You know the story. UNC is a basketball school. This is not in dispute and no manner of football success is really going to change that and if you do not believe me then take a look at Florida. That being said, one goal of Butch Davis and by extension Dick Baddour in paying Davis $2 million per year is that football can play a larger role in the UNC athletic culture. So imagine the frustration when a UNC alumnus named Steve Politi writes an article in the New Jersey Star-Ledger basically saying he does not give a flip about football.
Sometimes, like during a brief window when current Texas coach Mack Brown was running the program, we had a reason to almost care. Brown was the coach when I was a student, and he turned a perennial loser into a top-25 team. We stormed the field once after beating Virginia, even ripped down the goal posts and dragged them all the way downtown.
It was something to do, but certainly not a passion. My suitemates and I would camp out for days for tickets to basketball games – and not just Duke or N.C. State, either. We camped out once for a game against Jacksonville State, and weren’t even at the front of the line. Football? The sound of the marching band would wake us up in our dorms, and we’d invariably wander out in time for the second quarter.
The Tar Heels won the Peach Bowl when I was a junior in 1993, and that seemed like a big deal when it happened. Then the basketball team won the national championship that spring, with about thousands and thousands of people jamming Franklin Street in downtown Chapel Hill, with classes canceled and parties lasting well into the next day and Dean Smith elevated from deity to full-fledged God status.
And, sorry, but what bowl game was that again?
This is not unusual, of course. Most schools are either a basketball school or a football school. Rutgers has become a football school thanks to its success (although I’m sure a winning men’s basketball team would generate interest). Fans at Oklahoma and Texas are distracted for a few weeks when their hoops teams reach the NCAA Tournament, and then spring football practice begins.
It is the opposite at North Carolina. When it comes to football, we pretty much care about two things:
1. Beating Duke. This is the college-football equivalent of kicking your dog, since the Tar Heels have won 17 out of the past 18 games. Duke cares less about football than North Carolina does, and in some strange way, I wonder if that makes the Blue Devils winners in the rivalry.
2. When parachuting into the stadium with the game ball, try to land in the correct stadium.
UNC hired skydivers to deliver the game ball for the opener last week. The skydivers did, in fact, deliver the ball … to Wallace Wade Stadium at Duke, which is eight miles away. The Blue Devils were warming up for their own opener against James Madison and were, by all accounts, a bit surprised. (They actually defeated James Madison. Good for you, Duke!)
Other than that, most North Carolina alumni don’t ask for much. Butch Davis, in his second year, is putting together some impressive recruiting classes. He could turn this thing around. If he does, he’ll see that he’s still second fiddle and take a better job some place else. A few Carolina grads will get angry, but most will just shrug.
Now I am not naive. I know there are some among the readers of THF that probably look at football this way. Heck, on a personal level I am more vested emotionally in basketball than football. That is mostly what Politi is saying here up until the point where he claims fans only care about beating Duke and skydivers landing in the stadium. That seems like an unnecessary assertion. Then Politi goes for the rest of way and suggests Davis will eventually fly the coop after seeing he is not top dog. Yeah. Why not just go ahead and call yourself a Wolfpack fan because that is the kind of garbage that emanates from NCSU message boards on a regular basis.
I understand the dynamics surrounding Davis and also how things tend to work with the whole “basketball > football” mentality in Chapel Hill. And who knows what things will be like 2-3-5-10 years down the road. Politi could be right, Davis might leave in three years for a true football school or he might be in for the long haul to see if he can give UNC national prowess in the two major sports. The point is, life as a Tar Heel fan is tough enough when you have the standard cadre of talking heads such as Mark Packer beating the drum of Tar Heel football apathy without hearing it come out of the mouth of someone who went to the school. Reinforcing these generalizations, even when they are true does not serve UNC in trying to change them and I for one think it is affront to the efforts of the coaches and teams to do so two days prior to a game that could be a catalyst for progress in this arena.
