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ISSUE XIX
O F F I C I A L
M A G A Z I N E
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FOUNDATION OF SUCCESS
CONGRATULATIONS, CLASS OF 2020!
THANK YOU TO THE RAMS CLUB MEMBERS WHO MADE THEIR TAR HEEL STUDENT-ATHLETE EXPERIENCE POSSIBLE. P.O. BOX 2446 | CHAPEL HILL, NC 27515 | (919) 843-2000 | RAMSCLUB.COM |
@THERAMSCLUB
WELCOME
Letter from the Editor
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At the time, on February 8, it felt like nothing in the world could possibly be worse than watching our favorite team lose a 13-point lead in under five minutes against Duke. A month later, we realized it could indeed get much worse: not being able to watch our favorite team at all. By the time you receive this issue, the hope is that college sports—and, of course, colleges—are on the way back. There are obviously bigger issues in the world than not being able to fill out an NCAA Tournament bracket in 2020 or multiple Tar Heel spring sports teams that missed out on a real national championship chance. But in this very small corner of the world, that feels like a big absence. A few other things we missed this spring that will feel just a little more special the next time we get to do them: • Singing Hark the Sound in unison after a big Carolina victory. • Walking across campus to a big game and seeing the wave of Carolina blue shirts cascading through the entrance. • Watching kids and parents and grandparents and firsttime Tar Heel game attendees line up for a photo with Rameses. • Spotting Roy Williams at, say, a softball game and remembering that he’s as passionate about the University of North Carolina as you are. • High-fiving a stranger after a game-changing Tar Heel play. • A really great Carolina team entrance video that gives you chills. • Going on the road with a Tar Heel team and being comfortably ensconced in that happy little pocket of Carolina fans as the Heels pull out another win and send a home crowd grumbling to their cars. • The ability to walk through campus on a spring Saturday and having multiple options to watch Carolina teams with some of the best players in the world at their chosen
PRODUCED BY THE RAMS CLUB EDITOR IN CHIEF ADAM LUCAS CONTRIBUTING WRITERS ANDREW STILWELL, PAT JAMES & LEE PACE PHOTOGRAPHY JEFFREY CAMARATI & MAGGIE HOBSON DESIGN JUJUBE SPORTS PUBLISHING
sport compete at a national championship-caliber level. • The absurd way people go crazy for free t-shirts at a sporting event, and the way that snagging one makes a kid grin, even when the shirt is demonstrably three sizes too big. • Introducing a sports neophyte—whether it’s a friend or your kid or just a seatmate—to the Tar Heels and explaining why Carolina blue is so much better than any other option. • Arguing about completely unanswerable questions, such as whether Natrone was better than Gio or which of Anson Dorrance’s championship teams was the best. • Watching the student section at a big game and trying (and failing) to match their energy. We hope you enjoy this issue’s focus on unsung heroes. And we look forward to all being able to get together again this fall to cheer for every variety of Tar Heel hero.
ADAM LUCAS Editor in Chief ramsclub.com
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18 “James Spurling has been and continues to be the backbone of the Carolina football program. Anything you need, and James is there to provide it.” — MACK BROWN
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ON THE COVER: Over the last 20 years, Eric Hoots has done almost every job in the Carolina basketball program. PHOTO BY MAGGIE HOBSON
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EDITOR’S LETTER p. 3
10 Full Service
Director of Kenan Stadium James Spurling’s unique skill set makes him a perfect fit for the football program BY LEE PACE
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18 Tar Heel for Life
Eric Hoots is living a dream while making himself an indispensable part of Roy Williams’ basketball program BY ADAM LUCAS
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Some diehard Carolina fans become part of the fabric of Tar Heel sports BY ANDREW STILWELL
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24 Faces in the Crowd
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26 Know Their Names
Tar Heel head coaches identify the unsung heroes who make their programs work BY PAT JAMES
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34 Making It Happen
The unsung heroes behind some of the biggest moments in Carolina sports history BY ADAM LUCAS
FIRST PERSON
38 ‘Servant leadership’
Carolina’s 12th chancellor on unsung heroes who want to be part of something bigger than themselves BY KEVIN GUSKIEWICZ
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1. Joe McDowell and Thomas McDowell of Scotland Neck at their familyowned pharmacy, providing curbside service to people in need; 2. Katy Norris, a member of the COVID-19 occupational therapy team, and Farrell Wiggins, an occupational therapist at the N.C. Cancer Hospital, outside the UNC Medical Center in Chapel Hill; 3. Dr. Peader Noone of Chapel Hill is part of the inpatient COVID-19 team at UNC; 4. Sarah Deaton is part of UNC’s NICU protecting their youngest patients from COVID-19; 5. Pediatric critical care doctor Daniel Lercher and pediatric emergency medicine doctor Dan Park at UNC Medical Center in Chapel Hill; 6. Abigail Horne of Durham is a respiratory therapist at the Durham VA who was recently deployed to the Washington, DC VA to run ventilators.
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HEELS AT HOME In every issue of Born & Bred, we feature Rams Club members in their Carolina gear around the world. In this issue, we wanted to celebrate all of you who are doing your part in the fight against COVID-19 by staying home--and safely ensconced in your Tar Heel-themed rooms. Send us your Tar Heel room photographs at bornandbred@ramsclub.com.
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1. Caiden Carducci-Taper of Greensboro; 2. Lee Sone of Salisbury; 3. Thaddeus Fine of La Porte, TX; 4. Holden Taaffe of Cary; 5. Charles Purvis of Rocky Mount; 6. Joe Gould; 7. Marc Franklin of Meriden, CT; 8. Robert Heymann & Mark Heymann of Highland Park, IL; 9. Nathan Kelly of Red Wing, MN.
