A narrative memoir by Steven Leventhal – coming soon.
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I am working feverishly on my forthcoming memoir. This is the story of a pivotal year in my life.
I had a front seat for one of the most iconic years in college basketball, the North Carolina Tar Heels’ quest for the 1982 NCAA championship. My college days were winding down when cocky freshman Michael Jordan arrived on the scene. Just as the euphoria over this milestone reached a crescendo, my world fell apart. Rejections, family crisis, and health issues made me rethink everything.
A number of books have been written about the 1982 team, but none from the student in the stands perspective. My unbelievable, but true story of wild sex, exotic drugs, and great rock and roll begins in Mexico City and traverses rural North Carolina, before landing in the “Southern Part of Heaven.”
My unwavering support for Carolina basketball fell in direct conflict with my stand against the administration, and their proposed new 20,000 seat area. I started a protest that reverberated around the campus and ultimately led to a face-to-face meeting in legendary coach Dean Smith’s office. Some of the details have never been made public, until now.
The story is filled with eighties pop culture including, news headlines, movies, television, and music discovery. My lofty academic goal was to get into medical school. At a major university, it was easy to be sidetracked by extracurriculars like fraternities, concerts, Broadway theater, and especially sports.
The book mixes the college hi-jinks of “Animal House”, released four weeks before my freshman year, with the passionate pursuit of “The Paper Chase”. This story takes place in the “Southern Part of Heaven” – the historic and picturesque University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill during 1982. My journey is intertwined with the Tar Heels’ quest for its first basketball championship in a quarter century, led by freshman Michael Jordan. Participating in student protests landed me in the cross-hairs of legendary coach Dean Smith, and the search for love got me in hot water with a few coeds. Classic midnight movies, superstar concerts, and news-making headlines round out this unbelievable but true story.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Hugh Morton Collection.
But this isn’t just about MJ, or Dean Smith, or James Worthy. UNC won three championships in 1982, as the women’s soccer team and men’s lacrosse program were emerging as national powerhouses. In addition, the UNC football team was ranked number three in the country, until star tailback Kelvin Bryant went down with a foot injury. We lost to eventual national champion Clemson by two points.
Thanks to Inside Carolina.com for running an excerpt. https://247sports.com/college/north-carolina/Article/Book-Excerpt-Nineteen-Eighty-Two-1982-UNC-Basketball-Chapel-Hill-184122066/
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My freelance articles have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Houston Chronicle, Inside Carolina Magazine and on the 24/7 Sports blog site. In 1998, I created a novel system for newspapers to embed sports interview audio on their websites. Our company worked with every major newspaper chain in the US, including Gannett, Knight-Ridder, the New York Times, the Tribune Companies, Denver Post, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Advanced Media, and more. We also provided audio for the New York Islanders. I helped create one of the very first sports blogs on the Internet in 2007. In 2012, I launched Acid Flashback Radio, which can be heard by listeners in 120 countries around the world, and I parleyed that experience into the creation and design of the InternetFM streaming radio app.
My extensive knowledge of music and sports are featured prominently this memorable return to the year 1982.