On the court and off, this North Carolina All-American ACC basketball MVP made a habit of supporting his community
by A.J. Carr

The distant rumble in the small mountain town of Newland, North Carolina, in the late 1960s wasn’t a tremor — it was the sound of college basketball coaches stampeding into an Avery County gym to watch Tommy Burleson, the 7-foot-2-inch “Newland Needle” and highly ranked prep All-American, play at his high school.

Intensely recruited by multiple schools and contacted by more than 300, Burleson said some even illegally offered him money to play. But he refused all pay, accepting only a scholarship that was allowed under NCAA rules and signing with North Carolina State University in 1970.

“I’d set a goal to go there when I was 14 years old,’’ explains Burleson, who had attended several 4-H camps in Raleigh and on one occasion met Wolfpack coach Norm Sloan.

It couldn’t have worked out much better for Burleson — or for State. He was the tallest player on a unique team featuring National Player of the Year David Thompson and talented contributors Tim Stoddard, Phil Spence, Moe Rivers and Monte Towe. Together, they won two regular-season and two conference tournament titles, went 27-0 in 1973 and capped their run in 1974 with a National Championship and 30-1 record.

Burleson played a major role: scoring, rebounding, blocking shots, intimidating opponents. He’d also influenced Thompson to join him at State. “You don’t win a national championship without David Thompson,” Burleson says. “He made everybody around him better. Bill Walton [the UCLA superstar] called him the best player of that era.”

  Playing before freshmen were eligible for varsity competition, Burleson maximized his opportunities as a three-year starter. He led the team in scoring once and rebounding three times, and produced double-double stats in scoring and rebounding each season. A team player and unselfish, he ranked second in assists as well.

All that netted him lofty honors: All-America twice, All-Conference three years, ACC Tournament MVP two times, All-Final Four. Another accolade came from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill coach Dean Smith, who said he was “the most difficult player I ever had to prepare for.”

At NC State, Burleson was listed as 7-foot-4, which was nettlesome for him: it was a stretch, and he thought it depicted him as a circus side show when he was, in fact, a star player in a premier basketball show. His size was a plus, but not the biggest reason he succeeded.

“He was a great athlete; he could play,” said Eddie Biedenbach, a former State star and assistant coach, adding that “Coach Sloan helped him so much, encouraged him tremendously.”

Encouraged, yes, but in a tough-love way. “Coach Sloan was military like my father; he was very strict,” says Burleson. “It was what I needed, and he instilled the team concept, to play within the system.” Burleson put in the extra work, often showing up an hour or more before practice to refine his individual skills.

Spurred on by the demanding Sloan and augmented by teammates, Burleson had a knack for delivering in the moments that mattered most.

Rewind to 1974: After earning first team All-ACC two seasons, he was voted second team his senior year, behind Maryland’s Len Elmore. 

That demise added fuel to Burleson’s competitive fire. In a classic conference tournament championship game, he responded with a dominating 38-point, 13-rebound performance to win MVP honors and lead the Wolfpack to a victory when only the tourney champion qualified for the NCAA playoffs. 

In the following NCAA tournament, Burleson added more glitter to his resume. Going against UCLA great Bill Walton, he scored 20 points, grabbed 14 rebounds and helped State end the Bruins’ seven-year national championship reign in a double-overtime thriller. Two days later, the Pack conquered Marquette to win the title at a rocking Greensboro Coliseum.

In the midst of his State career, Burleson was selected for the 1972 U.S. Olympic team, both an honor and horrifying experience, as that was the year that Palestinian militants attacked the Olympic Village in Munich, West Germany, and captured Israeli athletes. During the violence, Burleson was held at gunpoint while hostages passed by. The U.S. also suffered its first-ever Olympic basketball defeat, a controversial one-point loss to the Soviet Union that still stings 53 years later.

 Snaps from Burleson on a mission trip in Malawi

For Burleson, there would be basketball after the Munich madness: two more seasons at State and a stint in the NBA. He earned All-Rookie team honors and logged seven years in the league before suffering a career-ending injury.

Not long after his playing days, Burleson and his wife, Denise, returned to his hometown of Newland, where they raised three athletic sons.

“We wanted to raise our family in a Christian environment,” said Burleson, who grew up in a strong faith-based home there and whose grandfather, Harrison Burleson, was a Baptist preacher.

After working a few years with Mountain Heritage Electrical and Lighting Supply, Burleson made a commitment to being a public servant. He was a two-term county commissioner, then spent 28 years as planning inspections director, assisting land developers and helping keep buildings up to government standards.

In the meantime, he and Thompson teamed up again to run a basketball camp, which they’ve been doing for 41 years. Burleson also became an ordained minister, a member of the Protestant Reform Church, and now preaches periodically around the county. He delivers a weekly sermon by phone — several of his old Wolfpack teammates dial in — and has led mission trips to Africa. 

While ever busy, he plays some golf, makes time for family and faithfully attends his two grandchildren’s events.

For all his good work, former NC Gov. Roy Cooper honored him with the Old North State Award in 2022 based on “Dedication and Excellent Service Beyond Expectations.”

Life hasn’t been without hardship, however. He’s among the multitude of mountain residents impacted by Hurricane Helene, which did tens of thousands of dollars in damage to his home. Making matters worse, he had a heart issue during that crisis, which meant he had to find an escape route out of his flooded area and travel to Winston-Salem for a procedure.

Following a recovery period, Burleson returned to Newland, working again to help his devastated county. He donated money from his Christmas tree farm sales to pay bills for needy residents. He helped some displaced residents get temporary housing and helped others find jobs to support their families. 

Just as he had on the basketball court at NC State more than five decades ago, Burleson delivered for his community in the moments that mattered most. “That was God; it wasn’t me,’’ Burleson says.
“He gave the resources.”

This article originally appeared in the May 2025 issue of WALTER magazine.