William Helms: “a noted sports figure in American sports history once commented that ``Bragging ain't bragging if you can prove it.'' On…”

“a noted sports figure in American sports history once commented that ``Bragging ain't bragging if you can prove it.'' On that basis, I want to brag a little bit about North Carolina which has had its share of top sports figures--perhaps more than our share when you consider such outstanding sports figures, past and present, as Arnold Palmer, Catfish Hunter, Charlie ``Choo-Choo'' Justice, Michael Jordan, Richard Petty, David Thompson, Sonny Jurgensen, Dean Smith, Everett Case, Joe Gibbs, Enos Slaughter, and Wallace Wade, who by the way took two teams from Duke University to the Rose Bowl. But he didn't have to go very far for the second one because it was held in Durham, NC, right after Pearl Harbor. It was feared that the Japanese might try to bomb the stadium out in California, so they moved the whole thing across the country to North Carolina--the only time the Rose Bowl was not played in Pasadena. But I don't recall any previous teenager--from anywhere--who has been described as a ``tennis phenomenon who walks in Chris Evert's footsteps''. But that's the accolade handed 14-year-old Alli Baker of Raleigh my hometown--in the May edition of Metromagazine in a sparkling and detailed piece by Patrik Jonsson, writing from Boca Raton, Florida.”