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There would be a better time to write this story & publish it for UNC’s sake. Good find THF!
I’m not sure Politi is right about UNC playing Jacksonville State in basketball – “We camped out once for a game against Jacksonville State, and weren’t even…”
I checked the 2007-2008 Basketball Media Guide and looked at the years Politi should have been on the Hill and found UNC had a home game against Jacksonville University (not Jacksonville State) on Nov. 27, 1990 and I could find no reference to Jacksonville State at all.
Jacksonville State’s website says they won the Men’s National Basketball Championship in 1985, so it’s pretty clear Jacksonville State isn’t Division I-A and maybe not even NCAA at all.
I think Politi is full of something when he claims he campsed out for a game with Jacksonville State.
That may be the case Silent Sam. We have learned in journalism that you don’t always have to be accurate, especially if it supports your story.
“Davis might leave in three years”? Who is this Davis we keep talking about and does he have a good jump shot?? BAS-KET-BALL
Just like Florida became somewhat of a basketball school in a football crazed environment, Carolina can do the same with football. But it takes winning, and I think Davis can do it. A good team and a good coach at Carolina should be able to recruit anyone, and then you start the frenzy. But you can’t do it with some of the coaching choices we’ve made recently. I think Butch Davis can do it.
[...] Politi is no longer limiting himself to annoying Rutgers [...]
Steve Politi is no Carolina fan, maybe an alumni, but not a fan.
Sure, BBall is top dog, and my favorite sport, but I’m a fan of the “dadgum” Carolina checkers team (if we have one), so IMO this guy should stfu unless he has something constructive or informative to say.
Politi = Unlinkable?
I believe that he’s wrong regarding the 2 things we care about: I’d rather beat State in football than Dook.
Sure, I want to win the Dook game, but it’s not like it’s marked on my calendar. we’re SUPPOSED to beat Dook every year. Hell, their fans don’t even put up much of a fight in terms of football.
Now the State game, that’s something to get fired up about. It’s always fun when beating State consistently can get their coach fired (see Amato, Chuck and O’Cain, Mike as examples 1 and 2 of this theory). Just look at last year… State sucked almost as bad as we did, but because they beat us, their season wasn’t a total wipeout.
Point being – is beating Dook all we care about? Sure, in February and March. In the fall, I contend that it’s all about beating State.
The problem for UNC football is that basketball has had so much success, the fans are spoiled. They want to win national championships, not just root for their team. If UNC starts winning in football and that success can be sustained, I am sure everyone will get on board. But until that happens, I’d have to agree with Politi.
wb3,
I agree with him up to a point. I know personally I love basketball more than I do football. I understand basketball better, I have played it at various levels and UNC’s success in basketball draws you in. Football at UNC has always been an up and down affair and the fans fair weather. No one is arguing against that. My point is Politi then goes off on this “we only care about beating Duke and Butch Davis is going to leave in five years” mentality which does not help change the culture. Then again he probably does not care considering he has been exiled to the fifth circle of hell in New Jersey.
As to the Butch Davis leaving point – I think that after dodging the Arkansas bullet last year, we should be “safe” for a while. At least that’s what I keep telling myself over and over and over again…
Man. This really pisses me off. I let him have it in the comments section. Are people really this turned off by the Torbush-Bunting years? Do you have no love for football? Last year’s football season was one of the most enjoyable parts of my year and we went 4-8.
We have a legitimate coaching staff now, so if you have any interest in football, maybe you should invest some of it in your freakin’ alma mater. God I hate this crap.
Apparently Politi is a tool that even pisses off the locals up there.
