BTN to rebroadcast Maryland's 1984 ACC tournament game win Duke Tuesday at 9 p.m.
A special Zoom event will be held leading up to the game to talk about one of Lefty Driesell's biggest wins and one of Len Bias' biggest moments as a Terp
Maryland’s victory over Duke in the 1984 Atlantic Coast Conference tournament championship game at the Greensboro Coliseum will be rebroadcast Tuesday night as part of the Big Ten Network’s celebration of the Terps.
Though it might not hold the drama of the game that will precede it on BTN’s mid-summer “Maryland Day” - the iconic “Miracle in Miami” football game a few months later when the Terps erased a 31-0 halftime deficit to win, 42-40 - the ACC title game was special in its own right.
It marked Maryland’s second of three ACC tournament titles and it was Lefty Driesell’s only ACC tournament title in his 17 years in College Park, among the biggest victories in his Hall of Fame career. It also served as a continuation of the coming-out party for then sophomore forward Len Bias.
Prior to BTN’s rebroadcast, I will be co-hosting a Zoom event talking about the game. Though I was still a couple of years away from becoming the Maryland beat writer for the Baltimore Sun, I have referenced that game many times and have watched clips of it on You Tube.
Here is a link that will be help you get into the Zoom call: https://www.facebook.com/events/307586340441701/
Dave Ungrady, who will share hosting duties with me for the event, and I are currently beginning to work on a documentary based on Dave’s compelling book, “Born Ready: The Mixed Legacy of Len Bias” and are starting a crowdfunding campaign to help get it off the ground.
In a conversation I had with Dave when he asked me to join him in the project, I asked him why he decided to turn his book into a documentary.
“When I was updating the book at the end of last year, I realized there really isn’t a comprehensive documentary on his legacy,” Ungrady said. “Going through the book, it reminded how profound a lot of these reflections were. I thought they had a lot of meaning with everything that’s happening today and the hardships that are occurring.
“I was trying to think of a way to update the Born Ready Project (which grew out of the book), I thought a documentary would be a good way to enhance the purpose of teaching young people effective decision-making. Just the reminder of how profound the individual reflections and thoughts were by people and how Len’s death affected them.”
Given the fact that Bias is still being talked about 34 years after his death from a cocaine-overdose - ESPN, which did its own documentary on Bias a few years ago, had a three-hour show last month centered around the former two-time ACC player of the year - Ungrady and I believe that he still has a story worth telling.
“In a way, as long as there’s Michael Jordan out there, we’ll be talking about Len Bias,” Ungrady said. “It’s just proof that he’s relevant, especially to our generation. And as long as our generation is around to remember it, it will be a viable story. It’s a never-ending story in the fact that you can learn from his death and use it as a tool to help people.”