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FULL SERVICE
Director of Kenan Stadium James Spurling’s unique skill set makes him a perfect fit for the football program BY LEE PACE // PHOTOS BY JEFFREY CAMARATI
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hile Mack Brown was running the Carolina football program during the COVID-19 pandemic from his home half a mile from campus with Zoom meetings, texts and phone calls; while Sam Howell was throwing to Dyami Brown on a high school field in Charlotte; and while the Tar Heel coaches were pounding the virtual clinics and social media to stay connected with their recruiting base across the state of North Carolina and the MidAtlantic, one member of the Tar Heel football staff was deemed “essential” and showed up for work every day. In fact, on this late afternoon in mid-May, James Spurling is the lone employee in the massive expanse of Kenan Football Center—indeed, in all of Kenan Memorial Stadium. “We’ve stayed busy, we were in the middle of this remodeling project when everything shut down in March,” Spurling says. “The workers have been here all along. We’re staying distant, washing our hands, wearing masks. We’re learning to do things differently. “My job is to make sure this building is spotless when the coaches and players come back— whenever that might be.” Spurling’s title is “Director of Kenan Stadium,” and in that role he’s responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the building and stadium and managing construction and renovation projects. A major initiative has just come to a finish as the old Hall of Honor museum area and second floor dining hall and meeting rooms have been completely refurbished from a dark-wood, corporate look to a brighter palette with lots of white accented, of course, with Carolina blue. Spurling speaks in a soft Granville County drawl like a proud papa as he tours the new floors that, added to earlier renovations of the player’s lounge and locker room and resurfacing of the playing field in 2019, catapult the Tar Heel physical plant into the upper echelon of college football. “I’ve never seen so many changes in my life,” he says. “I never thought it would look so good. But it sure does.” He points to a map outline of the state of North Carolina hanging in the center of the first-floor reception area. He marvels at how an impressive array of Air Jordan shoes, colorful graphics and sophisticated lighting meld to form a photo and social-media studio for recruits. He runs his hands
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“JAMES IS LIKE A FAMILY MEMBER TO SO MANY HERE, PARTICULARLY SALLY AND ME. HE’S ALWAYS VERY UPBEAT, HE’S GOT TREMENDOUS ENERGY. SOME WOULD CALL HIM A WORKAHOLIC. I LIKE TO SAY HE’S GOT GREAT WORK ETHIC. I WISH THERE WERE MORE PEOPLE LIKE HIM IN OUR SOCIETY TODAY. HE TREATS THAT STADIUM LIKE IT’S HIS OWN HOUSE. HE TAKES A LOT OF PRIDE IN IT. HE KNOWS EVERY PLAYER BY NAME AND TAKES CARE OF THEM LIKE THEY’RE HIS OWN.” -HEAD COACH MACK BROWN
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over the smooth texture of words “Be the One” in Carolina blue mounted on a second-floor hallway wall. “These letters were painted in a spray booth just like you would paint a vehicle,” he says. “The color is baked on. Pretty sweet, you ask me.” On around the 23-year-old building he goes. And there’s more renovation work to do—“Tomorrow we start putting in new carpet in Sports Medicine. We’ve got plenty to do. The list never ends.”—and then more prep work for life hopefully resuming a sense of normalcy as the summer evolves. “We’re getting emails and literature every day about hygiene, distancing, cleaning and disinfecting,” he says. “It’s a new world, I’ll tell you that.” And a world he surely could never have imagined two decades ago when Spurling was a gas and service-station owner before delving into the world of athletic administration at Carolina. “On the 12th of June, it will be 15 years,” he says. “It’s hard to believe.”
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Spurling grew up in Granville County and as a teenager in the late 1970s worked construction for his father and got extra hours pumping gas and doing odd jobs at a service station on Airport Road. Ernie Williamson, a former Tar Heel football player and at the time the first executive director of The Rams Club, stopped in one day and said he had a flat tire on his tractor at home and asked if he could borrow an air tank. “Maybe you should go ask where you buy your gas,” the owner snipped back at him. Spurling was embarrassed that a customer had been treated rudely and was also a little awed that the man in front of him had played football not only for the Tar Heels but the Washington Redskins in the NFL. He struck up a conversation with Williamson and offered to visit Williamson’s home that evening and help him repair his tractor. That accomplished, Williamson offered to pay Spurling, but he refused. “Son, you ever been to a Carolina football game?” Williamson asked. “No, sir, but I’d love to,” Spurling answered.
Telling the story today, Spurling grins with the thought of how his life was about to change. “My eyes got big as half dollars,” he says. “Ernie carried me to a game and we went right down to the field. We were playing Wake Forest. Ernie sat right there on the bench smoking a pipe. Coach Dooley looked at me and told Ernie, ‘Don’t bring that boy down here again. He’s sucking up too much oxygen.’” Spurling laughs. “Coach Dooley was joking. We became good friends.” And so began a long-standing relationship between Spurling and Tar Heel athletics—the football program in particular—that lasts today. Spurling as a young man worked a year as a police officer in Creedmoor and then took a full-time job at Eastgate BP. He had a chance to buy the station in 1982 and remembers to this day his exact monthly payment on the loan: “It was $3,508 a month. I was scared to death. But I paid that 20-year note off in seventeen years.” His amiable personality and giving nature ingratiated him
over several decades to a wide swath of Carolina coaches and administrators and Chapel Hill townsfolk. The gas station became a “chew-the-fat” haven for Williamson and a variety of other Chapel Hill denizens. Williamson stopped by to drink coffee nearly every morning for twenty-five years and sent along to Spurling’s station a network of former Tar Heels like Paul Rizzo and Joe Neikirk and Rams Club members like Maurice Koury and Charlie Loudermilk. Former Chancellor Bill Aycock was a regular. “Mr. Spurling’s station was the centerpiece of town,” says Hampton Corley, who grew up in Chapel Hill and whose father Glenn was a prominent architect. “Men met there and talked about town business. He kept tabs for gas sales and people settled up at the end of the month.” Mack Brown became a regular customer and close friend during his 1988-97 tenure, and Spurling’s Christmas gift from Mack and Sally when they left for Texas in December 1997 was an envelope of roundtrip airplane tickets for him to visit Austin. Spurling was on