I can only speak for me. I Love the Heels Ping Pong, Darts whatever. But I can say that I don’t notice a lot of Womens Soccer or Mens lacrosse talk on this site. We can’t get down on a guy that lets face it is 98%ish right. Are you mad because any negative spin is put on our beloved Heels? You figure everyone here is Deeply Rooted in the Basketball program. Remember sitting in the living room with your dad going crazy over the football team? NO, He was going ballistic over the Basketball team. I’m sure like me most of you got sucked into that vortex. Let’s not cast that first stone. If Carolina rang your doorbell and said “You’ve won the top prize, season tickets half court OR season tickets on the 50 yard line”. I’m guessing it would only take the split nano second it would take for the electrical charge to run from your brain to your arm to Snatch the Basketball tickets. So let’s stay grounded on this.
Was this a poorly timed article? Yes. But should we be ripping up the guy’s status as a Carolina alumnus? Hardly. I think this was a very poor attempt at humor. I think he’s trying to drive home the point that in Chapel Hill, basketball is king. Again, I think he did a piss-poor job of driving that point home, but that, I think, is what he was going for.
Take me for example, I have UNC football season tickets. I make the trip to Chapel Hill from Maryland just to watch football. Hell I went to every home game in that dreaded 2003 season and rooted them on to two wins. But for me, basketball is still top dog.
On a slightly different note. Did anyone notice how quickly the comments on the article quickly dissolved into “Is the 1924 title really a title?”
Yes it was a poor attempt at humor and like I said, you cannot argue against the prominence of basketball over football. The fact that I would opt for midcourt tickets in basketball over football does not mean I also an willing to toss the whole program under the proverbial bus in the dismissive fashion Politi did. The overarching point for me is we have enough of this garbage being spewed by folks in Raleigh and other ACC schools without hearing it from someone who has a UNC sheepskin on the wall.
Just one more reason the Heels need to go into JERRZZYY tomorrow night, kick ass and take names.
A win against Rutgers and I believe the next game in Kenan with VT coming will be one of the most electric atmospheres ever. That is the only way we can eradicate this kind of garbage (especially from Raleigh).
Yes. There is another element in this. It is currently being debated whether UNC will get a 12 PM kickoff for VT(probably Raycom) or a 3:30 kickoff(ABC) Beating Rutgers and setting up a matchup with the 2-0 Heels hosting the Coastal favorite would most certainly garner the later start. Given the logistics of getting into Kenan for a noon game, the 3:30 start would be better to make sure the stadium is full at kickoff. Most schools have problems getting the butts into the seats by noon so it would help if the Heels could get the 3:30 kickoff and ABC coverage.
I do think there are many Carolina fans who could live with mediocre football IF we didn’t keep spending obscene amounts on the program and trying to sell ourselves up as “national contenders.” I’d be happy going back to 1:30 starts, no teevee, tailgates with no campus cops hanging around and court parties afterward. If that means we aren’t a football school, then OK. LSU and Miami are football schools, and I don’t want to be LSU or Miami.
Amen Mama
I see that some people are just more into basketball, and I can handle that. But this kind of thing is awful, and is insulting to one’s alma mater.
What’s ironic is that UNC was once a football school. Remember Choo Choo Justice and three trips to major bowls in the late ’40s? Actually, not many on this blog go back that far, including myself, although I was born during those years.
When the Choo Choo Heels were winning games the basketball team was an afterthought. And that probably goes for the ‘46 team that went to the NCAA finals. I’m guessing here, but there hasn’t been a song recorded about a Tar Heel B’ball player that I’m aware of.
Even after the slippage of the football program after Choo Choo, the arrival of Jim Tatum in ‘55 or ‘56 had Tar Heel Nation abuzz once again. His untimely death led to more mediocre teams, which pretty much doused the football sizzle at Chapel Hill.
Meanwhile, basketball won a national title in ‘57, which started something that Dean Smith built upon and the rest is history.
The jist of this is that a school can go either way, depending on longterm success of either program.
Strange to see this topic get so many comments when in general the football postings get very little feedback compared to the basketball ones. Florida, and Michigan, previously, which could not sustain it, are notable for their dual success in both sports because achieving it is so rare–take a look at USC and UCLA for the much more likely outcome for the Tar Heels, excellence in basketball and at best, decency in football.