Cole talks about his storied basketball career at Elon as well as his service to his community. This story is part of the magazine's coverage of 100 years of Elon basketball.
By Kristin Simonetti ’05
For Tommy Cole ’72, 2009 is shaping up to be a pretty good year.
Last month, Graham (N.C.) High School inducted his 1983 boys’ basketball team, which he coached to a state championship that year, into its sports hall of fame. In late February, his 2009 Walter Williams High School (Burlington, N.C.) girls’ basketball team earned him his 500th victory as a high school coach. The same team went on to capture the Mid-State 3-A Conference title before Cole retired at season’s end.
Perhaps the highlight of 2009 came on Feb. 7, when Cole watched as his maroon and gold #34 jersey was retired at halftime of the Elon vs. Appalachian State men’s basketball game, solidifying his place as one of the greatest players in the history of Elon basketball.
“It was very emotional. Words can’t express the feeling of that day,” Cole says, recalling his jersey retirement. “I didn’t want to leave the gym when it was over.”
Cole holds Elon career records for assists (705) and field goals made (328), and his 2,214 career points rank second only to Jesse Branson ’65, who also had his jersey retired at the February ceremony. Cole earned All-American recognition twice (1971, 1972), made the All-Carolinas Conference team three times (1970, 1971, 1972) and was named conference MVP in 1971. In 1971 and 1972, he received the Stein H. Basnight Award, presented annually to Elon’s outstanding male and female athlete of the year.
“Tommy was humble, never cocky, but always an outstanding player,” recalls president emeritus Earl Danieley ’46, who counts Cole among his friends. “He was a person so well-liked by the faculty and students, and he was respected and appreciated by the community. He became a community hero in a way. Everyone knew who he was as few other athletes were known, because he was a local boy.”
Hometown boy makes good
A Burlington native, Cole starred in athletics at Williams High School. He was familiar with Elon coach William R. “Bill” Miller’s Fighting Christian squads of the 1960s, attending many games at Alumni Gym. Miller was among the several coaches who recruited Cole for basketball, including Dean Smith at the University of North Carolina and Frank McGuire at the University of South Carolina.
Cole took to the gruff, no-nonsense manner of Miller and was enticed by the prospect of playing for his high school coach, Winston “Twig” Wiggins, who had been hired as an assistant coach under Miller. Cole also was drawn to the electric atmosphere of Alumni Gym and the rabid Elon fan base.
“Elon basketball was a happening in those days,” Cole recalls, estimating the arena’s capacity was nearly twice what it is today because of the way the bleachers were set up. “It was big-time basketball, and every home game was packed.”
Cole excelled under Miller and Wiggins, achieving statistical milestones not seen since Branson’s playing days. But more than his individual accomplishments were his contributions to Elon’s great basketball success during his career. Elon captured the 1971 Carolinas Conference regular-season championship and the conference tournament championship in 1971 and 1972.
Cementing a legacy
In 1971, Cole played a starring role in one of Elon basketball’s most dramatic games — the 58-57 victory over the Guilford College Quakers in the Carolinas Conference tournament championship game played at Winston-Salem Coliseum.
“Guilford and Elon’s rivalry back then was like Duke and Carolina today,” Cole explains. “We hated them, and they hated us.”
In the last minute of the game, with the score tied at 57, Guilford star M.L. Carr took a shot from the corner. The ball bounced off the rim, and Carr fouled Cole as he attempted the rebound. With two seconds remaining on the clock, Cole lined up to take the first of a one-and-one foul shot opportunity. He remembers that the shot “didn’t feel right” on the release, but it rattled around the rim and eventually dropped in. He missed the second shot, but the first was enough to seal the victory.
“Anytime you beat Guilford, it was sweet,” Cole says. “But in the conference championship game, it was sweeter.”
A taste of the pros
Cole closed out his Elon career the following year with a second conference tournament championship over Guilford in front of a home crowd at Alumni Gym. After graduation, he planned to enter the NBA draft only to suffer a broken jaw during a softball game before the big day. Cole’s jaw was wired shut, and eventually he dropped 35 pounds from a liquid diet.
Yet the Boston Celtics and general manager Red Auerbach, who had scouted Cole since seeing him play against High Point star Gene Littles during his freshman year at Elon, took a chance on Cole. He attended Auerbach’s summer rookie camp on Cape Cod, Mass., but the weight loss had taken a toll on his strength. Cole was one of the last rookies cut before the Celtics broke camp and returned to Boston.
“I went to see what it was like, to see what I could have done,” Cole says. “It was a great experience, but I wasn’t ready physically.”
Finding a calling
Cole and his wife, Kathy, his high school sweetheart whom he married after his sophomore year at Elon, returned home to Burlington, where they raised their four children: Emily, Worth, Elliott and Blake.
Cole worked at a bicycle shop at the Burlington mall, and Kathy began interviewing for teaching positions with Alamance County schools. During one of her interviews, Cole recalls, Kathy was asked what Cole was doing now that he had returned to town. She mentioned he had an interest in teaching and coaching. A few days later, Cole was hired to teach at Eli Whitney Middle School. Kathy had to wait a few weeks longer for her job offer.
“She still hasn’t let me forget that,” Cole says with a laugh.
After a half-year at Whitney, Cole moved on to Southern Middle School. In 1979, he began his coaching career at Graham High School and realized he’d found his calling.
“I liked preparing the kids for games, watching them perform and watching them succeed,” he says. “Basketball skills are life skills. You learn through the victories and defeats, the good and the bad.”
Cole’s coaching career, which spanned 30 years and concluded at the end of this season, included 24 years coaching the boys’ basketball teams at Graham and Williams high schools and another six years coaching the girls’ basketball team at Williams. He amassed 502 victories against 274 losses and won two state championship titles, in 1983 at Graham and in 1996 at Williams (the only boys’ basketball championship in Williams’ history).
Cole credits much of his love for the game of basketball, his passion for coaching and the accolades he’s collected over the years to the guidance of Miller and Wiggins during his Elon days. Having his jersey retired in recognition of his achievements as an Elon student athlete moves the admittedly emotional Cole close to tears.
“It means a lot, I’m very honored, and I’m very touched by it,” he says. “It’s been a very good year.”