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the sidelines in the 2006 Rose Bowl when Texas beat USC for the national championship and was ready with a bear hug when Brown rejoined the Carolina staff in November 2018. “Those Texas people treated me like I was the President,” Spurling says. “When Vince Young scored to win the ball game, there’s no way Mack was any happier than I was. Now that he’s come back, I’d like to see that same thing for the Tar Heels.” Spurling sold the station in 2005 and was looking for something to do. Coach John Bunting told him there was a part-time receptionist job opening at Kenan Football Center. Spurling applied, was hired, and soon after, applied for the recently vacated position of Kenan Stadium facility director. Dick Baddour, the athletic director at the time, remembers Spurling going through the standard interview process and the Athletic Department sending his application to the UNC Office of Human Resources with the recommendation he be hired. “H.R. didn’t want to approve it because they didn’t think he had enough experience and training,” Baddour says. “They said while he had owned and operated a service station, and, by the way, the most popular one in town, he did not have the qualifications. So we had our H.R. person sit down with him and completely understand the skills and abilities needed to run a first-class service station. Turns out those traits were directly in line with our job. We wrote it up with a strong recommendation to hire, and they went along with us. “I wrote a note on the recommendation to hire saying he will, without question, be one of the most outstanding hires in the Department. That proved to be true.” Indeed, three years later, Spurling received the Ernie Williamson Award given to an Athletic Department employee for outstanding service and received a standing ovation in the process. That followed in 2015 with Spurling being awarded the C. Knox Massey Distinguished Service Award, one of the most coveted distinctions earned by faculty and staff. “James is like a family member to so many here, particularly Sally and me,” Brown says. “He’s always very upbeat, he’s got tremendous energy. Some would call him a workaholic. I like to say he’s got great work ethic. I wish there were more people like him in our society today. He treats that stadium like it’s his own house. He takes a lot of
pride in it. He knows every player by name and takes care of them like they’re his own.” One example is former center and NFL Pro Bowler Jeff Saturday, who worked for Spurling at Eastgate BP for two summers in the mid1990s. Saturday pumped gas, cleaned windshields and did the odd job in the garage area. He marveled at how the gas station was the center of the Chapel Hill universe. “It was a ‘Who’s who’ of university and town leaders who’d come through every day,” Saturday says. “It was a home-away-from-home for a ton of folks. James always had a smile on his face and was there to listen. It was like the town barbershop. The news traveled first through Eastgate BP.” Saturday’s playing career looked to have ended after the 1997 Tar Heel season when he went undrafted and was quickly dismissed by the Baltimore Ravens after a freeagent tryout. Saturday took a job in Raleigh selling electrical supplies in the fall of 1998. “James sat me down and said, ‘Son, you’re going to be just fine. God may have a different plan for you than you’d hoped. But you’re going to be successful,’” Saturday remembers. “That was the lowest moment of my life, and he helped pull me through.” Eventually Saturday got a second chance with the Indianapolis Colts and turned that into a 13-year career, most of it snapping the football to legendary quarterback Peyton Manning. “And when things are going good for you, he’s the one pulling the hardest and cheering the loudest,” Saturday says. Today Saturday’s son Jeffrey is a walk-on on the Tar Heel football team, and it comforted Saturday in the fall of 2019 to know Spurling was just a phone call or text message away. “I have so much respect for James that when my son entered school, I was so much more comfortable knowing if something happened, James would be one of the first guys to call,” Saturday says. “You know he would do whatever he could do to help you. He’s such a selfless human being. I have so much love and respect for him.” Williamson over many years introduced Spurling to Tar Heel coaches and athletes as well as dozens of prominent alumni and businessmen who were Rams Club members and supporters of the University and its athletic teams. Spurling beams telling of how those friendships evolved over the
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“I’VE LOVED EVERY MINUTE I’VE BEEN HERE. THIS IS A SPECIAL PLACE. THE PEOPLE WHO GENERATED THE HISTORY OF THIS PROGRAM AND THE HISTORY OF THIS STADIUM ARE STILL HERE IN SPIRIT. I THINK MY FRIENDS LIKE ERNIE AND MAURICE ARE LOOKING DOWN AND SAYING, ‘MAN, THAT STADIUM IS AS PRETTY AS IT EVER WAS.’” -JAMES SPURLING
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years. One in particular was with Maurice Koury, the 1947 Carolina graduate, Burlington textile magnate and generous benefactor of UNC athletics and academics who died in March 2016. In Koury’s declining years, Spurling routinely picked him up in a golf cart from his parking spot before football games and drove him to the elevator entry into north side premium seating facility that bore the names of John Pope and Koury himself. In the winter of 2017, Spurling said goodbye to “Papa” Rizzo, a Tar Heel blocking back of the 1940s Justice era who he befriended over the years. “I’ve loved every minute I’ve been here,” Spurling says. “This is a special place. The people who generated the history of this program and the history of this stadium are still here in spirit. I think my friends like Ernie and Maurice are looking down and saying, ‘Man, that stadium is as pretty as it ever was.’” Each of Brown’s ideas and initiatives to spruce the facility up since returning to Carolina in November 2018 have called upon Spurling to manage the budgets, contractors, schedules and execution of the various jobs. “Mack is full pace every day,” Spurling says. “He’s got a lot of new ideas, and he’s brought in some staff with new ideas on what the place should be like, especially for recruiting purposes.
“What I care about is having people come in here and say, ‘James, this place looks great.’ That’s the neatest thing.” It all means a lot of hours and a lot of sweat equity to manage it all. Spurling had to step back and catch his breath in early 2020 when he had emergency surgery for a heart condition. Since then, he’s exercising and watching his diet and within four months had lost nearly 30 pounds. “I’m about sick and tired of chicken, I’ll tell you that,” Spurling says, adding with an impish grin that he snuck a couple pieces of pizza a few nights earlier. “He looks great, he’s got his energy back and says he feels better,” Brown says. “You can see he’s happier at work having his health back.” Adds Baddour: “James is one of the most respected people I have ever known, and at the same time one of the most well-liked. And he has pleased five head football coaches, which may be his grandest achievement.”
TO HEAR RAMS CLUB MEMBER JAMES SPURLING’S STORY IN HIS OWN WORDS, SUBSCRIBE TO THE CAROLINA INSIDER PODCAST AND DOWNLOAD THE AUGUST 14, 2019 EDITION. ramsclub.com 15
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C A R O L I N A E V E R YWE A R Rams Club members like to wear their Carolina Blue, and they’ll wear it all over the US and the world when travel conditions permit. If you have a photo of you in your Carolina gear in front of notable landmarks in the US and abroad, send them our way to be a part of Carolina EveryWear!
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To have your photo included: -Send your photo digitally to bornandbred@ramsclub.com. -Identify everyone in your photo and the location of the photo. Here are the “Rules”: -At least one person in the photo has to be a Rams Club member -You must be wearing Carolina gear -You must be in front of a notable landmark (sorry, as cool as Kenan Stadium and the Smith Center are, they don’t qualify). SHOW US YOUR COLORS!
