Throwback Thursday: Michael Jordan’s draft day, drought concerns, and the 1984 Hollerin’ Contest
WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — This week’s Throwback Thursday revisits stories from the mid-1980s, including a historic moment in basketball history, challenges facing local farmers, and a uniquely North Carolina competition.
One of the featured stories takes viewers back to the 1984 NBA Draft, when future basketball legend Michael Jordan was selected third overall by the Chicago Bulls.
WWAY reporter Reginald Reynolds sat down with Jordan’s parents, Deloris and James Jordan, as they watched the draft unfold.
“Well I guess it’s going to be Chicago, we’ll know in a few minutes,” Jordan’s mother Deloris said before the selection was announced.
Moments later, NBA Commissioner David Stern called Jordan’s name.
“Michael Jordan, University of North Carolina.”
At the time, few could have predicted the global impact Jordan would have on the sport of basketball and popular culture.
“He has proven that he will go back and get his degree. He realizes that in 15 or 10 years, most everybody will forget Michael Jordan. His life’s got to go on,” Deloris Jordan said.
The segment also revisited drought conditions that were affecting tobacco farmers in Pender County in June of 1984.
“If we don’t get the rain, we’re not going to make the crop. It takes rain, it takes water,” one farmer said.
The final story highlighted the 16th Annual National Hollerin’ Contest in Spivey’s Corner, where competitors gathered to showcase the traditional art of hollering.
The event became a well-known North Carolina tradition and continued for decades before being held for the final time in 2015.
The segment is part of a weekly Throwback Thursday series that features stories from WWAY’s historical news archives. That archive can be accessed here.
