McKeithan, Kinlaw, Rancke recall college sports careers of yesteryear

Jun. 30—LUMBERTON — It didn't matter that some of the stories told were more than 70 years old. Even in their old age, Nick McKeithan and Charles Kinlaw recalled every detail like the events happened yesterday.

A generation younger, John Rancke also recalled some of the great moments in this state's collegiate sports history. For 30 minutes Wednesday, the three men held court, captivating an audience in their hometown just as they used to thrill the crowds on Tobacco Road.

The trio were part of a panel discussion at the Kiwanis Club of Robeson-Lumberton's weekly meeting, moderated by former UNC Pembroke athletic director Dan Kenney.

Each told of his college career at one of North Carolina's "Big Four" ACC schools — all four would have been represented, except both Finley Read and Dick Christy were unable to attend on behalf of N.C. State. In addition to the recounting of old triumphs, there was plenty of good-natured ribbing amongst the rival schools' former athletes.

All three are from Lumberton; Kinlaw played baseball at Wake Forest, McKeithan played football at Duke and Rancke was a basketball manager at North Carolina.

McKeithan relives Orange Bowl touchdown

McKeithan, 88, played football at Duke after also being recruited to play basketball at South Carolina. He graduated from Lumberton High School and attended Duke from 1951-55, part of a glorious gridiron era in Durham.

"I know you all would be happier if I was representing Duke basketball, but I'm representing Duke football. And really it's not the Duke football that we know today. When I went to Duke, Duke was a good football team; it had a history behind it," McKeithan said, mentioning Rose Bowl participants in 1938 and 1941. "I grew up loving Duke, there's no doubt about it. I grew up hating Carolina."

McKeithan played high school basketball at Cameron Indoor Stadium as part of the state tournament; while on campus he was invited to work out with the football team the next day, and was offered a scholarship. As part of the tryout, the coaches even had him punt on the practice field, surrounded by woods.

"I kicked a few from the 45-(yard line)," McKeithan said. "I not only kicked them into the end zone, I kicked them into the woods — that's the truth."

McKeithan played on the freshman team in 1951 and on varsity from 1952-54; during that time the Blue Devils never lost a conference game, including undefeated records against North Carolina, N.C. State and Wake Forest — a point he was quick to note Wednesday.

The Blue Devils earned a trip to the 1955 Orange Bowl against Nebraska, in an era when only the most elite teams got bowl opportunities. Richard Nixon, then the sitting vice president, was in attendance for the game in Miami. Duke led 14-7 in the second half; McKeithan, a defensive back, told teammate Sonny Jurgensen — who went on to a Hall of Fame NFL career — he was prepared to jump a deep pass that Nebraska had thrown successfully a few times in the game.

"I could see it coming and they threw this deep pass out there, and I intercepted it about the 50-yard line," McKeithan said. "And so I went down the sideline and I got knocked out of bounds at the 2-yard line. I scored on the next play — they gave me the ball on a dive play and I scored. That made it 21-7 and sort of broke the game open."

Duke won 34-7, and a few days later McKeithan found his picture in Sports Illustrated.

"They had a picture of me scoring that touchdown — and if it hadn't said what it was you would have never known what it was, because we had no facemask at that time ... they were showing my face across the goal line, and some guy had his hand up under my helmet pulling this way, and another guy had his hand on my nose," McKeithan said. "You could hardly see my face."

McKeithan said as he escorted one of the "Orange Bowl Queens" that evening, his nose was covered with chalk from the playing field.

McKeithan was selected in the 14th round of the 1955 NFL Draft by the San Francisco 49ers. After his playing career, he became one of Robeson County's best golfers, winning the first three Kiwanis All-American tournaments and the Robeson County Golf Championship; asked by someone in the audience Wednesday how many golf balls he's hit at Pinecrest Country Club, McKeithan said "more than anybody."

Kinlaw recounts Demon Deacons' College World Series appearance

The 92-year-old Kinlaw played for Demon Deacons from 1948-51 — back before the school moved to Winston-Salem, when it was still located in the town of Wake Forest, near Raleigh. He previously attended Red Springs High School and played American Legion baseball in Red Springs.

Wake Forest reached the College World Series in 1949, going 31-4 for the season. Kinlaw had a strong career as a pitcher; he recalled how he never allowed a home run in high school or American Legion baseball and didn't allow one for the Demon Deacons until their College World Series appearance in Wichita, Kansas.