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1) Peyton Ratchford of Raleigh & Alexis Ratchford of Gastonia at Thingvellir National Park in Iceland; 2) Cathy & Dennis Winner of Asheville at Del Toro Falls in Costa Rica; 3) Karen & Andy West of Cherryville at the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii; 4) Howard & Barbara Jones of Gastonia with Laura & Rick Pieringer in Bora Bora; 5) Brian, Cindy, Cade, Grant & Marshall Nicholson of Charlotte at Arenal Volcano in Costa Rica; 6) Byron & Karen Ritter of Greensboro at Montego Bay in Jamaica; 7) The Eidson crew on a rafting trip at the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho.; 8) Dawn & Donald Perkins of Gretna, VA, at Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, Alaska; 9) Michael & Amy Patton of Wilmington in Patagonia, Argentina; 10) William Dull of Winston-Salem with Katherine Dull, Louise Mann, Will Dull & Richard Dull in St. John, US Virgin Islands 11) Annika Hugosson of Winston-Salem in the Palace Square in St. Petersburg, Russia; 12) Ranjan Sharma & Stacy Lawson of Greensboro at New Zealand’s Antarctic research facility in Ross Island, Antarctica; 13) Lydia, Robert, William & Andrew Shoemake of Aldie, VA at the Arctic Circle in Rovaniemi, Finland; 14) Tyler, Ava, Kristi & Nathan West of Wake Forest at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville; 15) Jamie, Jackson, Jacob, Jada & Jill Knox of Rutherfordton in the Garden of the Gods at Pikes Peak in Colorado; 16) Ben & Elizabeth Allison with Emmett & Taylor of Charlotte at Epcot in Orlando, Florida; 17) Ben & Linda Hawfield of Charlotte at the Roman ruins in Volubilis, Morocco; 18) Mary Jo Parks of Sanford with Mary Lewis Johnson in London; 19) Ralph Sigler of Raleigh at St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, Italy; 20) Michelle Hockman Cunningham of Glen Rock, NJ in Singapore; 21) Dillard Williams of Charlotte & Michael Thomas of Raleigh in Chamonix, France in the Alps; 22) Russ Clegg at Mount Whitney in the Italy Pass in the Sierras
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TAR HEEL
FOR LIFE Eric Hoots is living a dream while making himself an indispensable part of Roy Williams’ basketball program BY ADAM LUCAS // PHOTOS BY MAGGIE HOBSON
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WITH AN ASSIST FROM BOBBY FRASOR & TYLER HANSBROUGH
here are dozens of Eric Hoots stories that will make you understand why he is so important to the University of North Carolina basketball program. There are dozens of Eric Hoots stories that will make you understand why Roy Williams trusts him so much, and why he is so important to the legions of Tar Heel players who return to Chapel Hill in the summer, and why “Go ask Hoots” is one of the most commonly heard refrains around the Smith Center. But there is no story—none—that will make you love him more than this one. It is the late 2000’s and Carolina is about to face Duke. The game is in the Smith Center, so Hoots is there several hours before tipoff. The game won’t start for another two hours. Hoots, who has worked with the basketball program for nearly 20 years, first as a student manager and then as the video coordinator and now as the director of player development, is already in peak game shape. He has dozens of items on his gameday to-do list. Already on this day, he has helped former players with tickets, current players with everything and future players with visit plans. He is incapable of sitting still. As he sits, his leg is bouncing up and down on the Smith Center hardwood. I will never forget the words he said next. “I just hate them,” he said, leg still bouncing, “so much.” And now you know Eric Hoots. This is someone who has the same passion for Carolina basketball that he did as a four-year-old. That’s when his parents took him to watch the Tar Heels play in the old Charlotte Coliseum. Within minutes of entering the building, they couldn’t find young Eric, who was—of course—clad in Carolina blue-and-white Air Jordans.
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ERIC HOOTS WITH HIS CHILDREN AT ESPN COLLEGE GAMEDAY
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“THERE’S NOT A DAY THAT I WALK INTO THE SMITH CENTER THAT I DON’T THINK ABOUT HOW AMAZING IT IS THAT I HAVE KEYS TO THE BUILDING AND GET TO WORK FOR THIS PROGRAM. IT’S ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE, AND I THINK ABOUT IT EVERY DAY WHEN I DRIVE TO WORK.”
“Hoots does as much for the program as anyone outside of Coach Williams. I got to know him on my very first visit to North Carolina. We built our relationship early in my freshman year playing ping pong in the locker room and talking trash to each other. And for the record, if there was an all-time scoreboard for those ping-pong matches, I’d be ahead by a lot.”
His celebrations after big wins—and frustrations after big losses—are legendary. At least one cell phone screen suffered a crack after a loss to the Blue Devils. He can be dangerous in the post-victory mosh pit. In 2005, when his role in his first official year on staff was to video the games, he became so animated during Carolina’s regional final victory over Wisconsin at the Carrier Dome that his reactions caused the scaffolding holding the CBS cameras to shake. At the conclusion of the game, the CBS cameraman grabbed his arm. “Son, do you want to do this for a living?” he asked Hoots. “No sir, I don’t,” came the reply, and Hoots sprinted to the floor to celebrate with the Final Four-bound Tar Heels. Respectful, sure, but there was a Final Four to celebrate. He has become completely indispensable, both to Roy Williams and to dozens of people in and around the program for whom he is the closest contact to Tar Heel basketball. Most amazingly, even approaching that 20-year mark, he has lost exactly none of the passion that characterized his original hiring. Credit Williams—for whom Hoots worked just one year as a student manager—for realizing the Newton, N.C., native had qualities that made him an important addition to the full-time staff. Every single player contacted for this story immediately talked about how lucky they felt to have Hoots as a friend. Every single player contacted for this story immediately identified Hoots as
“Hoots was in my wedding. We were doing the candle ceremony and my mother-in-law was having a hard time lighting the candle. People who don’t know him don’t know how kind he is and that he is the nicest person you could ever meet. He just strolled up there nonchalantly and instead of taking the lighter out of her hand, he grabbed her hand while she was holding the lighter and lit the candle. Nobody realized that he actually did it—they thought my mother-in-law did it. That story represents Hoots to the fullest. He’s behind the scenes, always helping, always getting it done and never looking for any credit.”
-TYLER HANSBROUGH
-JACKIE MANUEL
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His mother, Kay, eventually found him as close to the court as a four-year-old could conceivably make it, still wearing the Jordans, in awe of his proximity to the Tar Heels. Not much has changed since then. “There’s not a day that I walk into the Smith Center that I don’t think about how amazing it is that I have keys to the building and get to work for this program,” he says. “It’s absolutely incredible, and I think about it every day when I drive to work.”
