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This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.
Size | 387.0 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 209,400 items) |
Abstract | Intercollegiate athletics at the University of North Carolina began in 1884, when the first intercollegiate baseball game was played. Baseball and football were the most popular sports for many years, but after World War II, basketball eclipsed baseball. As the number of teams and the interest in them increased, so did the administrative operation of athletics. In 1947 the first director of sports publicity was hired. Later the Sports Information Office was established. The name of the office went through several permutations before becoming the Athletic Communications Office sometime after 2000. Records consist of materials created by and collected by the Athletic Communications Office, previously the Sports Information Office, pertaining chiefly to intercollegiate sports at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Materials include press releases, newspapers clippings, game programs, game statistics, media guides, brief histories, photographs, and scrapbooks. Sports represented include baseball, men's and women's basketball, boxing, cross-country running, field hockey, football, men's and women's golf, men's and women's gymnastics, hockey, men's and women's lacrosse, rowing, men's and women's soccer, softball, swimming and diving, men's and women's tennis, track and field, volleyball, and wrestling. However, there is much more material relating to men's basketball and football than to any of the other sports. |
Creator | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Athletic Communications Office. |
Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. University Archives. |
Language | English |
Processed by: University Archives Staff, 2005-2007
Encoded by: Katlin Barnes, January 2008, and Susan Ballinger, July 2008
Updated by: Dawne Howard Lucas, September 2021 and March 2022
Diacritics and other special characters have been omitted from this finding aid to facilitate keyword searching in web browsers.
Back to TopThe following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.
There were no organized sports at the university during antebellum times. The most popular outdoor game then was bandy, or shinny, which was something like field hockey and was played with long, curved sticks and a hard ball. Following the Civil War, baseball began to catch on; and in 1867 there was, briefly, a team. When the university reopened in 1875 (it was closed from 1871 to 1875), the Board of Trustees ordered that the eastern edge of the campus be reserved for athletic fields. Again bandy was very popular, but by the late 1880s baseball and football had largely replaced it.
In 1876 students organized the Athletic Association and set up an outdoor gymnasium. At about the same time a field was cleared for baseball and football just south of the present Playmakers Theatre. The Athletic Association then organized class teams in baseball and football and sponsored intramural games. In the spring of 1884 it sponsored a field day, which included a one-hundred-yard dash and a five-mile race. Also in 1884 Professor Venable built the first tennis court near his home, and in the fall of that year, the University Lawn Tennis Association was established. The students' enthusiasm for athletics led President Battle to campaign for an indoor gymnasium, and he convinced a group of alumni to underwrite the construction. The building was completed in 1885 and was located just past the western edge of campus, opposite present-day Swain Hall. The faculty and administration of the university encouraged athletics, viewing it as beneficial to physical and mental health and to esprit de corps. They credited athletics for the relative peace of the campus compared to the unrest of the antebellum period.
At first the students regarded their athletic games as exercise and recreation. Gradually their interest in competition, not only among themselves but with other schools, increased--and with it, their desire to have the best teams. Their first intercollegiate contest was a baseball game against Bingham Military School in the spring of 1884; they lost "ignominiously," as President Battle put it. The university's first intercollegiate football game was against Wake Forest College on 18 October 1888. Football teams at that time consisted of as many men as were willing to play, and spectators were apt to engage in the action as well. The earliest intercollegiate matches were arranged by the students, and some ended in "disorders." In September 1889 the university's faculty resolved "that the foot-ball team and other athletic clubs be allowed to play only on the regular grounds of the various colleges and not on any city ground." In February 1890, the Board of Trustees, on the advice of the faculty, banned all intercollegiate games. In December 1890, when students asked for the ban to be lifted, the faculty appointed a committee to consider the matter; this was the genesis of the faculty's standing committee on athletics. Subsequently the faculty recommended to the trustees that the ban be lifted and that an advisory committee composed of a faculty member, an undergraduate student, and a graduate student be created to supervise intercollegiate contests.
As interest in intercollegiate competition grew, so did interest in individual and intramural athletics. In the fall of 1889, members of the campus YMCA asked to be allowed to run the gymnasium. They proposed charging fees for its use and hiring a trainer. Their request was granted by the Board of Trustees, and thus began a program of instruction in physical education that would eventually become compulsory and would lead to the establishment of the Department of Physical Education in 1935. In 1895, when the first gymnasium was being converted to a dining hall, its athletic equipment was moved to old Memorial Hall, where the program of instruction continued until the completion of Bynum Gymnasium in 1905. During the 1899-1900 school year, the gym instructor introduced the game of basketball. In 1911 basketball became an intercollegiate sport, and its team was known as the White Phantoms.
