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Basketball is Family: Luke Maye's Grandfather Played Ball at Grimsley

The Tar Heels player has a connection to Grimsley High School in Greensboro.

GREENSBORO, NC – The Tar Heels player who sunk the now famous shot sending the team to the Final Four, has connections to Grimsley High School.

Maye’s grandfather, J. Edgar Sockwell, III, played guard for Greensboro Senior High (now Grimsley) in the late 1950s. Sockwell, pictured in a 1958 yearbook photo, wore #32.

Maye wore #32 in high school and now wears #32 while playing for Carolina.

Article from the Daily Times-News, circa 1958.

An article from the Daily Times-News, written on January 25, 1958, reads “Guard Edgar Sockwell hit a set shot with 1:41 left in the game to give the Whirlies a 29 to 26 spread after the Bulldogs had pulled to within one point on a goal-tending violation.” The article, written by Bill Hunter, was about Senior High’s Whirlies breaking the Burlington Bulldog’s six-game winning streak in the Western AAA Conference. Sockwell had 12 points in that game.

1958 Greensboro Senior High Team Yearbook Photo. Sockwell wearing #32.

"He was a good player. He loved to play," said Jim Spence, a former teammate of Sockwell.

Spence was a year older than Sockwell, but got to know him when they played together for the 1956 and 1957 seasons.

“Ed was a good athlete so it’s not surprising that his grandson would be a good athlete."

Spence said he was unaware of Sockwell's connection to Maye until recently, when he learned of the news from other former classmates.

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Coached by the legendary Bob Jamieson, Sockwell moved from his hometown of Greensboro to Charlotte to continue an interest in basketball. According to Carolyn Hines, whose husband played on the 1958 Senior High team, Sockwell coached as a volunteer in Charlotte, where he helped bring AAU basketball to North Carolina.

Sockwell later founded Sockwell Partners, an executive search firm in Charlotte. Sockwell died in 2006 at the age of 65 of a neurological disorder.

It’s not just basketball that connects Maye to Greensboro. His great-grandfather, John Edgar Sockwell, Jr., was President of the Bank of Greensboro, which was later acquired by First Union.

1957 Greensboro Senior High School Yearbook Photo. Sockwell wearing #12.

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