Chris Hutchins was a three-sport standout at Gilman, a private school in Baltimore. He was recruited by UNC for lacrosse, and played briefly for the Tar Heels as a freshman in 1976 before an injury ended his college career.

But Hutchins, one of four owners of the Baltimore franchise in Major League Lacrosse, was introduced to Chapel Hill via another sport. And it probably comes as no surprise that sport was basketball.

Growing up, the father of one of Hutchins' boyhood pals knew Dean Smith. And Hutchins and his friend attended UNC's summer hoops camp under Smith's direction.

One day during a camp, the youngsters were told there had been a change in the schedule. The youth were led to an outdoor court on the Chapel Hill campus, and watched a pickup game between the Tar Heels and several players from rival North Carolina State. Hutchins said it was the summer of 1971, just months after the Tar Heels had won the NIT with a victory over Georgia Tech at Madison Square Garden.

Among the Wolfpack players was David Thompson, who would become, let's be honest, one of the greatest players in ACC history.

"The big buzz was about David Thompson," Hutchins recalls. Among the Tar Heels who played that day was George Karl.

But on this day, before a group of wide-eyed youth, it was the Tar Heels who controlled the Wolfpack in a "drag out" affair only for bragging rights. Such an outing would most likely be forbidden today by the NCAA.

"That was one of my great memories of Carolina," Hutchins said. "I kind of fell in love with Carolina."

Hutchins played basketball, football and lacrosse in high school, and was second team All-Met in the latter sport in the competitive Baltimore area.

"At that time, lacrosse was so big in Baltimore," he said.

Several other schools recruited him, including Johns Hopkins, Maryland, Washington & Lee and Virginia. But he pretty much knew since those summer basketball camps he was headed to Carolina.

"That was the only place," he said. Several of his high school teammates headed to Division I programs. One of those was classmate Bruce Matthai, who played four years at UNC.

Hutchins was slated to see regular playing time as a freshman reserve at UNC, but an injury thwarted his plans.

"I had back troubles," he said. "After the first game, against Maryland actually, I went to see the doctor, and I had slipped disc."

Hutchins came home to Maryland to have back surgery, and spent 10 days in the hospital. He considered trying to play as a sophomore, but his health prevented it.

"I couldn't stand the pain anymore," said Hutchins, a defensive captain in high school. "It is the one thing I regret. I could have come back. I know I could have played."

Hutchins did not letter in lacrosse at UNC, but he stayed involved with Tar Heel athletics.

"I was a serious sports fan. You talk about some great (UNC hoops) teams," said Hutchins, recalling some epic games between Smith and Lefty Driesell of Maryland. "The Carolina experience was great."

Hutchins went on to graduate from Chapel Hill in 1979 with a degree in American Studies. Despite his short college athletics career, Hutchins remains deeply involved in lacrosse.

After 10 years in the restaurant business, which took him to the Virgin Islands and around the U.S., he joined the staff of sports outfitter Bacharach Rasin in the Baltimore area.

"They wanted to move me to California," Hutchins said of the restaurant chain. "I thought it was time for a switch. I needed to be my own owner."

He bought Bacharach in the early 1990s from Fred Whitridge, a former lacrosse player at the University of Virginia. Today Hutchins is the owner of a firm that touts itself as the oldest lacrosse equipment retailer in the world.

The company began in 1904 in downtown Baltimore selling hunting and fishing supplies. A former owner several decades ago received exclusive rights from Native Americans to manufacture and sell wooden lacrosse sticks.

"He had the whole market," said Hutchins, who has a 1941 Bacharach Rasin catalog in his office that shows the design of wooden sticks.

In 1961, the company moved to its present site in Towson, Md.

Four decades later, Hutchins tries to keep up with the times. Of course he has a computer in his office, but he also has lacrosse jerseys, helmets and publications of the sport strewn around his second-floor space just off the Baltimore beltway.

Hutchins said he has 15 full-time employees and 20 to 30 who are part-time. And he said all of them have played lacrosse at some level. One of them is former UNC lacrosse player Hunter Francis, who is the general manager of Bacharach Rasin and the operations manager of the Bayhawks.

They sell equipment to high school and college teams throughout the country, and Hutchins noted that Germany has become a prime overseas market. The company is also making inroads in Japan.

"The game is definitely growing, from a national perspective," Hutchins said.

A current catalog has 54 pages, and his filled with every lacrosse item imaginable. One T-shirt reads: "You've got to rage to find the cage!!!" Another shirt makes fun of the company name: Rasin - and Bacharach - were the real last names of previous owners.

Hutchins, who has four children who play the sport, branched out in 2000. He became one of the founding members of the Baltimore team in Major League Lacrosse. Other owners are Gordon Boone (a former Salisbury State player), Raymond Schulmeyer (who played at Cornell) and Dave Pivec, a former football player with Notre Dame and the Los Angeles Rams.

The Bayhawks played their first season in 2001 with seven home games at the historic Homewood Field on the campus of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. The team lost to Long Island in the first title contest.

On Feb. 13, the Bayhawks announced an alliance with the Super Bowl champions from 2001, the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League. In addition to cross-promotion between the two teams, the Bayhawks will play their home games this upcoming season at PSINet Stadium near the Inner Harbor. June 6 is their first game, at home against Rochester.

"This is an awesome partnership for the sport of lacrosse," Boone said in a statement. "The Bayhawks playing in PSINet Stadium will bring professional lacrosse the legitimacy it so deserves. We are effectively creating a 10,000-seat stadium inside of PSINet and offering the best seats in the house."

Several teams in the league played their home games last season at minor league baseball stadiums. But there is nothing minor league about the home of the Ravens.

Said Pivec, now the president of Pivec Advertising: "I look forward to the response we get from our fans. We have provided them with a very accessible, geographically centralized venue for fans all over the state of Maryland. A first-class facility, with world-class players for the best lacrosse fans on the planet."

Hutchins hopes the team can average 6,000 fans per game this season. Fans will get to see instant replay on big screens at home games.

"It is essential that Maryland lacrosse and sports fans step up to support this endeavor and once again demonstrate that Maryland is indeed the Mecca of lacrosse with the greatest sports fans in the world," Schulmeyer said in a statement.

The same day, the Bayhawks announced the hiring of Michael Fiorelli as their vice president and general manager. He had previously worked with the Ravens and the Baltimore Orioles of Major League Baseball.

"We are delighted to have Michael on board," Hutchins said in mid-February. "His sports management experience and intimate knowledge with the Ravens organization and PSINet stadium will help make this a great season."

Rebecca Joeckel, director of ticket sales for the Bayhawks, also worked in the front office of the Ravens at one time.

Hutchins is an active youth lacrosse mentor in suburban Towson and coached the son of the current UNC head coach John Haus when Haus was the coach at Johns Hopkins. Hutchins has also coached the grandson of Ravens owner Art Modell, and Hutchins met Modell when the partnership was announced in Feb. 13.

"We are very excited about playing down there," Hutchins said of the Ravens' home. "We have had the Ravens embrace us. It's exciting. It's a lot of hard work. We are having fun with it."

Former UNC player Chris Hutchins is a part owner of the Baltimore Bayhawks in Major League Lacrosse (MLL). Among the former Tar Heels on MLL rosters in 2001 were, with final year at UNC, as follows: