Michael Norwood’s daughter was two and a half years old when she started receiving cancer treatments at Duke. That year, Norwood attended Eric Montross’ Father’s Day Basketball Camp, where Montross signed a hat for Norwood’s daughter: “Dear Nell, best wishes.”
Nell passed away later that year. The hat Montross signed still hangs on Norwood’s door.
“I don’t think he fully grasped how many lives he changed,” Norwood told The Daily Tar Heel. “Probably more than any Carolina athlete ever has in history.”
If you ask those who knew him, that story is one small sliver — one tiny glimpse — into the impact Montross had on UNC and the Chapel Hill community.
Montross died after his own months-long battle with cancer on Dec. 17. After the news broke the following day, the community's response was swift and, for Montross’ close friends, emotionally overpowering.
The day after Montross died, UNC men's basketball arrived in Charlotte to play Oklahoma in the Jumpman Invitational. Pat Sullivan, a current assistant coach who played alongside Montross in the 1990s, recalled the influx of support — from Michigan’s Juwan Howard to strangers passing by on the street.
“It just felt like anywhere we went, people had so many kind words about him, little stories about how he’d touch their lives,” Sullivan told The Daily Tar Heel.
Against Oklahoma, the Tar Heels sported Montross warmup shirts. Those shirts made another appearance when UNC took on Charleston Southern at home — the first game for North Carolina in the Dean E. Smith Center since Montross’ death.
Sullivan dropped by Montross’ old radio spot and left a cough drop, just like he always did. UNC play-by-play announcer and longtime coworker of Montross, Jones Angell, left Montross’ seat open in tribute. A Carolina blue bouquet of flowers sat on the table where Montross used to cover games, positioned delicately behind a media credential with Montross’ name.