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one of the key assets in holding together Carolina basketball as we know it. It’s not that he is willing to help. It’s that he wants to help. There is a distinct, noticeable difference. Hoots once admonished me for purchasing a car without checking with him first and seemed genuinely disappointed that I would have undertaken even a process that clearly had nothing to do with his job without him. “I didn’t want to bother you with it,” I told him. “Come on, man,” he replied. “You have to let me help.” It is never, ever about him, which is a rare quality when you’re dealing with Carolina basketball. Tar Heel players love him because it is obvious from the very first time they meet him— which is usually followed shortly by him helping them move in to their college dorm the summer before their freshman year—that he is invested in them as people, not as basketball players. This is someone who you would want to be friends with even if he didn’t have access to the best Tar Heel basketball tickets. He never stops, always with the perfect feel for what is best for the program. It is Hoots who helps coordinate the team’s annual shopping trip that benefits local charities. It was Hoots who spent the morning of a 2018 ACC Tournament game personally heatpressing Woody Durham’s name on the backs of the Tar Heel warm-up shirts the morning Durham passed away, ensuring Carolina could pay tribute to the broadcaster that evening. It is Hoots who has given thousands of tours of the Smith Center to everyone from terminally ill children to highly touted recruits to random fans who wander in from out of state on a Tuesday afternoon. His campus tour in the Carolina basketball golf cart is almost as legendary as his Pop-a-Shot prowess or his unicycle proficiency (and he won’t mind telling you about any of these key traits).
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“Hoots symbolizes everything that is Carolina basketball. When Marv (Williams) and I talk about Hoots, we always jokingly say that without Hoots, Carolina basketball would fall apart. It’s a joke, but there is some truth to it. While I was in school, if there was anything I needed off the court, Hoots was the first guy I would call. No matter the hour, he would pick up the phone and be there for me. Still to this day, ten years removed from playing at Carolina, if there is anything that I need I know that Hoots will be there and try to help me in any way he can. He is one of those guys who will give his own shirt off his back for you.”
-DEON THOMPSON
He has never scored a point for the Tar Heels or grabbed a rebound. And yet, it is not an exaggeration to say that the Carolina family would not be the same without Eric Hoots. Dean Smith created it. Roy Williams enhanced it. And Eric Hoots—who can still so often be found in blue-and-white Jordans—helped facilitate it.
“Hoots is a large part of why the Carolina basketball family is so strong. He does a great job bringing all of us back and making us comfortable. It always amazes me how he can help with anything you have going on. He knows everyone, and on top of that he is full of so much energy and is just fun to be around. We used to always joke that if you needed Hoots, just sit still for about ten minutes and he will come back. He is always working on helping someone.”
“I’ve never been around anybody who loves the North Carolina program and can do as many things as Eric Hoots. The way he represents the program to everyone he comes in contact with is so impressive. He is not a jack of all trades, master of none. He is a jack of all trades, master of most. He’s off the charts.”
“Hoots is one of the most genuine and nicest people you will find in college athletics, and he represents the University so well. I’m not sure there is anyone out there who has more love for Carolina (especially if you judge it by his hatred of Duke). His ability to connect people from different coaches/decades/backgrounds is amazing. He always has an ability to ‘get it done’ whatever the problem may be. I’m glad to be one of his friends and love everything he does for the school and the basketball program.”
-DAVID NOEL
-ROY WILLIAMS
-TYLER ZELLER
-BOBBY FRASOR
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WITH HELP FROM HOOTS
“Hoots is incredibly competitive at anything he does and he is a great trashtalker. He is by far one of the best trash talkers ever. The crazy thing is that he is good at everything. He might not be great, but he can solidly hold his own at everything. And when he beats you, he lets you know. We have had so many matches on that ping-pong table, and he can talk you out of your game if you’re not careful. He is a special dude, Carolina is lucky to have him, and I’m lucky to be one of his friends.”
UNSUNG HEROES
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
C
arolina 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:
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 “RAM LADY”
THE BASEBALL SUPERFAN
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
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BORN & BRED
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.”
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UNSUNG HEROES
KNOW THEIR NAMES We asked a cross-section of Carolina head coaches to identify the unsung heroes within their programs. Their responses ran the gamut from student-athletes to staff members to, yes, Rams Club members. BY PAT JAMES // PHOTOS BY JEFFREY CAMARATI, ALEX KORMANN, MAGGIE HOBSON, BETSY MANN & UNC WOMEN’S GOLF
UNSUNG HERO: THE CAROLINA TENNIS CIRCLE “Our team’s unsung heroes are a group that loves Carolina Tennis but might not be known to most of our fans. The Carolina Tennis Circle, founded and led by Joe Frierson and Jon Balch. Those two, along with Tom and Nancy Chewning, are our unsung heroes. This program wouldn’t be where it is today without them. Very simply, they help us do what we do through their kindness, wisdom and generosity. They’ve always been there for us, supporting our program. We can’t thank them enough.”
SAM PAUL MEN’S TENNIS, HEAD COACH
UNSUNG HERO: JESSICA BROOKS SCOTT “My wife, Jessica, would be unsung hero of our program. She works behind the scenes helping out with so much of what we do. She always makes sure the team is well-fed at team dinners, our parents are taken care of on trips and much more. She has helped turn our program into a big family, something I really value a lot.”
COLEMAN SCOTT WRESTLING, HEAD COACH
UNSUNG HERO: SUE WALSH “I would say the unsung hero for Carolina Swimming and Diving has to be Sue Walsh. Sue came in and is to this day the most successful swimmer to come through Carolina’s program. Additionally, she has tirelessly worked to support the program though her work in the Rams Club. She cares deeply about the athlete’s experience at Carolina and wants to see our program achieve greatness. She is always there for me, and I know she will always be there for Carolina.”
