[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 10390-10391]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        THE DREAM HAS COME TRUE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. McIntyre) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. McINTYRE. Mr. Speaker, 9 weeks ago, 17 young men from the 
University of North Carolina stood here on the floor of this chamber. 
They came here to visit us in Washington and to visit our national 
Capitol during the ACC tournament.
  Today, those same young men are now national champions. In the 3 
weeks following their visit to Washington, they went from Chapel Hill 
to Charlotte to Syracuse to St. Louis where the road to the National 
Collegiate Athletic Association's Final Four ended, and with their 
reign as national basketball champions began.
  As a double graduate of UNC, but more importantly, as a father, I was 
thrilled to be in St. Louis for the Final Four along with my colleague 
the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Miller) and so many others, to 
witness the Tar Heels' triumph, that I also shared with two Carolina 
students, my sons, Joshua and Stephen.

                              {time}  2130

  Since they knew many of the Carolina players personally, we were 
particularly pleased to see this team soar from the agony of an 8 and 
20 season 3 years earlier, to a 34 and 4 season that exemplified the 
very best in the Carolina tradition and the very best in collegiate 
basketball.
  With the return of Coach Roy Williams to his alma mater 2 years ago, 
a rebuilding program began that ended in a storybook finish. Sean May, 
the son of one of the best ever in Final Four history, repeated his 
father's, Scott May's, exploits from the National Championship game of 
1976. And Sean, on his birthday, April 4, became the most outstanding 
player of the 2005 Final Four.
  It was a team effort, emblematic of the Carolina way, as former Head 
Coach Dean Smith would call it. There were a host of heroes:
  Raymond Felton, the hard-charging point guard from the little town of 
Latta, South Carolina, which is just

[[Page 10391]]

across the border from my small hometown of Lumberton, North Carolina, 
who made the critical free-throws, a steal and a rebound in the closing 
minutes to seal the victory over the University of Illinois in the 
championship game.
  Rashad McCants, the All America swingman, whose blocked shot and 
steal and barrage of points against Wisconsin a week earlier in Eastern 
Regional propelled Carolina to the next level.
  Jawad Williams, the senior who could do it all, offensively and 
defensively, and whose faith and character were a powerful witness.
  Jackie Manuel, the 2004 defensive player of the year in the Atlantic 
Coast Conference;
  Melvin Scott, the senior whose 3-point threat often opened up an 
opponent's defense;
  David Noel, the critical cog in the Tarheels explosive machine off 
the bench;
  Marvin Williams, the fabulous freshman phenomenon whose tip-in put 
Carolina ahead for good in the championship game; and all the rest of 
the players managers, trainers, assistant coaches, and other critical 
staff to whom we are grateful for their example of excellence, their 
patience, passion, purpose, and persistence, all characteristics that 
constitute the courage and the commitment of champions.
  With five national championships, four of them since the NCAA 
officially started the tournament, as well as 16 Final Four 
appearances, 15 ACC tournament titles, and over 1,850 wins, the 
Carolina way is one that represents the very best of those attributes 
which so many other colleges and universities emulate.
  My wife's sons and I were thrilled in March to host the National 
Champions at the national capital, and we now look forward to their 
visit to the White House. And we look forward to that long-awaited 
National Championship banner, when it is raised in the rafters in the 
Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill this fall.
  May God bless those Tarheels. Indeed, the dream has come true for 
those who wear Carolina blue.

                          ____________________