Fike to honor '84 state champs Friday

The 1983-84 Fike High School boys basketball team (they're not boys anymore!) will be honored during halftime of the Fike boys home game against Rocky Mount. The '84 team remains Fike's (and Wilson's) only state champion. The Golden Demons were coached by Harvey Reid Jr. who had won state titles at Frederick Douglass and Elm City before coming to Fike with merger in 1978-79.

The reunion has been put together by Charles Howard, now an assistant coach at Barton College after coaching the varsity boys for six years at Beddingfield, where he still teaches.

That Fike team was pretty remarkable as no player was taller than 6-foot-3 and down the stretch Reid played his starters almost exclusively. Only one player went on to an NCAA Division I career, 6-2 sophomore John McNeil who played at Pittsburgh.

(Correction: McNeil signed with Pittsburgh but never played for the Panthers. Instead, McNeil played at Chowan College (then a junior college) and Elizabeth City State, where he graduated. Howard, who signed with Belmont Abbey College out of Fike, ended up playing at N.C A&T State University, becoming the only player from the 1984 Demons to play Div. I basketball.)

I've found lot of great photos from that season and will put them on a photo gallery to go along with a retrospective on that team which will run this weekend. So if you like short-shorts, check it out!