick by the New York Knicks in 1958. Quigg stood 6 feet 9 inches tall and played the center p ...

made the winning

free throws In basketball, free throws or foul shots are unopposed attempts to score points by shooting from behind the free-throw line (informally known as the foul line or the charity stripe), a line situated at the end of the restricted area. Free throws ...

Roster

Schedule

, +Schedule2009–10 North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball media guide

, retrieved 2009-12-31 , - !colspan=9 style="background:#56A0D3; color:#FFFFFF;", Regular season , - !colspan=8 style="background:#56A0D3; color:#FFFFFF;", ACC tournament , - !colspan=8 style="background:#56A0D3; color:#FFFFFF;", NCAA tournament

Season summary

Hired away from St. John’s in 1952 to make North Carolina basketball competitive with rival NC State, legendary coach

mined his native New York for talent and put together a team that won the national championship by slowing down dominating Kansas center

. A veteran lineup led by star forward

, who averaged 28 points, finished the season a perfect 32-0.

Rankings

Awards and honors

Helms Foundation Player of the Year The Helms Foundation College Basketball Player of the Year was an annual men's college basketball award given to the most outstanding men′s player in the United States. It was awarded by the Helms Athletic Foundation, an organization founded in ...

* Lennie Rosenbluth, ACC Player of the Year * Lennie Rosenbluth, 1st Team All-ACC *

, UPI National Coach of the Year * Frank McGuire, ACC Coach of the Year * Tommy Kearns, 1st Team All-ACC * Pete Brennan, 2nd Team All-ACC

References

Footnotes

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:1956-57 North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball team NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament championship seasons North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball seasons

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament Final Four seasons

Tar Tar is a dark brown or black viscous liquid of hydrocarbons and free carbon, obtained from a wide variety of organic materials through destructive distillation. Tar can be produced from coal, wood, petroleum, or peat. "a dark brown or black bi ...