Marty Smith’s memories of the 2004 Class 6A championship game are fresh despite 20 years of basketball travels.

Smith coached John Carroll during the big-school championship against Parker-coached Maurice Ford in front of the largest crowd to witness a high school basketball game in state history, an announced attendance of 17,550 filling the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center.

Onlookers swear the crowd was even larger, easily more than 18,000 at the game.

The teams, both located within a few miles of the BJCC, featured stars galore with John Carroll winning 75-73 in an exciting contest.

“High school basketball won that night,” Smith said. “The electricity that was in that arena was incredible.”

Ford is leading his sixth team into this week’s final four at the BJCC with state semifinal play starting on Monday. Ford’s Class 5A top-ranked Fairfield squad takes on second-ranked and defending champion Valley at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Ford guided Parker to three state semifinal appearances, JO Johnson to one and this is his second time coaching Fairfield to the final four.

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Veteran coach Ford vividly remembers the 2004 championship game.

“We walked in and it was packed to the rafters,” Ford said. “In all my years of watching games, I’ve never seen it filled to capacity like that.”

AHSAA director of communications Ron Ingram was the prep sports editor at The Birmingham News in 2004.

“I can remember that night like it was yesterday.” Ingram said. “The Class 6A girls game had Wenonah and Clay-Chalkville playing in the 6A finals and when the game reached halftime, I would guess 10,000 fans were already in the building. That game ended and I went to the press conference in the back of the BJCC for about 15 minutes. When I came back out, wow. I looked around and there wasn’t an empty seat to be seen in the building. The lower deck was packed and upper deck was full. Parker and John Carroll were about to tip off and the noise was incredible. I had to stop and take a deep breath. I was overwhelmed.”

Parker was also part of the largest high school crowd before the 2004 game with 15,043 fans at Tuscaloosa’s Coleman Coliseum watching the Thundering Herd lose 67-66 to Birmingham city rival Carver in the 1978 Class 4A championship.

Smith and Ford had scheduled a January 2004 game between the teams at the BJCC, but weather conditions forced cancellation.

“The championship was the perfect storm,” Smith said. “You had two very good programs, the oldest parochial school in Birmingham against the oldest all-black school in Birmingham. Both alumni groups are huge and you had star power, the players that we had on both teams.

“I looked at it one day and out of the starting 10, nine went on and played some type of college athletics, whether it was golf, whether it was football, whether it was basketball. And then if you take it to the bench, to 14 deep, 12 of the 14 ended up playing college ball. That’s how athletic it was that night.”

John Carroll had Ronald Steele, who played at Alabama and professionally overseas along with future Vanderbilt star and 11-year NBA player DeMarre Carroll. Steele is now the principal and boys basketball coach at John Carroll while Carroll is an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Parker countered with Walter Sharpe, who played at Mississippi State and UAB, and continues to play professionally overseas. Sophomore Cordell Pope had his biggest performance of the year for the Thundering Herd, scoring a team-high 22 points and converting 5-of-9 from 3-point range. Pope played at Central Florida.

Now coaching at Sylacauga, Smith used a familiar routine during the Cavaliers run of final four appearances. He always brought John Carroll to the BJCC at halftime of the previous game —Class 6A girls championship Wenonah against Clay-Chalkville — going straight to the locker room and dressing. Smith led his team into the tunnel adjacent to the arena floor at the end of the third quarter.

“Chills went up and down my spine,” Smith said. “It was amazing.”

An emotional Smith shared fond memories of attending games at the BJCC as a youngster.

“As a child growing up in Birmingham, I remember being at NCAA tournaments and being at UAB games and remembering UAB and DePaul playing and Mark Aguirre playing and Rod Strickland and seeing all those guys, watching Ralph Sampson in there in a sold-out BJCC,” Smith said. “I remember a comment that I told my dad when I was watching UAB and DePaul. I said ‘one day, dad, I’m going to coach in this arena with a crowd that’s this big’ and he laughed, but I was as serious as I could be.

“I remember walking through the tunnel before the Parker game and seeing the crowd and my eyes went directly to the upper deck where my seats were for that UAB-DePaul game and seeing that is where the John Carroll student section was because they couldn’t get close to the court because of all the people that got there early and stayed. I remember seeing a John Carroll student sitting in the seat where I sat that night and I cried. I lost it. I cried.”

The game lived up to its billing.

See the YouTube video of the game

Parker led 18-16 after the first quarter, but John Carroll forged a 51-36 halftime advantage and led 68-62 with 2:51 left in the final period.

That’s when Parker’s Sharpe took over.

Sharpe’s layup with 1:32 left tied the score at 68-all and the teams swapped baskets before three free throws, two by Steele, pushed the Cavaliers to a 73-70 lead with 42 seconds left.

Parker couldn’t score on its next possession, but stole the ball and Sharpe tied it after running down a long rebound off an errant Parker shot, nailing a 3-pointer with 15 seconds left.

“When Walter Sharpe hit that 3 in the corner, it’s the loudest I have ever heard the BJCC, whether at a concert or any type of event I have been to and I have been to a lot of them.” Smith said. “That’s the loudest I have ever heard that arena and it was electrifying.”

John Carroll called time out with 8.5 seconds left, leading to the most controversial play of the game.

The Cavaliers inbounded the ball to Carroll, who turned and started upcourt on the sideline near the Parker bench, but Sharpe had positioned himself to take a charge.

The official called a blocking foul on Sharpe and Caroll converted 1-of-2 free throws. Steele stole the ensuing inbounds pass and also made 1-of-2 free throws for the final score after Parker turned the ball over on its last possession.

“I still see that block-charge call,” Ford said. “You know, this year was the first time I ever watched the game. And I say DeMarre ran right over Walter.”

“Maurice will tell you that it was a block and I’ll tell you that it was the charge,” Smith said. “It depends on which camera angle you look at it and it depends on which official you ask and it depends on which sportscaster you ask. I’ve been fortunate enough to see all the different angles and based on the rules and the interpretation of what’s a block and what’s a charge, it was the correct call.”

“It was a good game, well-anticipated game,” Ford said. “Everybody got their money’s worth, got what they came to see. Unfortunately, we came up on the short end of the stick, but it was probably one of the best games that’s ever been down there.”