Henry Lee. North Rowan days.

 

By Mike London

Salisbury Post

SALISBURY — Henry Lee, one of the legendary single-season players in Rowan County basketball history, passed away recently at his home in Hanover, Maryland.

Lee was Rowan County Player of the Year in 1976-77 as a North Rowan senior and suited up for Georgia Tech in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

In the 1974-75 basketball season, North Rowan’s boys went 2-20, the gloomiest season the program ever has experienced. The Cavaliers finished 11th in the 11-team North Piedmont Conference.

Powerhouse North Davidson hung 90 and 93 on the Cavaliers and blew them out of the gym in the Christmas Tournament. North Rowan coach Walt Baker, who was in his 17th season as a head coach, had to be wondering if he’d stuck around took long. But he had hope for the future. Leading scorer Donnie Williams was a junior. Mark Sturgis, Gil Hobson, Randy Grubb and Marty Thompson were a solid class, and all of them played quite a bit as sophomores.

The 1975-76 season was respectable. North went 8-15 and tied for sixth in the NPC. The sixth of those eight victories gave Baker his 200th career win. Williams averaged 18.3 points per game as a senior and poured in 33 in a satisfying 74-72 upset of North Davidson.

There was considerable optimism for the 1976-77 season with four returning starters — Sturgis, Hobson, Grubb and Thompson — back for their their senior seasons. North was expected to be a contender, although no one could have predicted what was coming.

There were surprises. Leonard Alexander, a fast senior guard who had lettered as a junior but hadn’t scored much, had made a jump. He was ready to shine and wouldn’t be kept on the bench long. Kenny Foxx, a junior forward, added more quickness.

The biggest surprise waiting for the rest of the NPC was Lee. He had transferred to North after playing his junior basketball season in California. Baker was very low-key talking to the Post about Lee in the preseason, although Baker acknowledged he would be a starter. Baker was careful not too build him up too much. He said Lee had potential, but lacked experience.

The 6-foot-4 Lee turned out to be good in the post. Better than good.

So was the team.

North went 23-6, finished second in the NPC with a 16-4 record, won the NPC Tournament for the first time in eight seasons and came within an eyelash of winning the whole thing in the Western North Carolina High School Activities Association.

North’s three games in what would be the final WNCHSAA Tournament — two one-point wins and a one-point loss — were all remarkable efforts.

Lee’s job, especially in the early going, was to focus on being a rebounder, defender and shot-blocker. North was small, but very quick. Hobson thrived in the point guard role, and the Cavaliers got flurries of points from speedsters Sturgis and Alexander.

North Rowan began the season 7-3, with two of those losses to nemesis North Davidson.

The Cavaliers played tense, exciting NPC games. There weren’t many easy ones. There was a two-OT loss to North Stanly and a two-OT win against South Rowan.

Lee started scoring more in January, including 23-point efforts against Mooresville and North Davidson.

In the NPC Tournament, North Rowan wiped out a tough Davie County squad 92-49 in the championship game. Davie was led by future Catawba College star Dwayne Grant, who had beaten the Cavaliers with a 44-point outburst earlier in the season. In the tournament, North held Grant, who scored more than 700 points that season, to 26. Lee scored 23 against North Stanly — the Comets also were good — in the semifinals and 21 against Davie in the title game.

That NPC success sent North into the WNCHSAA Tournament with momentum, and the Cavaliers played three inspired games.

Lee scored 26, his career high, in a 75-74 win against Lenoir in the first round.

In the semifinals, Lee was held to 14, but Sturgis scored a career-best 28 to spark a 72-71 victory against Crest.

Lee’s last game for North was an 18-point effort in a 55-54 setback against Shelby. That historic night marked Coach Baker’s last game at the helm and the final basketball game played in the WNCHSAA.

WNCHSAA schools joined the NCHSAA for next school year, with North being coached by Sam Gealy.

Lee was voted Rowan County Player of the Year by coaches and sportswriters. His scoring average was modest for a POTY, 12.6 points per game, but his post presence had helped transform the Cavaliers into champions. Sturgis and Alexander were first team all-county, while Hobson was second team.

After high school, Lee went on to Wingate.

From there, he headed to Georgia Tech to study engineering.

Georgia Tech had played as independent for years, but had joined the ACC for the 1979-80 season. The Yellow Jackets were overmatched in a talented league and went 1-13.

Prior to the 1980-81 season, head coach Dwane Morrison held walk-on tryouts. Lee was one of two hopefuls selected to join the squad.

It would be a challenging season – 4-23 and 0-14 in the ACC.

Walk-ons at that level are supposed to be practice players, but Lee proved to be more than that. He got on the floor in 17 games and scored 31 points. He had a few bursts off the bench that made a difference.

That was Lee’s only season with the Yellow Jackets, but he excelled in the classroom, graduating with a degree in Electrical Engineering. He would later add a masters degree in Civil Engineering.

He joined the Navy Reserves in 1985 and graduated from the Civil Engineer Officer Course in California in 1989.

His career in the U.S. Navy was long and filled with commendations and medals. He saw a lot of the world and retired with the rank of Lieutenant Commander.

Lee’s daughter, Tronda Lee, played basketball for North Rowan in the late 1990s, but was known mostly as a scholar.

She graduated from N.C. State with a degree in industrial engineering.