Rusty Clark Named ACC Legend

The ACC has announced the 2015 Legends class for basketball. Tar Heel great Rusty Clark is North Carolina's representative.

Franklin  “Rusty” Clark, North Carolina (1966-69) – The starting center for legendary coach Dean Smith’s first three ACC championship and NCAA Tournament teams, Clark joined teammate Bill Bunting as one of  the first two players in ACC history to start in three straight NCAA Final Fours. The 6-foot-10 Clark finished his collegiate career averaging 14.7 points and 10.2 rebounds per game, making him one of only seven players in program history to average a double-double. Clark was twice named to the NCAA East Regional All-Tournament team and was the MVP of the 1968 East Regional after scoring 22 points and grabbing 17 rebounds against Davidson in the title game. Clark posted six straight double-doubles during the 1968 postseason – three in the ACC Tournament, two in the NCAA East Regional and another in an NCAA semifinal win over Ohio State. He set and still holds the UNC single-game rebounding record with 30 against Maryland on Feb. 21, 1968, which equals the sixth-highest single-game figure in ACC history. Clark, a Morehead Scholar – the top academic scholarship awarded at UNC – went on to a long and successful career as a dentist in his hometown of Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Clark is 37th on the UNC scoring list finishing his three year career with 1339 points. He is 9th in career rebounds with 929 and one of only seven Tar Heels to average a points-rebounds double-double over the course of his career. The others were Sean May, Robert McAdoo, Billy Cunningham, Doug Moe, Pete Brennan and Lennie Rosenbluth.

As noted in the release, Clark was part of Dean Smith's first three Final Four teams in the late 1960s.