Meanwhile the faculty and administration struggled to regulate intercollegiate competition, especially in football. The central issue was the eligibility of players. Southern schools were infamous for their lack of standards, and northern sports writers disparaged southern teams. In 1900, at President Venable's urging, the university joined the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association but withdrew just two years later, in part because none of its closest rivals had joined and in part because alumni opposed the association's new one-year eligibility rule. The university then established its own rules, which were nearly the same as the association's except for eligibility. The university's rule was "No student shall be eligible for an athletic team in the University of North Carolina unless he has registered on or before October 12th." By 1908-1909 the rules had been strengthened, and the faculty committee on athletics was responsible for certifying eligibility, one of the requirements for which was a prior enrollment of five months.
At that time the university's chief rival in football was the University of Virginia, which won the majority of the games played between 1900 and 1914. In December 1912, after a 66-0 loss to Virginia, the Alumni Athletic Council of the Alumni Association asked for and received from President Venable a greater role in athletic matters. The council participated in the hiring of G. T. Trenchard, who had played for Princeton University, as football coach in February 1913. Trenchard immediately began pushing for the liberalization of the five-month eligibility rule. He and members of the council tried to circumvent the faculty and administration by lobbying directly with the Board of Trustees. In June 1913 the trustees passed a resolution that allowed attendance in the Summer Law School to count as part of the five-month requirement. The faculty was irate. In the fall a game with the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (now North Carolina State University) was scheduled; games with A & M had been suspended since 1906. When Trenchard learned that A & M, which had no five-month rule, had brought in some new players, he canceled the game. A great deal of argument ensued in the press.
President E. K. Graham took a firm stand. He insisted that the faculty and administration, not the Alumni Athletic Council, should control athletics. In January 1914 the trustees concurred with him. In 1915 the University of North Carolina, along with the University of Virginia, the University of South Carolina, and the University of Tennessee, established the Southern Athletic Conference of State Universities. When Trenchard's contract expired in 1916, the university let him go and hired Thomas J. Campbell as football coach and director of athletics. In the fall of 1916 the University of North Carolina and the University of Virginia tightened their athletic regulations, and both adopted a one-year eligibility rule.
The designation of Campbell as director of athletics signaled the university's realization that it needed not just committees but an actual administrator to be responsible for the operational details of its athletic program. It was the duty of the director to assure that instruction and facilities were adequate for the participation of all students in athletic activities. Campbell's tenure was interrupted by World War I, but in 1921 the university hired William K. Fetzer as director of athletics and football coach. Fetzer's brother Robert became assistant director and track coach. When William resigned in 1926, Robert A. Fetzer became director of athletics and served in that capacity for more than twenty years.
The Fetzer years were relatively unmarred by scandal and controversy. Nevertheless, by the 1930s, Consolidated University President Frank Porter Graham had become concerned about the influence of money in intercollegiate athletics. In 1935 he proposed his Graham Plan, which called for: no special financial aid for athletes; no special remuneration for athletic staff except from their colleges; faculty control of athletics; the auditing and publishing of athletic accounts; limited recruitment; and no postseason games. Faculty supported the plan, as did six of the ten members of the Southern Intercollegiate Conference (organized in 1921). However, there was fierce opposition from other constituencies, and the trustees would not endorse the plan. The University of Virginia threatened to withdraw from the Southern Conference over the issue. Eventually Graham had to accept that his plan would not be adopted.
Also in 1935, the university established the Department of Physical Education with Oliver K. Cornwell as chair. In 1937 the Department of Physical Education and the athletics program directed by Robert Fetzer were combined to form the Department of Physical Education and Athletics. Cornwell, as professor of physical education, was still considered chair of the physical education component of the new department, but Fetzer was chair of the combined department as well as director of athletics. There was some separation of funds between the components of the department. The salaries of the physical education faculty came from state funds, while those of the coaches came from Athletic Association funds. The Athletic Association, while it remained a student organization, was also a quasi-administrative office. Because it received student athletic fees and proceeds from ticket sales, it needed a professional business manager. The first person to provide managerial services to the Athletic Association was Charles T. Woollen, the university business manager. Later the association's business manager was part of the office of the director of athletics. Another individual who worked closely with the office of the director of athletics was the director of sports publicity. This position was created about 1947; it was technically part of the university's News Bureau at first, but it was funded by the Athletic Association. Eventually the Sports Information Office was established within the Department of Athletics.
