Career Highlights
East Gaston basketball: Three-year starter (1995-1997), All-Gazette 1996, 1997. Total points: 1,301.
UNCW: 119 games; 5.8 ppg; 1.1 assists. FG % 38.7; FT % 68.1. Total points: 696.
Stewart Hare
Air Hare.
A story about basketball and the first dance.Air H
They were in Sacramento, in the Sacramento Kings’ arena, a bunch of guys from UNC-Wilmington 2,400 miles away, playing favored Southern Cal in the first round of the 2002 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.
USC was favored, an underdog pick to make the Final Four. The Seahawks were virtual rookies, having only been to the Big Dance once, two years earlier.
“USC had a lot of talent,” says Stewart Hare, the 6-foot-6 UNCW center. “They were the under-the-radar pick.”
Basketball brackets, of course, are not meant to go according to plan.
“We were up 20 at halftime,” says Hare, who played high school ball at East Gaston, “and in the second half they came back and tied us and we went into overtime.”
With 45 seconds left in overtime, Hare’s flying dunk over three Trojans players put UNCW up 87-83. His two free throws moments later with :14 on the clock helped seal a 93-89 victory.
The dunk made SportsCenter. It made YouTube. And the Seahawks (23-9) advanced to the second round for the first time in school history.
“It was surreal,” Hare says. “My buddy, who was a manger of our team, on the way home he was like, man if this plane goes down it’s not going to be a big deal because your life isn’t going to get any better than that.”
Hare, 43, lives in Denver, N.C., now, where he’s a CPA. His basketball success in high school and college has landed him in the Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame.
“I’m excited,” he said. “It’s good to be part of something like that.”
Hare first picked up a basketball in about second grade. He liked the way Michael Jordan played, and Larry Bird, and joined a church league team. “I just took to it,” he says, “and followed it.”
He was a three-year starter at East Gaston, 1995 through 1997, and was All-Gazette in 1996 and ’97. He scored 1,301 points in high school. “We played 4A then, and the competition was ridiculously good. We played all the good Charlotte schools,” he says.
Colleges noticed, and Hare was looking at Davidson, William and Mary, Holy Cross and UNCW.
“I really liked the UNCW campus, plus it’s near the beach, and they played in the best conference [Colonial Athletic Association]. And you have a pretty good fan base,” he says, “because they don’t have a football team. So basketball is it.”
In 1999-2000, UNCW went 18-13 in the regular season and finished fourth in the CAA at 8-8 then beat Virginia Commonwealth, George Mason and Richmond in the tournament. “When we won the conference tournament, we probably had a couple thousand people rush the court. We weren’t going to get an at-large bid to the NCAAs, so we had to win our conference, and our school at never been to NCAAs, so it literally was the first time they qualified in 23 years of being Division I,” Hare says. “The city was so excited.”
The team opened NCAA play in Nashville against Cincinnati on March 17, 2000 and lost 64-47. Hare had 9 points. “The whole experience was pretty cool. Our coaches wanted us to be prepared, no excuses, like we were not there to have fun; we were there to win games,” Hare says. “But it was fun. Especially to play a great team like Cincinnati.”
The following year, UNCW finished 19-11, beat Old Dominion in the CAA Tournament, then lost to George Mason for a post-season trip to the NIT, where they lost in first round to Dayton.
But the next year, after a 19-9 regular season and CAA wins over James Madison, Delaware and VCU, the Seahawks were in the air to Sacramento.
After beating USC, they played Indiana – under new coach Mike Davis – in the second round and lost 76-67. Legendary coach Bob Knight had left Indiana two years earlier. “It would have been nice to play against him,” Hare says. “We were kind of bummed.”
Hare is married and has two teenagers, a son and daughter. His son plays soccer; his daughter prefers volleyball. His driveway, he says, does not have a basketball goal.
“My entire thing was the college experience and being part of such an amazing program. I wasn’t the star player, just a key player. The coaches were perfectionists, and we worked extremely hard and, because of that, had incredible success,” he says. “It’s not about me being a superstar, it’s about being part of a success story the school had never experienced. Last year, they celebrated the 20th anniversary, and it’s something no one can ever take away.”
He says it’s great to have those memories brought back through the Hall of Fame. “It’s good to be in the Hall,” he says. “They have something they take pride in. I’m not someone who looks back at the past, but they bring back memories of what sports brought to my life.”