Faces in the Crowd

SOME DIEHARD CAROLINA FANS BECOME PART OF THE FABRIC OF TAR HEEL SPORTS

BY ANDREW STILWELL

PHOTOS BY SMITH HARDY & UNC ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS

Carolina fans are some of the most passionate anywhere, and are extremely vocal while cheering the Tar Heels to victory. In nearly any fanbase, there are notable “Superfans” who bring their unique cheering styles to the stands, and are truly some of the most “unsung heroes” of an athletics department. Here are a few of Carolina’s most passionate fans:

THE “RAM LADY”

Rhoda Osterneck was not a Tar Heel born, nor a Tar Heel bred. In fact, the Philadelphia-native didn’t even move to North Carolina with her husband Robert until well into her 40’s. However, upon arriving in North Carolina in 1973, the Osternecks adopted the University of North Carolina as “their” team.

“[Robert] visited Duke, State, Wake and Carolina,” Osterneck said of her late husband’s choosing of a “new” home team during a 2011 interview. “He felt that Carolina was the classiest school.”

Osterneck always had a special guest with her when she attended men’s basketball games: a stuffed Rameses. A tradition that began when the men’s basketball team played their home games in Carmichael Auditorium, Osterneck attended every home game in the Smith Center until her passing in 2011. She regularly would emerge from the visitor’s tunnel and send the student risers into a frenzy by waving her Rameses doll in their direction. She loved the students, and they loved her back.

“Mrs. O” was an ardent supporter of multiple Carolina athletics programs and was one of the first to buy season tickets for UNC women’s basketball when the program began in 1974. The Osterneck legacy at Carolina currently lives on with five endowed scholarships across football, volleyball, swimming & diving, women’s lacrosse and wrestling.

“I knew Rhoda, Bob and [Rhoda’s Mother] Minnie for a long, long time. In fact, I met them while still a student-athlete and remained friends with them for nearly 30 years until Rhoda passed in 2011,” said Sue Walsh, former UNC swimmer and the Rams Club’s Associate Executive Director of Scholarship & Legacy Gifts. “Without a doubt, the Osternecks were a very passionate Tar Heel family. If anyone kept track of the number of home and away games they attended, as well as post-season, I’m not sure how many Tar Heels fans would have attended more. They were true Carolina Blue to their very cores.”

THE BASEBALL SUPERFAN

For fans at Boshamer Stadium, one voice, seated just to the right of home plate, often rings just a little bit louder than the rest. That voice belongs to 2006 Carolina graduate Tom Jensen, a self-professed Carolina Baseball “Superfan.”

A lifelong baseball fan, Jensen was a mostly casual fan of the “Diamond Heels” until his senior year of college. A class with two Tar Heel outfielders was the catalyst for his transformation into die-hard Carolina Baseball fandom.

“My final semester, I was in a class with Garrett Gore and Mike Cavasinni. I started going to all of our games to support them,” Jensen recalls. “It was a lucky coincidence that the 2006 season was when our program took it to another level. I’ve been going to almost all of our games ever since.”

Jensen’s distinct approach to baseball fandom started because he hoped to lead the crowd by example.

“I really felt like the team deserved to have a level of energy in the stadium that was worthy of the best team in the country,” he said. “We had a lot of loyal fans, but we didn’t have a lot of loud fans. I decided to lead by example by being really loud and hoped that other fans would join in.”

Longtime patrons at Boshamer Stadium are likely familiar with Jensen’s emphatic yelling of “TAR!” and clapping at key points during a baseball game. While seemingly random, to Jensen, when to cheer is actually more of a science.

“I think fans can affect the game with their cheering, and that it’s all about timing,” he said. “Cheering loud after we hit a home run is nice, but it’s more

important for fans to cheer loudly to help make something good happen, rather than only after something good already happened.”

Jensen recalled a game against NC State in 2015 where the crowd influenced the final outcome.

“It was tied in extra innings and their pitcher walked our first two batters,” he recalled. “I got the whole crowd up and screaming. Their pitcher walked a third guy and then hit the next guy to bring in the game-winning run. The crowd absolutely helped make that happen.”

