Guru of N.C. sports transcends school rivalries

RALEIGH -- Beneath summer's sweltering blanket of heat and humidity, pads are popping, helmets are banging, and sports fans are revving up for college football season.

Of the thousands who will be watching area teams, perhaps none is more familiar with the traditions and rivalries than Raleigh's Jim Sumner, a noted historian and veteran observer of North Carolina's most prominent sports figures.

A longtime contributor to the N.C. Sports Hall of Fame, Sumner knows coaches and players spanning decades. He is also one of those rare enthusiasts who rises above a rivalry and writes about both Duke and UNC with unbiased eloquence.

Sumner, a 1972 Duke graduate, cranks out stories for Duke's "Blue Devil Weekly," filling the archives with tales of former Blue Devils athletes and teams. He also writes for "Inside Carolina," which features Tar Heel heroes of yesteryear.

That might be akin to a politician's stumping for both parties, but Sumner has executed this literary combination without arousing the ire of fans.

"I've never bought into the mind-set that you hate a team,'' says Sumner, 57, who grew up in St. Pauls, a small town in Robeson County.

A passion for sports and history led him to a 30-year career as a curator at the N.C. Museum of History -- he retired in 2006 -- plus extensive work with the Hall of Fame.

In addition to serving on the hall's board of directors, of which he is still a member, Sumner produced the exhibit biographies on the 252 inductees. He possesses encyclopedic knowledge about them, knows how many of them rank in a popularity poll, and yes, understands rivalries.

For example, Sumner says, Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski and former UNC coach Dean Smith aren't the overall most popular figures in the Hall because some fans don't like to acknowledge the accomplishments of their chief rival.

But he says N.C. State basketball All-American David Thompson and late Wolfpack coach Jim Valvano rise above fan prejudice.

"Valvano was very popular,'' Sumner says. "The way he went out, the way he fought cancer, the great speeches he made restored his reputation."

He said Thompson, who combined humility and greatness, is fondly remembered: "He also transcended the rivalry."

Winding through the Hall of Fame exhibit at the Museum of History, Sumner points out that Richard Petty's 1988 race car is the main attraction for the estimated 250,000 visitors annually. He says that Petty and Dale Earnhardt are the most popular of those enshrined -- though NASCAR rivalries exist, race fans seem to "respect the competition" more than Big Four basketball fans.

Asked to name the premier football figures enshrined, Sumner gives a nod to UNC legend Charlie "Choo Choo" Justice, who blossomed into a post-World War II folk hero and prompted people to write books and songs like "All the Way Choo Choo."

Sumner doesn't fret over what Duke fans might think. Reese Edwards, the Hall of Fame's executive director, thinks he knows why.

"Jim's strength is that he is unbiased,'' Edwards says. "His integrity is impeccable. He's not an egotist, a showboat. He's just a good, solid worker, very meticulous. You take to the bank [facts] he puts on the table."

Plugging and poring

Sumner is 5-foot-10, weighs 180 pounds, has light-rimmed glasses, a thatch of dark hair sprinkled with flecks of gray and an easygoing manner. He talks fast, the way he used to run on his high school track team.

A self-described "plugger and grinder," Sumner researches material like a scientist, poring over streams of microfilm, books, the Internet, whatever it takes to find the facts.