"Remembering Billy Packer"

January 31st, 2023

If you were a kid growing up in Winston-Salem during the late 1950s and early 1960s, you knew who Billy Packer was. At first, he was the fearless guard who, in 1962, led Wake Forest to its only Final Four appearance. The team was ranked as high as #3 in the nation that season, and Billy ended his stint with the Demon Deacons scoring over 1,300 points and averaging 82% at the free throw line. Billy also initiated the first official scrimmages between Wake and Winston-Salem State at a time when Black players and white players weren’t allowed to compete against each other.

Later, after his playing days were over, Billy served as an assistant coach for the Deacs. Then, in 1972 he was asked by C.D. Chesley (the broadcasting pioneer whose C.D. Chesley Company was the first to broadcast ACC basketball games on a regular basis) to fill in as an analyst on an ACC game being broadcast from Raleigh. The next year he was hired as the main analyst for ACC broadcasts and remained in that position until 2008. Billy knew the game of basketball inside and out and he was the best analyst in the business, so it’s not surprising that NBC came calling in 1974, and asked Packer to work their Final Four broadcast. He stayed with the Peacock network until CBS lured him away in 1981, and he continued to call Final Fours until 2008. In all, he worked 34 straight NCAA Final Four tournaments.

(Sitting, left to right) broadcasters Bones McKinney (former Wake Forest basketball coach), Billy Packer (former Wake Forest basketball player/asst. coach), and Jim Thacker (WBTV sports director), with C.D. Chesley (standing), behind the scenes at the 1977 NCAA men’s basketball final, North Carolina vs. Marquette, in Atlanta, Georgia.

Cropped from the original courtesy of the Hugh Morton Collection of Photographs and Films, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Wilson Library, North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives. Copyright North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library.

I only worked with Billy briefly in 1974. I had just been hired by WFMY-TV, and he was contracted to produce and host a series of segments about ACC basketball. I ran studio camera for Billy and came to know him as a super nice guy, and the most prepared and knowledgeable basketball analyst in the history of television.

Several years ago, I called Billy and invited him to be a guest on my Triad Today TV show, but he declined. “Thanks Jim, but I just don’t get up to Winston that often anymore,” he said. I was disappointed, and I regret not having the opportunity to interview him, but I understood. Billy Packer passed away last week at the age of 82. He was an original. He was the best at what he did. He was a legend. He was one of us.