"We went to the College World Series and I think it was the fourth inning they put me in as a relief pitcher," Kinlaw said. "This guy had already hit a home run against St. John's; he came to bat and I said 'oh boy, he won't hit a home run off me.' Well, in right field there was a train, and there must have been 15 little boys sitting on the other side of the train. You could see them up above the fence. I threw my first pitch to him; well, the last time I saw that ball, those little boys were getting off the other side of the train to get the ball. That was the only home run that was ever hit off of me."

Wake Forest started the season 22-0, including wins over North Carolina, N.C. State and Duke; their first loss came against a semi-pro team from Whiteville.

"We went down to play an exhibition game and they had a guy that played AAA ball that had come home to see his parents, and they got him to pitch against us," Kinlaw said. "I started pitching; the first man up I walked, the second man up hit a triple, and he scored and made it 1-0. The rest of the game I gave up three hits; no more scoring or anything. We got beat 1-0. So I was the losing pitcher, after all that 22 games that we played, I was the first losing pitcher, that wasn't much fun.

"Since Wake Forest was Baptist, we did not practice on Sundays. After that game we practiced on Sundays."

Kinlaw also recalled a game earlier in the season against N.C. State on Easter Monday. After two players were ejected from the game — one for calling the umpire "an S.O.B." and the other for subsequently joking to the umpire "I never knew (the teammate) to lie" — Kinlaw had to play second base, being picked by the coach for the vacant position because of his experience playing shortstop in Legion baseball in Red Springs.

"They had the bases loaded against us and there was two outs, and their batter, his last name was Evans, but he was the best hitter they had," Kinlaw said. "He hit a line drive between second and me. And somehow, I backhanded it some way and fell down and turned around and threw the guy out. Well the next day the paper stated 'Wake Forest pitcher makes outstanding play of the game against State' — and we went on to beat them."

Rancke tells lessons learned from Dean Smith

John Rancke did not play college sports — he "was never any good, but enjoyed it" while playing high school basketball at Lumberton — but was a team manager for North Carolina basketball from 1971-75 under legendary coach Dean Smith.

Rancke kept stats for the Lumberton High School football team starting in seventh grade. As a college freshman, he interviewed for jobs within the basketball and football programs and sports information department, and got an offer from all three, choosing basketball; Rancke said he was at every basketball practice for four years and sat "30 inches" from Smith on the bench for one entire season.

Part of Rancke's duties as a manager was "big man practice" for 20 minutes before team practices, in which he wore a football helmet, facemask, shoulder pads and held a blocking dummy for Robert McAdoo, Bobby Jones, Mitch Kupchak and Tommy LaGarde.

"My job was to keep them from, I wanted them to lose their balance when they were trying to shoot, and their job was to hit me out of the way," Rancke said. "So to prevent broken noses and stuff like that — this guy's about 6-(foot)-10, so his elbow's going to come right about here (chin-high)."

In addition to those big men, George Karl, Walter Davis and Phil Ford were among the players in Chapel Hill during Rancke's tenure.

Rancke recalled two lessons learned from Smith and Bill Guthridge, the longtime Tar Heels assistant who ultimately succeeded Smith in 1997; one is the importance of being on time, learned the hard way after Rancke overslept a team breakfast and wasn't allowed in the gym for a week.

"Coach Smith said being late is the most selfish thing you could ever do — because your time is more important than the guys waiting on you," Rancke said.

The Tar Heels' famous comeback from an eight-point deficit in 17 seconds against Duke in 1974 — for which Rancke was on the bench — also taught him a lesson.

"Eight points in 17 seconds. That's unheard of. I was on the bench, and Coach Smith was always positive," Rancke said. "But it taught me, as long as there's time on the clock — if you're in business, as long as there's time before the deadline — the game's not over. ... You never quit until the clock runs out."

Rancke, who said he "grew up" at the Bill Sapp Recreation Center in Lumberton, explained a connection from the gym's namesake back to both Duke and North Carolina. Sapp played one season at Duke in 1945 — he's still one of just three freshmen to lead the team in scoring in Duke history — before transferring to Kansas.

"Now who is a young man, I think he was in junior high school, who grew up in Kansas? Dean Smith," Rancke said. "When I sat down with Coach Smith to interview, he asked me how Bill Sapp was. I about hit the floor. I said 'what are you talking about? How do you know Mr. Sapp?' (Smith) said 'he was my favorite basketball player in Kansas when I was a little boy.' So everything kind of came full circle."

Chris Stiles can be reached at 910-816-1977 or by email at cstiles@robesonian.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @StilesOnSports.