The phrase “blood, sweat, and tears” is often used in sports to symbolize an athlete’s exhaustive effort that they dedicate to winning a game. For Jensen, this idiom is actually a reality when it comes to his fanaticism.

Jensen’s hands take a beating from constant clapping during baseball season, to the point where they blister and bleed.

“My hands and voice are definitely destroyed during baseball season,” according to Jensen. “It takes about a month for everything to get back to normal after the season’s over.”

The sweat comes while attending nearly 80 percent of Carolina’s home baseball games, and also following the Tar Heels on the road. Jensen has watched Carolina Baseball in nearly a dozen states, including multiple trips to Omaha for the College World Series. In all, Jensen has been present for all 50 home postseason games in the Mike Fox era, and in 2013, attended all 33 ACC contests, home and away.

And then there are the tears, which have flowed for multiple on-field successes.

“When we made it to the College World Series in 2013, I cried uncontrollably for about 10 minutes after the game. I wouldn’t even really call them tears of joy so much as tears of relief,” Jensen recalled. “There were a lot of moments in the regional and in the super regional where it seemed like, for all the team had accomplished, they wouldn’t be making it to Omaha.”

While many opposing fans are apprehensive of Jensen’s vocal, but always positive, cheering style, he has embraced his reputation as one of Carolina’s most passionate fans.

“I think it’s vitally important to be as raucous as we can when it comes to supporting our team and as respectful as we can when it comes to how we behave toward the other team,” he said.

“We should always remember the Carolina Way and the way we should represent ourselves as Tar Heels.”

“THE GUY WITH THE HAIR”

If you’ve watched a Carolina sporting event in the last few years, you have likely witnessed Josh Mayo in action. With his signature hairstyle that he’s had since the fourth grade, he definitely stands out in a crowd.

“It’s a pretty distinctive feature that doesn’t really change,” he said. “A ton of people recognize me just from my hair alone.”

A Chapel Hill native and lifelong sports fan, Mayo identifies himself as a “defector” from an early age, choosing the lighter shade of blue despite his father’s Duke University degree.

Once Mayo arrived at Carolina as an undergraduate in 2013, the decision to attend sporting events was an easy one.

“It was really great to know that I could cross the street from my dorm and see some of the best teams in the country, which motivated me to go to as many games as possible,” he said. “I found that games were a great way to meet folks while enjoying Carolina’s strong sense of community.”

It’s not just the “marquee” sports that interest Mayo either. Now in his final year of grad school, he can regularly be found cheering on many of Carolina’s Olympic sports teams.

“There are so many great teams on campus, and watching teams like field hockey, gymnastics and lacrosse has been a great way to learn those sports,” he said.

While his graduate course load is noticeably heavier than his undergraduate responsibilities, Mayo uses the Carolina Athletics calendar to create his own deadlines.

“It’s definitely been tougher to get to as many games during grad school,” he said. “In undergrad, I would schedule classes with sports in mind. For grad school, I treat important games as my own deadlines to get assignments done so I don’t have to worry about them while cheering on the Heels.”

As an undergrad, Mayo would regularly arrive at Kenan Stadium hours before kickoff to paint himself blue and stand on the front row of the Tar Pit. His front row cheering habits have continued in grad school, where he can still almost always be found standing in the risers during men’s basketball games.

“There’s one big key to getting on the front row every time: you have to be willing to stand behind the basket and have your view blocked,” Mayo said. “I actually enjoy it because it’s the best spot to spread excitement among the crowd and get cheers started.”

From taking a 20-hour round trip to Tallahassee to watch Carolina football beat Florida State in 2016 to booking a last-minute flight to Phoenix to watch the Tar Heels win the national championship in 2017, Mayo is no stranger to following Carolina Athletics on the road. When he travels, he takes his passion with him.

“Being a fan is about being enthusiastic and supportive in order to get other folks into it. My favorite fan moments are mostly ones where the crowd picks up a chant across the whole stadium, or when the attitude in the crowd shifts from negative to positive to support a comeback.” Mayo said.

“My goal is just to see the crowd put its passion for Carolina into vocally supporting the team.”