Mark Moody was a 6-3 forward at Chisago Lakes High School. He graduated in 1976. He spent four years at Gustavus Adolphus, four years at Georgetown in medical school and five years in an orthopedic residency in Phoenix.
Moody and Mary Hedberg had known one another since childhood in Center City. They were married in 1982.
Once the training was finished, the Moodys moved to Asheville, N.C., where Mark has been in a practice as an orthopedic spine surgeon for 15 years.
Sons Christian and Patrick turned out to be good players at T.C. Roberson. That was the high school of Roy Williams, now the North Carolina coach.
Williams was at Kansas when Christian, then 6-6, graduated from high school. The Roberson coaches called Williams and put in a word for Christian. Williams watched a tape and invited Christian to walk on.
Christian scored seven total points as a freshman in 2002-03, a season when the Jayhawks lost 81-78 to Syracuse in the NCAA title game. Williams left after that game for North Carolina.
New coach Bill Self came in and decided to keep Moody around. Christian played in 25 games and average seven minutes. Then, as a junior, the Jayhawks had some injuries, Moody -- now 6-9 -- moved into the starting lineup, and they couldn't get him out of there.
CBS' Billy Packer was covering a Kansas game that winter and referred to Moody as the "best walk-on in college basketball history." The Jayhawks were rated No. 1 for part of that season but wound up being upset in the first round of the NCAA tournament by Bucknell.
