For a moment, John "Goat" Bullock was the greatest basketball player Durham Hillside High had ever seen, the star of a team of stars. And then he was gone, a budding legend whose story seemed to end with his final high school basketball game.
His teammates don't remember hearing Bullock say goodbye. They don't remember seeing him again after he scored 42 points in a loss to West Charlotte in the 1965-66 N.C. High School Athletic Conference championship game. Bullock quit coming to school, they say, and his teammates heard that he had returned to his native New York City.
Years later, they would hear rumors of Bullock sightings in New York, but they would never hear from Goat again.
"He was always a mystery man," recalled teammate William "June" Harris. "We never saw him after practice. I don't really remember seeing him much at school."
His former teammates say ESPN unsuccessfully tried to find Bullock when it did a special on his high-scoring Durham Hillside team, dubbed the Pony Express. Reporters and researchers for The News & Observer and Charlotte Observer were unable to locate him for this story.
"He was just gone," said Willie Bradshaw, who coached the Hillside junior varsity. "After the championship game I don't know if he ever came back to the school."
Hillside teammate Marshall Hill said Bullock was a "lone wolf" but agreed with teammate Daniel McLaurin, whose book "32 Minutes of Greatness" is about the 1965-66 season, that Bullock was a great teammate.
"He was a jokester," McLaurin said. "He'd laugh with us at practice, but he didn't hang out with us. If there was a party after a game or something, Goat wouldn't be there."
'6-3, plays like 6-8'
Bullock moved in with his grandmother on Umstead Street in Durham in the summer of 1964.
"I had heard that Goat had gotten into a little trouble in New York and came [to Durham Hillside] to be with his grandmother," said teammate George Outlaw, who lives in Leavenworth, Kan.
Bullock played in pickup games at Carr Junior High in Durham, where white and black basketball players, including Duke and University of North Carolina players, would play together.
"The first time I heard of Goat, my friend told me that he had just seen the baddest dude to ever lace on shoes," said Mike Dixon, who saw all of Bullock's games. "Goat was unbelievable. All these college guys were standing around shaking their heads.
"Years later, when I saw Earl Monroe for the first time, I said he reminds me of Goat, but Goat was better."
Bullock averaged a triple-double for Hillside in 1965-66. He scored 22 points per game, grabbed 12 rebounds and handed out 10 assists per game.
All five Hillside starters scored in double figures that season and the team set a state high school record by averaging 105 points per game. The team scored 100 points or more in a state record 14 games and set the state record for most points in a game in a 147-57 victory over Rocky Mount Booker T. Washington.
"John Bullock was the best basketball player I've ever seen on the high school level," Russell Blunt, the late longtime Hillside football coach, said in 1995. "And yes, that includes Rodney Rogers. Rodney was a fantastic player, but I still say Goat could have put Rodney in the basket with one of his slam dunks."
McLaurin was amazed when he first met Bullock, who introduced himself as Goat and created a sensation on the outdoor courts at Whitted Junior High, McDougald Terrance and Carr Junior High in Durham.
"I figured he must be 6-7, 6-8 from what I heard," McLaurin said. "He was 6-3, but played like he was 6-8."
Bullock would stun spectators with his slams, but he never dunked in a game. It was against high school rules at the time.
Bullock entered Hillside in the fall of 1964, but the paperwork confirming his eligibility wasn't in place until midseason.
The varsity was 6-4 when Bullock joined the team, but had shown its potential in defeating a Laurinburg Prep team 92-90 without Bullock. Charlie Scott, a future All-American at the University of North Carolina, had 30 points for Laurinburg in the loss and another "Goat," New York playground legend Earl Manigault, scored 16.
The win set the stage for Bullock's arrival.
"When he got there we started tearing the league up," McLaurin said.
The best example of the team's explosiveness came in the NCHSAC championship game when Hillside overcame a 30-point halftime deficit to defeat West Charlotte, 80-78 in overtime. Bullock hit the winning shot.
The team's coach, Carl Easterling, worked throughout the spring and summer to arrange a game, or at least a scrimmage, against some of the all-white high school teams in the area, according to members of the team. Easterling offered to lock the gym doors and let no one in except players. He wanted his team to take on the other top teams in the area.
"Nobody would do it," McLaurin said. "I guess the timing wasn't quite right yet."
'Lefty' remembers 'Goat'
The 1965-66 Hillside team started where the state championship team of the previous year left off, taking a 138-70 victory over Durham Little River in the opening game.
The highlight of the regular season was a 110-106 win over Laurinburg and Scott at North Carolina College's packed 5,000-seat McDougald Gym. Bullock put on a show.
He scored 41 points, grabbed 25 rebounds and handed out 13 assists. Scott had 15 points before fouling out.
"I remember the game," said Charles "Lefty" Driesell, the former Maryland coach, who was at the game recruiting Scott for Davidson. "It was so loud you couldn't hear the officials' whistles. The teams were running so much and it was so loud that the teams would score a couple of baskets and the officials would wipe them [the whistles] off because they had blown the whistle before.
"I remember there was a player named 'Goat,' but that's about all. If he got 41 on Charlie he must have been something, though. What became of him?"
Bullock led Hillside back to the NCHSAC 4-A championship game, but West Charlotte dominated, as Bullock scored 42 of Hillside's 66 points in the 30-point loss. "Nobody else could make anything," Dixon said. "Goat quit passing and started shooting. He made 19 straight shots at one point."
And then he disappeared
His former teammates heard Bullock had returned to New York. Many thought he would show up on a college roster or in the NBA, but he never did.
Hill believes Bullock is alive in New York. He still hears rumors about his former teammate from time to time.
"The legend of Goat Bullock will never die," Dixon said. "Coach Easterling once said Goat Bullock was the best basketball player he'd ever seen. Most people who saw Goat would agree."