MARK GANGLOFF SWIMMING & DIVING, HEAD COACH
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BORN & BRED
UNSUNG HERO: JERRY PETITT
“The unsung hero for women’s golf is a gentleman by the name of Jerry Petitt. Our team first met Mr. Petitt several years ago when we were competing at the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate tournament in Hilton Head, South Carolina. While our student-athletes were on the course, we noticed this gentleman decked out in Carolina Blue following each member of the team. I introduced myself and found out that he was a 1967 economics graduate of UNC and was a huge sports fan. As I recall from our conversation, Jerry indicated that he was a golfer but was also a huge fan of all the sports at Carolina. He said he lived in Bluffton, South Carolina, just outside of Hilton Head, but had season tickets to Carolina football and men’s and women’s basketball. “That day Jerry stayed and watched until our last player on the course completed her round. I then gathered the team and introduced them to Jerry. From that day forward Jerry has ‘adopted’ our team. He travels to most of our tournaments and he has affectionately been named by our student-athletes as “Uncle Jerry.” In the true spirit of being a member of our Carolina family, Uncle Jerry has become an integral part of our golf team’s extended family. He always checks with the coaches at the tournaments to see which student-athletes do not have a family member following them and makes sure to follow those individuals throughout their round. If he does not come to one of our tournaments, the team is disappointed and wants to know where he is. “When our season ended abruptly due to the virus, one of our team members reached out to Jerry to make sure he was doing OK. She even offered to have groceries delivered to his home and provide him with face masks. I received a call from Jerry after their conversation expressing how much the call meant and how much the team means to him. I hope that Jerry does not mind if I share this fact, but he has back problems and spending the day walking and watching golf can be tough on anyone’s back. Toward the end of a long day on the course, it is often evident that Jerry is in pain. The fact that he never gives up and is always there until the end is a testament for our team about determination and loyalty to the program. We love Uncle Jerry!”
JAN MANN WOMEN’S GOLF, HEAD COACH
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UNSUNG HEROES
UNSUNG HERO: KEN AND CHERYL WILLIAMS
“Their names are on our video board and on other buildings around campus, but their support goes so far beyond what people see. They come to our games, get to know our students and their families, and advocate for our teams. And they are such dear friends, truly wonderful people and so humble. They’ve been such an important part of our program and of our success.”
KAREN SHELTON FIELD HOCKEY, HEAD COACH
UNSUNG HERO: LIZ ROBERTS “Liz was the quintessential teammate. What didn’t show up on the stat sheet was the key to our locker room and the culture that we protected. She brought consistent enthusiasm and a servant heart to every aspect of our program. Unsung by those on the outside, she’s revered by those within it.”
COURTNEY BANGHART WOMEN’S BASKETBALL, HEAD COACH
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BORN & BRED
UNSUNG HERO: WILL RANDOLPH
“Will Randolph loves UNC, loves our program and has given so much to Carolina Athletics. As a fencer here, he was a captain and two-time Leader of Distinction. Now as an assistant coach, he coordinates recruiting, travel and many other things, in addition to coaching. He’s crucial to everything we’re doing, yet never draws attention to himself. He’s an extremely loyal presence working hard behind the scenes to help us achieve greatness.”
MATT JEDNAK FENCING, HEAD COACH
UNSUNG HEROES: ALL “Our program is filled with unsung heroes,, and they are all the people you never hear about or hardly hear about. It’s our strength and conditioning coach (Erik Hernandez), athletic trainer (Scott Oliaro), sports information director (Steve Kirschner), our academic counselor (Jordan Long), nutritionist (Rachel Manor) and sports psychologists (Drs. Jeni Shannon and Brendan Carr). These deeply passionate individuals work long hours to take care of the minds and bodies of our athletes, stay awake until midnight writing articles and posting graphics to tell our stories, keep our team members organized and efficient with their time, and simply constantly support our coaches and student-athletes. The other unsung heroes are our donors. They make everything just mentioned, and more, possible.”
ANDREW DIBITETTO MEN’S GOLF, HEAD COACH
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UNSUNG HEROES
UNSUNG HERO: KARA CANNIZZARO “Kara brings enthusiasm, creativity and a can-do attitude to not only the women’s lacrosse program but to so many other areas in the athletic department. Kara wants to contribute and she wants to provide value any and everywhere she can. She not only identifies ways we can be better at North Carolina, she engages in creative problem-solving and is not afraid to challenge the status quo. If Kara decides to tackle a project, you know it will get done. She is reliable and thorough and always brings the fun. “Kara’s energy is off the charts, and it is not unusual for others in our department to want her input and assistance for an idea or project. She makes everyone she comes in contact with feel special, engaging coaches, alums, donors, fans and kids. In the past three years, there are not many parts of Carolina Athletics that Kara has not been involved with and impacted for the better – I would list everything, but fear I would leave something out. Kara has had a huge impact on Carolina Lacrosse, working tirelessly behind the scenes to make anything we do championship quality. Kara is truly an unsung hero around the Carolina athletic department.”
JENNY LEVY WOMEN’S LACROSSE, HEAD COACH
UNSUNG HERO: JORDAN LONG “Jordan does a great job interacting with our student-athletes and coaches. He has their best interest at heart, and he is someone you can always count on to be an advocate for our student-athletes. He was outstanding in helping our players navigate through all of the changes that were occurring academically from the middle of March when our season got canceled through the rest of the semester. He helped the players through all kinds of situations – helping the seniors who are now going to be able to get an extra year figure out the best route for them, along with the seniors who needed to graduate, and helping the team through registration for the fall. “He has been a calming force for us and has helped keep our players on track and their eyes on the prize. We had one of our best academic semesters at a time when there was such uncertainty and chaos. We had three players achieve 4.0’s and a team GPA of 3.341. Additionally, we had 21 players achieve ACC Honor Roll, which is a first. Jordan is professional and is a calming force for our team. He helps guide our players in the right direction and is always willing to spend the time it takes to help them resolve a problem or help them in any situation. We appreciate all of his time and effort.”
DONNA J. PAPA SOFTBALL, HEAD COACH
UNSUNG HERO: SKYLAR WINE “The unsung hero of our team this past year in 2019, who received our John Lotz Award, is Skylar Wine. She came off the bench all season and helped us win. She quietly got the job done. Unassuming, not flashy, but just played. She went from a starter in 2018 to a key role player as the “seventh woman” in 2019. And she was all about the team.”
JOE SAGULA VOLLEYBALL, HEAD COACH
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BORN & BRED
UNSUNG HERO: JAMES AYSCUE
“James Ayscue is an unsung hero of the rowing program. James is our head strength and conditioning coach and his work with the team makes us faster in so many ways. Lifting under his guidance obviously makes us stronger, but our time in the weight room develops more than just muscle strength. James has a deep understanding of the demands of rowing, and he uses this knowledge to develop a comprehensive strength and conditioning program that builds strength, flexibility and body control in ways that complement the demands of our sport. “He is also acutely aware of how the movements in the weight room translate into the biomechanics of the rowing stroke. He is constantly emphasizing a strong mental approach to lifting and body awareness, and this practice directly supports skills we are working on in the boat. James is enthusiastic and passionate about our sport, and he genuinely cares about each and every athlete. Our team loves him and he without a doubt makes us a better team.”
