Dodgen shares history with American sports icons
In the summer of 1981, Dodgen arrived in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to serve as a coach at the legendary Dean Smith’s summer basketball camp.
Since the “Dean Dome” had not yet been built, Dodgen and other coaches ambled out of the Carolina heat into Carmichael Arena.
There, during pickup games at the end of each camp, Dodgen saw in an 18-year-old Jordan the traits that would form the most famous basketball player to ever live.
The easygoing grin he cracked during jokes. The high-arcing jumper swishing through the net. The tongue sticking out as he levitated from the free-throw line to the basket. The competitive spark that lit once he stepped on the floor.
Before six NBA titles with the Chicago Bulls, 14 NBA All-Star appearances and even before his game-winning shot against Georgetown in the 1982 national title game, Jordan was an incoming freshman out of Laney High School in Wilmington.
“He was just a normal college freshman,” Dodgen recalled in his office at Farragut High School. “Fun to be around, treating you like his best friend. But boy, when he played, it was a work of art.”
Those summertime masterpieces were not a rare sight for Dodgen, who returned for camp years later and took a picture with Jordan after his rookie season in Chicago.
Today, that photo is one of several on his office wall, where Dodgen’s run-ins with American sports icons are shown alongside 53 years of work in high school athletics.
So with America’s 250th anniversary around the corner, the longtime Admiral athletic director was happy to recall some of his more notable encounters.
“I’ve always been at the right place at the right time,” he said. “I’ve been blessed. My wife was good enough to take care of the kids, allowing me to go and work and do all this and meet people. And I’ve picked up something from everyone.”
A few of the people on that wall: Jerry West, Magic Johnson, Mike Krzyzewski, Bob Knight and Roy Williams.
Those are just a few of the photos, which showcase the encyclopedia of knowledge Dodgen has gathered through his career as a coach and an administrator.
“Roy Williams and I started together as high school coaches, him at Asheville and me at McMinn County,“ Dodgen said.
“Now he went just a little different direction than I did, but he and I stay in touch quite a bit.”
He recalled Williams’ penchant for organization at North Carolina, citing the same of Krzyzewski at Duke.
From Knight, of course, Dodgen learned one thing above all else: discipline.
“You work a long day at his camps,” Dodgen said. “You really do, and it’s tough. So one of the instructors propped his foot up on the wall, and he fired him right on the spot.
“But for all of them, at the bottom line, it was about relationships with the players. If you don’t have those, you don’t have anything. If kids respect you, they will play for you. And I’ve taken that with me everywhere I’ve ever coached.”
He also appreciated the
jovial nature of Magic Johnson — whom he worked with at a camp in Atlanta — and the humorous hunger of
Shaquille O’Neal, who offered an extra Big Mac to Dodgen’s son, Michael, after LSU’s visit to Tennessee.
Altogether, these encounters and more have formed Dodgen’s own version of the American dream.
It’s one that began in the mountains of Gatlinburg in the 1960s, only to lead him across the country and the world as he found his way to Farragut.
“If it hadn’t been for athletics, I probably wouldn’t have graduated from high school or college,” he said. “But the people I’ve met, the places I’ve gone, it’s the American dream. It’s the Fourth of July every day for me.”
