40 for 34 # 8 - May 23

Bias Picks the Terps

But for a time, some thought he would attend N.C. State

If any school stood a good chance of stealing Len Bias away from the University of Maryland it was ACC rival N.C.State. At the time, the Wolfpack featured Dereck Whittenburg and Sidney Lowe, teammates at DeMatha High School who were Bias’s good friends, as well as local basketball rivals.

“By the end of [my] visit, I knew I wanted to go to State,” Bias said in a Washington Post story in 1985. “That’s the last thing I told Coach (Jim) Valvano when I left.”

If it had been up to Bias alone, he may well have chosen the Wolfpack. Johnnie Walker, his youth coach and mentor, claims that despite Bias’s deep connections to Maryland, N.C. State was his first choice, based in part on an enjoyable campus visit. “N.C. State did a lot of things down there for him,” says Walker, who refused to elaborate other than to add, “He had a good time.”

It turned out, however, that no college could compete with the passion Bias felt for Maryland

combined with the influence James Bias had on his son. The elder Bias liked the fact that it would be easy for Len’s three younger siblings to watch their big brother play so close to home. “He had great respect for his father,” says Walker. “The fact is, his father wanted him to stay home and go to Maryland. Len didn’t make the decision to go to Maryland.”

Excerpted from the book,

Born Ready: the Mixed Legacy of Len Bias

Buy autographed copies

as a Father's Day Gift

The audio for this post was narrated by the author,

Dave Ungrady.

And listen to more about Len's early life in Episode 2 of the narrative podcast series, Len Bias: A Mixed Legacy