THOMAS REVELLE ROWING, INTERIM CO-HEAD COACH
UNSUNG HERO: TOM AND NANCY CHEWNING
“Tom and Nancy Chewning are the most selfless people I’ve ever met, and the support they’ve provided the men’s and women’s tennis programs has truly been remarkable. Sam Paul and I are forever grateful for Tom and Nancy’s generous support of our programs through the years.”
BRIAN KALBAS WOMEN’S TENNIS, HEAD COACH
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BORN & BRED
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UNSUNG HEROES
Making It
HAPPEN THE UNSUNG HEROES BEHIND SOME OF THE BIGGEST MOMENTS IN CAROLINA SPORTS HISTORY BY ADAM LUCAS PHOTOS BY JEFFREY CAMARATI, J.D. LYON, JR., AND UNC ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS
The Moment:
CHARLOTTE SMITH’S 1994 NATIONAL TITLE-WINNING JUMPER
The Unsung Hero: STEPHANIE LAWRENCE Smith’s jumper remains perhaps the most iconic moment in the history of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament. The original play call was a lob to center Sylvia Crawley. But when the play was changed, it fell to Lawrence to make a deceptively difficult pass from under the Carolina backboard to the opposite corner. To complicate matters further, Crawley was setting a screen in the path of the pass, meaning the ball had to go beneath the backboard but over the 6-foot-5 Crawley. “When I saw Charlotte curve out with no defenders on her, it was just a matter of getting that pass to her,” said Lawrence, who is now Stephanie Lawrence Yelton, the head coach at the University of West Florida. “It seemed like it took forever for the ball to get to her. And once she let the ball go, it seemed like an eternity before the ball went through the net.”
Why:
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BORN & BRED
The Moment:
GIOVANI BERNARD’S 73-YARD PUNT RETURN TOUCHDOWN AGAINST NC STATE IN 2012
The Unsung Hero: THE WALL Bernard’s game-winning return is perhaps the most famous single play in the modern era of Carolina football. The truth of the play is better than any legend: State coach Tom O’Brien choosing to punt to Bernard at all, the fact that Bernard was nursing an injury and was not the original punt returner on the play (trivia note: it was dual track/football athlete Roy Smith, and he was actually on the field before Bernard decided he could try the play himself), and Jones Angell’s indelible radio call of the moment. But even with Bernard’s sensational individual effort, the touchdown doesn’t happen without perfect execution from the other ten players on the punt return team. It was head coach Larry Fedora, who also served as the special teams coordinator, who decided to run “The Wall,” a return formation that had worked for a big gain against Elon in the season opener. NC State punter Wil Baumann actually helped Carolina’s cause by just slightly outkicking his coverage, unleashing a 49-yard boomer that gave Bernard a running start. T.J. Jiles got the first block. A.J. Blue, currently an assistant strength and conditioning coach, flattened one Wolfpack defender and then immediately went looking for a second State player to block. Tre Boston bowling-balled a pair of would-be tacklers. Romar Morris was step-for-step with Bernard down the right sideline, and Pete Mangum threw the final block.
Why:
The Moment:
CHAD FLACK’S HOME RUN AGAINST ALABAMA IN THE 2006 SUPER-REGIONAL
The Unsung Hero: THE BULLPEN
Flack’s opposite-field game-winner in game two of the best-of-three super-regional forever changed Carolina baseball, taking the program from annually getting close but never quite making it to Omaha, to a permanent resident at Rosenblatt Stadium and later TD Ameritrade Park. The Diamond Heels had taken a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three super-regional after a stellar performance from Andrew Miller in
Why:
the series opener. Game two was a back-and-forth affair, with the Crimson Tide taking a quick 2-0 lead after two innings and leading 4-2 after seven. The ’06 Tar Heels were stacked with a formidable weekend rotation, featuring Miller, Daniel Bard and Robert Woodard. But Bard had a rough outing, lasting just two innings and exiting with runners on first and second and nobody out in the third. Reliever Matt Danford entered and escaped the frame with zero runs, preventing the homestanding Tide from breaking open the game and changing the complexion of the series. In all, Danford contributed four innings of one-hit relief. He was followed by scoreless innings from Jonathan Hovis and Luke Putkonen before Andrew Carignan gave up a hard-luck classic 2006 metal-bat home run to Alex Avila that set the stage for Flack’s heroics (Flack actually did it twice, hitting a go-ahead homer in the bottom of the eighth and then the winner in the ninth). If the Tar Heel bullpen hadn’t kept Carolina close, it’s very likely both teams would have played game two very differently as they tried to prepare for a winner-take-all game three.
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UNSUNG HEROES
The Moment:
THE MOST RECENT NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP FOR TAR HEEL WOMEN’S SOCCER IN 2012
The Unsung Heroes: BROOKE ELBY AND CRYSTAL DUNN
Carolina beat Stanford, 1-0 in double overtime, in the national semifinal, on a golden goal from Kealia Ohai. The Tar Heels then vanquished Penn State in the national championship match, 4-1. But even with the tight battle against the top-ranked Cardinal, the biggest threat to Carolina’s national championship hopes might have come in the quarterfinals, when the Tar Heels faced third-ranked Brigham Young in Provo. In overtime of that
Why:
The Moment:
NICK WEILER’S 54-YARD FIELD GOAL TO BEAT FLORIDA STATE IN 2016
The Unsung Hero: THOMAS JACKSON Why: 36
Weiler’s tomahawk-chopping celebration is permanently etched in Tar Heel memories, a fitting way to celebrate a rare Carolina win at Doak Campbell Stadium. Until the final seconds, however, this was going to be
BORN & BRED
match, Elby had an incredible hustle play when she stopped a BYU shot on an open goal with a sliding back save that knocked the ball out of bounds—instead of finding the back of the Carolina net for the game-winner. On the ensuing corner kick, Crystal Dunn had a similar play when she headed away a Cougar shot that appeared headed for the goal. Given a reprieve by the two great saves, Ohai found Dunn for the game-winner in the second overtime.
one of Trubisky’s signature performances, as he was nearly flawless in a 31-for-38, 405-yard performance. Fourteen of those passes went to Ryan Switzer, and Trubisky also added three scoring passes. The last of those touchdown completions went to former walk-on receiver Thomas Jackson. Carolina had built a 28-14 lead going into the fourth quarter, but Florida State tied it with five minutes left after a pair of touchdowns from the electric Dalvin Cook. Trubisky responded by directing a seven-play, 75yard drive that culminated with a 34-yard TD pass to Jackson. Almost all the work on the screen play was done by Jackson, who got a block from Mack Hollins, shook off two would-be tacklers that would have left the play with a short gain, and then sprinted down the sideline and past the last defender for the score with 2:31 remaining. An even more unsung hero? Weiler’s point after touchdown was blocked, which meant after a late FSU field goal, his eventual winning kick was a do-or-die loseor-win kick rather than just a tiebreaker.
