Coming Home
Lennie Rosenbluth’s return to Chapel Hill has reenergized him and strengthened his bond with the UNC basketball program and its fans.
On Halloween night, Rankin Street belongs to the young. Not so much children, but rather young people. Miles away from subdivisions where school-aged children walk door to door requesting candy from neighbors, thousands of drunken college students rush the downtown area in search of their own entertainment.
It is an annual celebration of excess and youth, a much more modest Mardi Gras. The students risk the cold and shaky cell phone connection to go from one end of the congested street to the other and back, meeting pals and screaming at nothing specific. They drink at packed pubs, dress up in creative and suggestive costumes, and observe others doing the same. It’s frequently more of a rite of passage than a joyful experience, but that doesn’t matter. What matters to these pupils is that they were there and experienced it.
Lennie Rosenbluth and his wife Dianne sit on a balcony three storeys above the fray. It’s almost 8:45 p.m., and the 80-year-old North Carolina basketball star has arrived to have dinner and witness the festivities. Dianne, dressed as a witch, comes to Top of the Hill every Halloween, and Lennie adores accompanying her. He isn’t dressed up and has no intention of joining the throng of college students below, yet his motivations for being here this Thursday night aren’t wholly different from theirs. He wants to make some memories.
Lennie leans over the balcony, seeing the outfits below. He notices a young man wearing a large, body-sized box with only his head showing out (“Cheap costume,” he quips). He waves to a group of individuals he knows below, but they are unable to see or hear him due to the commotion. It doesn’t matter. He was present and lived it.
“I think it’s really great,” Lennie says. “I imagine all the fraternities are dressed the same and walking down the street. It’s lots of fun. I wished we had it in school. I stayed in Chapel Hill for the entire Halloween season since we were training, but there was never anyone wandering up and down the street. “There wasn’t much of anything.”
Between intervals of people watching, Lennie entertains a small group of his own admirers on the Top of the Hill porch. What was once a restaurant has swiftly transformed into a bar, with Carolina fans of all ages approaching their table in full costume to introduce themselves, take a picture, and share a memory. Some witnessed Rosenbluth play at Carolina (though this is becoming less common each year), while others recall their father talking about seeing him play. Some of the younger crowd claim their grandfather informed them about the 6-foot-5 forward’s excellent stroke.
This has become normal for Lennie since he returned to Chapel Hill four years ago, and he doesn’t mind it. Even at 80 years old, he is not the kind to stay at home and enjoys discussing basketball. He attends every home Carolina football and basketball game. He is a frequent at a number of the town’s prominent restaurants. He even attends the Roy Williams Live radio show tapings on a weekly basis to get out of the house. He is a visible member of the Chapel Hill neighborhood, so welcoming fans comes with the territory.
“It’s a great life,” Rosenbluth says. “If you have to be anywhere Chapel Hill is the place to be.”
Dianne is Lennie’s second wife. Dianne, a vivacious blonde many years his junior, met Lennie three years ago and married him nine months later. Though she was up in Charlotte, Dianne has lived in Chapel Hill since attending UNC in the 1960s, and she “gets it” about Carolina athletics. Her father played freshman football at UNC before transferring to The Citadel. He and Dianne used to watch Carolina games together when she was younger, and he remained a fan until his death, while watching—wait for it—a Carolina game. Dianne’s story generates laughter rather than grief.
