It was the first tangible sign that Charlotte -- and the rest of the Carolinas, for that matter -- was stepping up into the big time. Today, it is no more.
The old Charlotte Coliseum came down in an explosion on Sunday, and with it memories of sold-out Charlotte Hornets seasons, Zo's big shot, the Final Four, concerts (such as U2!) and other big events.
"The Charlotte Coliseum is like an entertainer who thrived for a few years and then faded," wrote Tom Sorensen of the Charlotte Observer.
"Many kids born in 1988, the year the Coliseum opened, recently finished their freshman year of college. The Coliseum never had such a future. The building was quickly outmoded, a victim of too many seats and too few skyboxes. ...
"It was great once, and so were we. Our first major-league team played there, and no matter what the Carolina Panthers or Charlotte Bobcats accomplish, we will never be so blissfully naïve again.
"Professional sports are new once. In the early years, it was never the Charlotte Hornets and Charlotte. It was us. We loved those teams. In the early years the rosters were full of good guys who could talk and would talk and wanted to be in Charlotte almost as much as we wanted them to be.
"We had no idea what we had. The players had no idea what they had. ...
"I remember how the division between those on the court and those off it seemed to blur, and how we'd walk out of the building smiling, and how we thought those times would never end."
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