‘Teal and purple were just so special’: Hornets icon walks you through 35 years of history

The delight on Muggsy Bogues’ face was evident as he walked through the new museum exhibit celebrating the Charlotte Hornets — especially when he found someone shorter than he is.

That’s a rare occurrence for the 5-foot-3 Bogues, still a fan favorite and the shortest player in NBA history. But at the splendid and just-opened Charlotte Museum of History exhibit, there’s a life-sized photo cutout of Bogues in a Hornets uniform. It turns out that Fake Muggsy is a bit shorter than Real Muggsy, as he proved when he stood beside himself.

Museum organizers offered to move the cutout up a little on the wall to make it a more exact replica.

“No, no, leave it just the way it is!” laughed Bogues, who was having a grand time amid the artifacts and memorabilia in an exhibit that honors the Hornets on their 35th anniversary.

Bogues recently took a tour of the new “Hive at 35” exhibit at one of the Queen City’s hidden gems, the Charlotte Museum of History. It’s on 3500 Shamrock Drive in Charlotte, about five miles east of uptown. We tagged along to see his real-time reactions at the exhibit which opened Tuesday.

Bogues had never seen the exhibit until he walked through it with a Charlotte Observer photographer and myself in tow.

“This is amazing,” Bogues kept saying, as we passed landmarks ranging from the quirky to the mainstream — a cutout of Larry Johnson; an exhibit of the now-defunct WNBA team the Charlotte Sting, which Bogues briefly coached; a Hornets cookbook.

Bogues and I were both most impressed by one of the exhibit’s centerpieces, which recreates Alonzo Mourning’s last-second jump shot from the top of the key that edged the Boston Celtics in the 1993 NBA playoffs (that tells you something about the Hornets, that their most iconic on-court moment occurred 30 years ago, but that’s another story).

Anyway, Mourning’s shot is really done up right. It is documented with a series of basketballs, suspended in the air and ending at the net. On an adjacent wall is an enormous photo of the shot’s aftermath, with Mourning on the ground on his back, arms thrust skyward, and his teammates rushing joyously toward him.

“These guys duplicated the actual shot that Zo hit in 1993,” Bogues said, taking in the display. He had worn an iconic Hornets Starter jacket for the tour (“I can’t believe I can still fit into this thing,” he said).

The shot layout provoked a Muggsy memory of that moment 30 years ago. Bogues recalled he was on the bench for the final play, with Dell Curry in-bounding the ball under the basket. The play originally called for a pass to Johnson, but LJ was too well-covered.

“Zo popped out, looked around and said, ‘Hey, I gotta let it fly!’ ” Bogues smiled. “And then we all swarmed him.”

From Hornets to Bobcats to Hornets

Not all of the memories documented in the exhibit are happy ones, which is fitting for a team that has been in existence since the 1988-89 expansion season but has never won an NBA championship nor made a conference final and at one point left town.

The Hornets packed up in 2002 after an arena dispute, as original team owner George Shinn moved the squad to New Orleans and kept the original name.

The NBA liked the Charlotte market though, and awarded the Queen City another expansion team in 2004. This one was owned at the time by Bob Johnson. Skipping past the other two nickname finalists of “Dragons” and “Flight,” Johnson named the new squad the “Bobcats.”

“Which everybody hated,” Bogues said flatly.

And justifiably so, since “Bobcats” sounded like the name of your local middle-school basketball team and also suspiciously a lot like the new owner’s first name.

Eventually, in 2014, the “Hornets” nickname would return to Charlotte, once the New Orleans squad gave it up and instead adopted the nickname of “Pelicans.” By then Michael Jordan was the team’s majority owner (Jordan sold most of that stake this year to Rick Schnall and Gabe Plotkin).

“It was very hard to get used to orange and white and blue,” Bogues said, gazing at a montage of players like Emeka Okafor, Raymond Felton and Gerald Wallace, all suited up in Bobcats gear. “That teal and purple were just so special. And to get it back again was a great moment for the city and the state.”

How the Hornets exhibit happened

The exhibit was the brainchild of Terri White, the Charlotte museum’s president and CEO.

“I’m originally from Pittsburgh,” White said, “where even if you’re not a sports fan, the city’s sports history is just a part of life. So when I moved to Charlotte (she took over the museum’s head job in 2022) I immediately started looking around saying, ‘OK, where’s the sports history? Where’s all this information?’ And everyone was just like: ‘Oh, it doesn’t exist.’ ”

Well, it existed, but in dribs and drabs in various places. The challenge was putting it together. The exhibit’s still not quite finished although it does have some jewels already, like the first-night Hornets program in 1988 and a small section on Johnson’s and Bogues’ appearance in the movie “Space Jam.”

While the Hornets’ exhibit is already open to the public, artifacts will occasionally be added throughout the run. Fans can email the museum at info@charlottemuseum.org if they have something they’d like to be considered, along with a photo of the item. (It will help if it’s relatively old and unique).

Fred Whitfield, the Hornets’ president, walked through the exhibit on Oct. 6 and thought it would benefit from an autographed jersey of the late Bobby Phills, which Whitfield had in his office and planned to send over on loan.

“I’ve tried my best not to get emotional as I walk through here,” Whitfield said after touring the exhibit. He and the Hornets had approved the idea after White met with Whitfield last November.

“This is really the story of my life,” Whitfield said. “I was a ballboy with the Carolina Cougars in Greensboro (the former ABA team, also represented in the exhibit). I knew every one of these players. It’s just absolutely amazing.”

Should the Panthers do this?

The exhibit isn’t enormous, and there were a few things I wouldn’t have minded seeing more of on our visit.

Jordan’s tenure as majority owner is represented, but just briefly. The WNBA section and the “off the court” section were both about to receive some needed embellishments when I saw the exhibit, with items coming in from places that weren’t yet on display. LaMelo Ball, the team’s current star, could be featured more prominently.

But that’s nitpicking. The fact that the exhibit even exists is a triumph. Sports so often receives short shrift in general-interest museums despite the longstanding popularity of the various sports’ halls of fame.

If I were the Charlotte Museum of History and the Carolina Panthers, I’d be looking at this and thinking, “Hmmm... The Panthers play their 30th season in 2024…. Maybe we should do this again, with the local NFL team?”

The Panthers would like to have their own team hall of fame one day — a number of NFL teams do — and already have a team historian. But in the meantime, this would be a nice place to show off the goods they’ve collected. White, for one, said she’s open to the idea.

That’s thinking ahead, though. For now, the Charlotte Hornets’ exhibit is open through next May.

If you’re a Hornets fan, Muggsy Bogues and I would agree it’s a welcome dose of hoops-centric nostalgia and one well worth your time.

Want to go?

The “Hive at 35” exhibit is open through May 18, 2024, and is included as part of regular museum admission. All Hornets season ticket holders will receive a single-day pass for free museum admission to see the exhibit.

The Charlotte Museum of History is open 11 a.m. through 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. Admission price is $10 for adults and $7 for seniors (age 62+), children (ages 6-17) and students. Children ages 0-5 are free, as are museum members.

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