But Friday at the RBC Center, the Raleigh resident will get to do the next best thing. He'll watch his son Marc, a walk-on with the Tar Heels, suit up for one.

"It's almost like a dream, like a fairy tale," said Greg Campbell, who now works as a financial consultant. "Sometimes, you just want to get up and pinch yourself. ... I just feel so happy for him, because he's worked so hard to get here."

Greg and Marc are one of the few father-son tandems to play basketball at North Carolina. Others include Lee Shaffer (1958-60), whose son Dean played for coach Dean Smith in 1981-82; and current head coach Roy Williams, who played for the freshman team in 1968-69 and then watched son Scott work his way up to varsity 30 years later.

"To be part of history like that, it's just special," said Marc, a 5-foot-11 sophomore who transferred from UNC-Greensboro before last season.

Then again, he knows a lot about UNC basketball history.

Marc grew up watching the Tar Heels from his seat in Section 221 at the Smith Center, which included two rows of season ticket-holders who also had lettered around his dad's playing days.

Donnie Moe, who played in 1966-67, is Marc's godfather. Each of the past two seasons, he has joined Greg, Dick Grubar (1967-69) and Joe Brown (1967-69) in Marc's behind-the-bench family seats for what father and son have dubbed "Old-Timers' Night."

Thus, Marc has often heard the stories about how a chance encounter with Smith at a high school basketball game led to his father's scholarship offer to UNC. About how his dad was lucky to survive head and neck injuries sustained during a head-on car collision near South Hill, Va., when he was on his way home to New Jersey after his freshman season.

About how Greg returned to play 15 games his sophomore season and scored 12 points but was never the same athlete. With a strong recruiting class coming in and his desire to concentrate on academics, he didn't suit up or travel his junior and senior seasons, but Smith allowed him to stay part of the "family" by keeping stats and living with his teammates.

"Coming to all those games, hearing all the stories, I always wanted to play here," Marc said.

To that end, while growing up he spent countless hours with his dad at a local YMCA practicing ballhandling drills and pestering folks to let him play. He became a two-time all-state selection at Ravenscroft High and was invited to walk on for the Tar Heels, but he ended up taking a scholarship offer at UNC-Greensboro.

"At that time, I kind of wanted to be my own person, see what else was out there," Marc said. "But I think going away from [UNC] for that year actually made me appreciate it more."

So much so that after playing in nine games for the Spartans in 2005-06 and averaging 1.9 points, he opted to transfer -- and contacted Carolina. The non-scholarship offer still stood, much to his dad's delight.

"He didn't want me to transfer to Carolina for him; he wanted me to be my own person, make my own decision," Marc said. "But when I told him this is what I wanted to do, he was overjoyed. He was ecstatic."

So was Marc. He had to sit out a season, as per NCAA transfer rules, and he has appeared in just 15 games this season. But having seen what some other walk-ons have accomplished at UNC -- Wes Miller, for instance, ended up part of UNC's regular rotation for two seasons before graduating last spring -- Marc hopes he can contribute more.

Eventually.

"Usually when I play right now, it's in a win," he said, referring to the fact that walk-ons usually play only in blowouts. "So that [victory] would be the best thing, the most important thing ... if I get a chance to play this weekend."

Even if he doesn't, though, his dad said he will be proud.

A year after Greg hung up his playing jersey, the Tar Heels advanced to Smith's first Final Four. He said he has never lamented the timing of his accident and instead felt grateful for the games he got to play and the friendships he established.

"Now I feel fortunate to be able to watch Marc experience those same things, too," he said.