EDITOR’S NOTE: Everyone has a story — some more well-known than others. Across Western North Carolina, so much history is buried below the surface. Six feet under. With this series, we introduce you to some of the people who have left marks big and small on this special place we call home.  

Henry Lee Logan (1946-2023), basketball superstar and Asheville native, is remembered as the greatest athlete in Western Carolina University history and as an inspiring figure of personal transformation. He is buried in Asheville’s Violet Hill Cemetery. 

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Stephens-Lee High School Three Sport Athlete 

Segregation was still the law of the land when Henry Logan was born in 1946. 

Schools were forced to begin desegregating after the U.S. Supreme Courts’ 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision. But some schools held out. 

Stephens-Lee High School was founded in 1923 as an African American institution. In its more than 40-year existence, the school gained a reputation for stellar arts and athletics programs. Four Stephens-Lee students would go on to play professional basketball. 

The all-Black school would not close until 1965, more than a decade after segregation was judged unconstitutional. 

In a career retrospective on Henry Logan, the Asheville Citizen-Times pointed out “Frustration with being the last player chosen during childhood pick-up games” lit a fuse in Logan, driving him to practice relentlessly. 

His determination paid off, standing out from his freshman year in three sports: football, baseball and basketball. 

The six foot, 180-pound athlete first came to local prominence in high school football, leading his team as a quarterback to the 1962 state championship for African American schools. He led his team to another championship in basketball before leaving Stephens-Lee. 

While he was talented enough to receive scholarships to multiple nationally recognized schools, Logan chose to remain close to home. 

Only a year after Logan graduated, Stephens-Lee closed permanently in 1965. 

 

Basketball at Western Carolina University 

Hoping to pave the way for more Black athletes, Logan signed on to the Western Carolina University (WCU) basketball team. Not only was he the first African American Catamount, but Logan is also believed to be the first Black person to appear on the athletic team at a predominantly white school anywhere in the South. 

The highlight of Logan’s 10-year basketball career came at WCU, starring on the team from 1965-1968. 

At his debut game, Logan scored 27 points for his team, leading them to a 20-point victory over Piedmont College. 

Nicknamed “The Castle on the Hill,” Logan became a box office sensation almost instantaneously. Word of his unmatched skills on the court spread quickly. Collegiate arenas around the state sold out when Logan came to town, including High Point University and Appalachian State University.  

As the Asheville Citizen-Times wrote in their obituary of the basketball legend, “He drew spectators from all over the region, with some hitchhiking their way to Cullowhee to get a glimpse of the fabled guard who ‘could fly.’” 

As Richard Walker put it on the Carolinas Sports Hub website, Logan’s “playing style foreshadowed some of the greatest players in the history of the sport he played.” Walker explains that “Logan’s high-jumping playing style” directly lead to the rise of Michael Jordan. 

After more than 50 years, Logan still holds many records at WCU. His career scoring total stands at 3,290 points, more than 1,000 points higher than the second-place scorer in the school’s history books. Compounding the accomplishment of his scoring record is that he did it before 3-point shots were introduced to the sport. 

“He was four-time NAIA and Associated Press All-America Selection from 1965-1968,” WCU explains on Logan’s athletic records. “He owns virtually every school scoring record and assist record and ranks ninth on the all-time college basketball scoring list with 3,290 points. He averaged a phenomenal 30.7 points for every game played and scored 60 points in a 1967 game.”  

The WCU website calls Logan “the most heralded student-athlete in Western Carolina’s history.” 

Over the summer in 1967, Logan was selected to compete on the United States basketball team at the Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Canada, helping his country bring home the gold medal. 

 

American Basketball Association (ABA) 

After his stellar college performance, it was no surprise that professional basketball teams wanted to draft him.  

In the 1968 National Basketball Association (NBA) draft, Logan was selected by the Seattle Supersonics in the fourth round, although he would never play for the team. 

At the time, professional basketball in America was a duopoly between the NBA, which continues to exist today, and the defunct American Basketball Association (ABA), which would merge with the NBA in 1976. 

Logan was a star that both the NBA and ABA wanted to have play in their leagues. He ultimately decided to sign with the Oakland Oaks, a team in the ABA. The reason for this decision likely has to do with the contract the California team offered him, giving him one of the most lucrative rookie deals to that point in the history of the sport. The Oaks signed Logan to a three-year contract worth $150,000, nearly $1.4 million in today’s money. 

In his first season, Logan helped the Oakland Oaks win the ABA championship. 

After a season on the West Coast, Logan transferred to the east, taking residency on the Washington D.C. Capitols roster.  

 

Post-Basketball Depression 

With mounting knee injuries, Logan was decommissioned from the court after two successful seasons in the ABA.  

In the years following his career ending injuries, Logan spiraled into depression. “There were periods when he yearned for less” media attention, the Asheville Citizen-Times wrote a few months before Logan’s passing. The once legendary player felt “the burden of his status as a basketball legend as he descended into alcoholism, roaming the streets of Asheville between jail stints.” 

Despite graduating high school and attending college for four years, Logan was illiterate. He did not blame anyone for this, explained the Citizen-Times, but it did make finding work difficult. 

 

Spiritual Revival 

Struggling to find a job, Logan’s depression nearly cost him his life. “He attempted suicide in 1979, before finding faith, teaching himself to read using the Bible and finally getting sober in 1992,” wrote James Crabtree-Hannigan the Asheville Citizen-Times. 

Logan became an outspoken Christian for the duration of the latter half of his life. He attended Faith Tabernacle Christian Center in Asheville from 1993 to his death, serving the congregation there in various capacities. 

As described by the writer of his obituary, “Henry had an insatiable love for God. He was committed to ministry, service and introducing people to Jesus. His determined purpose was the will of God, serving in the spirit of obedience.” The author concluded, “As an ambassador of the Lord, he can rest in peace. He will be cherished and missed.” 

“We’ve always praised his game, and we’ve been proud of his game. But what about his effort in leading us to learn how to live together?” Eugene Ellison, a friend of Logan’s told the Asheville Citizen-Times. “The Lord took the ball out of his hands, but we all missed the story. [That] is the story.” 

 

A Strong Legacy 

As Logan began to turn his life around, others started recognizing his accomplishments on the court. 

First to acknowledge his talents was the Western North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame who inducted him in 1981. The former collegiate wonder was inducted into the Hall of Fame of his alma mater in 1990, followed by the and the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 2000. A few months after his death, Logan was inducted into the Small College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2023. 

In a show of respect for their greatest alumni athlete, WCU retired Logan’s jersey, the number 10, in 2002. It remains hanging from the ballasts in the nearly 8,000 seat Ramsey Center in Cullowhee, N.C. His career scoring record at the WNC university remains among the top collegiate records of any college basketball player ever. 

At the aging athlete’s birthday party in 2023, the City of Asheville and Buncombe County signed proclamations naming Mar. 14 “Henry Logan Appreciation Day.”  

On his death bed, Logan’s final words, as recorded to his obituary, were “You know where I will be.” 

Henry Lee Logan died Jul. 26, 2023, in Asheville. A funeral was held for the late basketball legend at 2 p.m. on Aug. 1, 2023, at his church. He was buried in Violet Hill Cemetery, a burial site on private property formerly known as the Harmony Hill Baptist Church Cemetery. 

 

Check out other stories from the WNC history books.