The Moment:
MARVIN WILLIAMS’ FOLLOW SHOT TO BEAT DUKE IN 2005
The Unsung Hero: DAVID NOEL
Williams’ putback is perhaps the one single most important shot of the Roy Williams era. It finally vanquished the Blue Devils after a frustrating loss to them earlier in the season, and it sealed an Atlantic Coast Conference regular season championship that has become a regular feature of Williams’ tenure in Chapel Hill. There are two well-known parts of this game: first, Williams’ incredible follow shot, which Roy Williams still describes as the
Why:
single loudest moment he has ever heard in any arena. Second, the fact that Sean May was completely relentless in the paint, finishing with 24 points and 22 rebounds and foreshadowing his incredible postseason performance on the way to the national title. But Duke actually had the ball with 35 seconds remaining and a 73-71 lead. Daniel Ewing tried to bring the ball frontcourt, where he was defended by Raymond Felton. Ewing appeared to forget that Noel was behind him. Noel, who had originally committed to Carolina to play football, swiped at the ball—maybe he made contact with Ewing, maybe he didn’t—and knocked it loose. That sent Felton sprawling to the ground at midcourt to recover the loose ball, where he called timeout with 27.8 seconds left. Ten seconds later, following one Felton made free throw and one missed charity toss, Williams was banking in the shot that made the jerseys in the rafters shake. If Noel doesn’t gamble on the steal, Duke has the ball with a twopoint lead, and Carolina likely has to foul facing a team with one of the best free throw shooters in ACC history—J.J. Redick—ready to try and make it a two-possession game.
The Moment:
LUKE MAYE’S SHOT TO BEAT KENTUCKY IN THE 2017 REGIONAL FINAL
The Unsung Hero: THEO PINSON It was Pinson who unhesitatingly pushed the ball up the court following Malik Monk’s game-tying three-pointer, a shot that very easily could have created the kind of standaround-and-groan reaction. Instead, Pinson immediately raced frontcourt—choosing not to feed point guard Joel Berry II—to make the play himself. “My first thought was, ‘Their defensive balance is terrible right now, so you need to attack now,’” Pinson says. “Don’t let them get set. My first thing was, ‘You have to get to midcourt.’ That’s what you have been taught since you were little. You never just run up one sideline. Once I get to the middle of the court, he doesn’t know what I’m going to do.” By the way, if you want to go even deeper than Pinson, an even more unsung hero might be Kennedy Meeks. It was the Tar Heel big man who grabbed the ball out of the net as soon as Monk’s shot swished through and inbounded it directly to Pinson. Meeks’ quick reaction—something Carolina practices from day one of every season—prevented Kentucky coach John Calipari from calling a timeout, and Calipari would later lament not being able to stop the action and set his defense. It’s not a stretch to say that the combination of Meeks and Pinson—and the cool shooting of Maye—saved an eventual Tar Heel national title.
Why:
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FIRST PERSON
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‘Servant leadership’
Behind every great endeavor, a heart-stopping of thinking. It means championing our community, fighting touchdown, an inspiring lecture, or a life-saving new for our values and reminding others of the incredible work medical treatment, there’s a backbone. A support system our university accomplishes every day. that makes that accomplishment possible. Behind every To me, the concept of an unsung hero is tightly woven win and every winner, there are unsung heroes who make with the idea of servant leadership. In the midst of this year’s it happen. pandemic, I have seen the countless ways our community I grew up in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, home of Arnold Palmer, has come together to innovate, create and solve problems. Mr. Rogers, the Steelers training camp, and the birthplace of We all know the sacrifices our doctors, nurses and professional football in 1895 (not Canton, OH…that would be healthcare workers make every day to take care of patients. like believing the University of Georgia But I also think about our IT staff who was the nation’s first public university, answer questions and enable us to and we know that’s not true). The love conduct our work remotely. It’s our of sports runs deep in Latrobe and it groundskeepers who keep our campus “To me, the concept of an unsung certainly did in my family growing beautiful, our police officers who keep up. I saw how football, and sports us safe and our maintenance staff who hero is tightly woven with the idea more broadly, are much more than a of servant leadership. In the midst of keep things up and running. game. They are the glue that unites That is what it means to be an this year’s pandemic, I have seen the unsung hero. It means being a part of communities and brings families and friends closer together. Playing sports countless ways our community has a team that is bigger than yourself. To make us aim higher and dream bigger. come together to innovate, create and our unsung heroes across the country And they’re fueled by unsung heroes – and especially solve problems.” who keep things running smoothly. here at Even before I graduated from high Carolina school, I knew I wanted to stay connected to sports and – thank you for keeping help keep players safe and performing at their best. families safe. Thank you I pursued a career in athletic training and sports for inspiring us in the medicine because I wanted to help other people, stay days that lie ahead…and connected to sports, and be curious every day. I wanted to that includes Carolina’s ask the question “why?” and find the answers. My fellow athletic trainers who athletic trainers are the kind of people who prove their keep our studentvalue in times of need. An ACL tear can end a season and athletes healthy and an untreated concussion can be life-threatening. Keeping competitive. players healthy and preventing serious injuries are critical for each athlete and the entire team. Athletic trainers don’t show up in the box scores for scoring touchdowns, hitting home runs, grabbing rebounds, or winning races, but in many ways they are responsible for those who do show up and receive the glory. I saw the impact of my work every day KEVIN GUSKIEWICZ preparing athletes for competition, and it inspired me to Chancellor teach others to have that same passion for helping others. Last December, I received the incredible honor of being named Carolina’s 12th chancellor. As I thought about my tenure, the idea that kept coming to mind was “servant leadership.” I believe that Carolina’s greatest strength is its people and servant leadership is about making decisions with, not for, our community. Being a servant leader means Illustration by listening to others, particularly those who challenge my way Jason McCorkle
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