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Mike Helms

liveanddiedeac

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Just read he passed away. Got to him him speak to our high school, he had some troubles, but got his life straightened out and had a good story to tell. What a pure shooter. Rest In Peace Mike?
 
Mike Helms could shoot the rock. That was my very first Wake team I got into as a kid when I discovered ACC basketball.
 
I always felt that while he was at Wake, we had our best starting 5 ever. I may have a few names wrong but Frank Johnson PG, Mike Helms SG, Alvis Rogers SF, Charlie Morgan PF and Jim Johnstone C. All solid players with no real weak links, which we had surrounding Duncan and Childress. We owned the Big 4 tournament each year, causing Dean Smith to push for its cancellation.
 
I always felt that while he was at Wake, we had our best starting 5 ever. I may have a few names wrong but Frank Johnson PG, Mike Helms SG, Alvis Rogers SF, Charlie Morgan PF and Jim Johnstone C. All solid players with no real weak links, which we had surrounding Duncan and Childress. We owned the Big 4 tournament each year, causing Dean Smith to push for its cancellation.

Guy Morgan and I agree , that was a heck of a starting 5.
 
I always felt that while he was at Wake, we had our best starting 5 ever. I may have a few names wrong but Frank Johnson PG, Mike Helms SG, Alvis Rogers SF, Charlie Morgan PF and Jim Johnstone C. All solid players with no real weak links, which we had surrounding Duncan and Childress. We owned the Big 4 tournament each year, causing Dean Smith to push for its cancellation.

Guy Morgan was the PF. But that team only won the Big 4 once, the last one held. But Wake won 3 in a row in the mid-70's. The real reason for the cancellation was that most of the coaches hated having to play 2 of their biggest rivals in the first games of the season.
 
Believe that was the team that beat the snot out of UNC in Chapel Hill. It was something like 60-32 at the half. Helms couldn't miss that night.
 
Guy Morgan was the PF. But that team only won the Big 4 once, the last one held. But Wake won 3 in a row in the mid-70's. The real reason for the cancellation was that most of the coaches hated having to play 2 of their biggest rivals in the first games of the season.

Not exactly correct. The reason was that one team was going to start the season 0-2, and none of the coaches liked that possibility.
 
Believe that was the team that beat the snot out of UNC in Chapel Hill. It was something like 60-32 at the half. Helms couldn't miss that night.

Might have been the same night one of Dean's Blue Team subs dove into the Wake bench and spun Sarge Tinga's leg around. Dave just reseated it and the kid about tossed his cookies. Fun night all around. Or that might have been MD??, didn't make the box score.
 
Hard to fathom that Mike Helms died. He was a big time force on the court.
 
Hard to fathom that Mike Helms died. He was a big time force on the court.

Yes, hard for me to believe as well.

My condolences to his family and friends. And to all the Deacon family. Sad to lose one so young.

He was in bad shape when he left Wake and didn't get better for quite a while.
 
Apologies to Guy. I knew his name but still managed to confuse it with a stockbroker in Raleigh. I recall that last Big 4 as I was at my company Christmas party surrounded by lots of UNC alums. Wake dismantled UNC that night leading me to be semi-obnoxious. In any case, it was a solid starting 5 and I have always wondered what happened to Johnstone.
 
When I was on the staff of a church in Chapel Hill while attending Duke Divinity School, I contacted Mike (whose nickname was, I believe, "Duck") whom I knew at Wake, and asked if he would/could speak to our youth group. He agreed, and I expanded the audience to include all downtown church youth groups. He arrived in his prison denim shirt accompanied by a prison official. Before he spoke, I took him aside and simply asked, "what happened?" He went on to tell me about growing up in Basset, VA, never having touched drugs. But after the win at UNC noted above, he want to a fraternity party and was led upstairs where he encountered and used cocaine for the first time. He said he was immediately hooked and later realized he could sell the drug to feed his growing habit and make money. When he spoke to the youth group, he told, in often graphic details, about the horrors of prison, including rape and violence. It was at once sad and riveting, especially given how far and fast he had fallen.The last I heard from him, he was working for a furniture manufacturer in Morganton, NC and living in an apartment complex owned by my father-in-law. RIP, Mike "Duck" Helms.
 
When I was on the staff of a church in Chapel Hill while attending Duke Divinity School, I contacted Mike (whose nickname was, I believe, "Duck") whom I knew at Wake, and asked if he would/could speak to our youth group. He agreed, and I expanded the audience to include all downtown church youth groups. He arrived in his prison denim shirt accompanied by a prison official. Before he spoke, I took him aside and simply asked, "what happened?" He went on to tell me about growing up in Basset, VA, never having touched drugs. But after the win at UNC noted above, he want to a fraternity party and was led upstairs where he encountered and used cocaine for the first time. He said he was immediately hooked and later realized he could sell the drug to feed his growing habit and make money. When he spoke to the youth group, he told, in often graphic details, about the horrors of prison, including rape and violence. It was at once sad and riveting, especially given how far and fast he had fallen.The last I heard from him, he was working for a furniture manufacturer in Morganton, NC and living in an apartment complex owned by my father-in-law. RIP, Mike "Duck" Helms.

Sad on many levels.
 
I always felt that while he was at Wake, we had our best starting 5 ever. I may have a few names wrong but Frank Johnson PG, Mike Helms SG, Alvis Rogers SF, Charlie Morgan PF and Jim Johnstone C. All solid players with no real weak links, which we had surrounding Duncan and Childress. We owned the Big 4 tournament each year, causing Dean Smith to push for its cancellation.

wut?
 
I always felt that while he was at Wake, we had our best starting 5 ever. I may have a few names wrong but Frank Johnson PG, Mike Helms SG, Alvis Rogers SF, Charlie Morgan PF and Jim Johnstone C. All solid players with no real weak links, which we had surrounding Duncan and Childress. We owned the Big 4 tournament each year, causing Dean Smith to push for its cancellation.


I have agree with WFU1977. Now it's possible just because how good Chill and Timmy were, they would carry their starting 5 over those guys, but as far as starting 5 really good players, it is very hard to argue with those 5. As WFU1977 stated, there were no real weak links, no role players among that 5. It was disappointing they didn't have more success in the NCAA tournament, but what Wake Forest team since 1962 hasn't?
 
For WF's all-time best starting 5/6, my vote goes to the 1976-77 team....which was 20-2 at one point and reached the Elite 8 after defeating a 26-1 Arkansas team with Moncrief, Brewer & Delph:

Rod Griffin
Skip Brown
Jerry Schellenberg
Frank Johnson
Leroy McDonald
Larry Harrison
 
I always felt that while he was at Wake, we had our best starting 5 ever. I may have a few names wrong but Frank Johnson PG, Mike Helms SG, Alvis Rogers SF, Charlie Morgan PF and Jim Johnstone C. All solid players with no real weak links, which we had surrounding Duncan and Childress. We owned the Big 4 tournament each year, causing Dean Smith to push for its cancellation.


For WF's all-time best starting 5/6, my vote goes to the 1976-77 team....which was 20-2 at one point and reached the Elite 8 after defeating a 26-1 Arkansas team with Moncrief, Brewer & Delph:

Rod Griffin
Skip Brown
Jerry Schellenberg
Frank Johnson
Leroy McDonald
Larry Harrison

That's a strong 5 too! Man it's depressing to think about some of the talent we've had in the past and the dumpster fire that our program is now.
 
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