Tickets for the professional alumni game are $20 and go on sale June 27th at 10 a.m. at TarHeelBlue.com.
Proceeds from the game will go to the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and UNC Children’s Hospitals.
Carolina’s NBA players in 2008-09 included Vince Carter, Raymond Felton, Brendan Haywood, Antawn Jamison, Sean May, Rashad McCants, Jerry Stackhouse, Rasheed Wallace, Jawad Williams, Marvin Williams and Brandan Wright. Wayne Ellington, Danny Green, Tyler Hansbrough and Ty Lawson are expected to go in the NBA Draft on June 25th.
The professional alumni game marks the start of a season-long celebration honoring one of the most tradition-rich programs in the history of college athletics.
“This is a unique place,” Williams said of UNC. “There aren’t many schools on that level that can have the tradition and history that we have, the family atmosphere that we have and have people that care desperately about what happens [in the program]. I wanted it to be a year-long celebration. I didn’t want just to have a reunion and say, ‘Here it is, this is 100 years of North Carolina Basketball.’ That’s why we’re going to have the pro alumni game in late summer and the full reunion during the course of the season. I’m really excited about what’s going to happen.”
In addition to the professional alumni game, Carolina will celebrate its 100th season with a reunion weekend on February 12-13, 2010. All former players will be invited back to Chapel Hill to play in an alumni game. The players will be also honored at special ceremonies at an ACC game.
The 100th season will be highlighted with in-game video board features, commemorative items and collectibles, a history of Carolina Basketball DVD and book, and other special events.
The 2009-10 Tar Heels will wear throwback uniforms in a number of games that honor a championship team from the past.
The University of North Carolina has won 1,984 games in its first 99 seasons, four shy of the NCAA record. That includes 102 wins all-time in NCAA Tournament play, the most of any program in the country. Carolina is one of only four schools that has won at least five NCAA Tournament titles, has played in a record 18 Final Fours, and holds Atlantic Coast Conference records for most regular season titles (27) and most ACC Tournament championships (17, tied for the record).