Stripes
How about a referee on Mount ACCMore - our memorial to the people who made Atlantic Coast Conference sports what they are today?
If we would dare to go in that direction, my vote would be for Lenny Wirtz - hands down.
Why? Because everybody hated Lenny Wirtz - everybody.
And that's not an easy thing to accomplish - it's harder than being loved by everybody, that's for sure.
Every single ACC fan was convinced as long as Wirtz was on the floor that their team was going to get hosed.
Dean Smith didn't get along with him, Mike Krzyzewski didn't get along with him.
Do you know how difficult that is - getting Deano and Coach K to agree on something?
Oh, sure, he wasn't the only referee who was vilified for being inconsistent on block-charge calls and the rest. Rick Hartzell actually cost Virginia a late-season game against Duke in 1996; Dick Paparo was a favorite at Maryland, I remember; and who doesn't loathe the day Ted Valentine was born, really?
That said, those guys are all pretenders to Wirtz' throne.
It almost makes me tear up sorting through the memories of cursing him in person and on TV when he'd get it wrong - and he always got it wrong.
Alas, Lenny, I doubt we'll actually find a place for you on Mount ACCMore. Unless ...
No, I just checked, and there isn't money in the budget to carve a horse's ass on our mountain in your memory.
Hey, I tried.
- Chris Graham