In 1952, when Robert Fetzer retired, administration of the Department of Physical Education and Athletics was modified in an effort to strengthen faculty control over athletics. Oliver K. Cornwell then became chair of the combined department while Charles P. Erickson, Fetzer's successor, was merely director of athletics. The combined department ended in 1954-1955, when, due to events described below, the director of athletics began reporting directly to the chancellor. The intercollegiate athletics component of the old department became the Department of Athletics; but the names Department of Athletics and Athletic Association were sometimes used interchangeably, creating confusion.
University teams had been winning in basketball since the 1920s, but it was not until after World War II that enthusiasm for basketball reached a fever pitch. In 1953 seven schools, including the University of North Carolina, withdrew from the Southern Athletic Conference and formed the Atlantic Coast Conference; they were joined by the University of Virginia in 1955. Shortly after the formation of the Atlantic Coast Conference, the National Collegiate Athletic Association censured North Carolina State College's basketball and football programs for violation of rules regarding recruitment. Consolidated University President Gordon Gray issued a statement in February 1954 stipulating that "intercollegiate athletics at the University in Chapel Hill and North Carolina State College in Raleigh shall be administered and their budgets controlled, under the authority delegated by the Board of Trustees, by the Chancellors, with the approval of the President, in the same manner that other departments of our institutions are administered and controlled."
The University of North Carolina's basketball team, coached by Frank McGuire, went on to win the National Collegiate Athletic Association championship in 1957 (North Carolina State College was still on probation at the time). Then, in January 1961, the National Collegiate Athletic Association put Chapel Hill's basketball program on a year's probation for recruitment violations. Just two months later news of the Dixie Classic scandal broke. The Dixie Classic tournament had been played over the Christmas holidays since the mid-1950s by the basketball teams of the University of North Carolina and North Carolina State College. In 1961 the chancellors learned that players on both teams had accepted bribes from gamblers in exchange for shaving points during the tournament. Several students were dismissed, and stricter rules were put in place. Frank McGuire left the university and Dean Smith became basketball coach. The success of Dean Smith's teams, both on the court and in the classroom, was considered indicative of a well-run program.
During the 1960s and 1970s intercollegiate football and basketball grew into multi-million-dollar businesses. By the seventies, the university had thirteen men's and thirteen women's intercollegiate teams. The period was relatively free of scandal and controversy.
Back to TopRecords consist of materials created by and collected by the Athletic Communications Office, previously the Sports Information Office, pertaining chiefly to intercollegiate sports at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Materials include press releases, newspapers clippings, game programs, game statistics, media guides, brief histories, photographs, and scrapbooks. Sports represented include baseball, men's and women's basketball, boxing, cross-country running, field hockey, football, men's and women's golf, men's and women's gymnastics, hockey, men's and women's lacrosse, rowing, men's and women's soccer, softball, swimming and diving, men's and women's tennis, track and field, volleyball, and wrestling. However, there is much more material relating to men's basketball and football than to any of the other sports.
Back to TopArrangement: chronological.
Arrangement: Chronological.
Arrangement: Chronological.
Folder 367 |
Media Guide, 1980-1981 |
Folder 368 |
Media Guide, 1983-1984 |
Folder 369 |
Media Guide, 1985-1986 |
Folder 370 |
Game Programs, 1989-1990 |
Folder 371 |
Media Guide, 2005-2006 |
Folder 372 |
Media Guide, 2006-2007 |
Oversize Paper Folder OPF-40308/1 |
Team Poster, 2007 |
Arrangement: chronological.
Folder 373 |
Addison Warren, Clippings About, 1927 |
Folder 374 |
Norment Quarles, Clippings About, 1934-1938 |
Image Folder PF-40308/6 |
Photographs of Boxers, [late 1920s]-1946 |
Arrangement: chronological.
Folder 375 |
Newspaper Clippings, 1926-1927; 1930-1931 |
Folder 376 |
Newspaper Clippings, 1932 |
Folder 377 |
Newspaper Clippings, 1933 |
Folder 378 |
Newspaper Clippings, 1934 |
Folder 379 |
Newspaper Clippings, 1935-1936 |
Folder 380 |
Newspaper Clippings, 1937 |
Folder 381 |
Newspaper Clippings, 1938 |
Folder 382 |
Newspaper Clippings, 1939 |
Folder 383 |
Newspaper Clippings, 1940 |
Folder 384 |
Statistics and Newspaper Clippings, 1941 |
Folder 385 |
Newspaper Clippings, 1942-1943 |
Folder 386 |
Newspaper Clippings, 1945-1948 |
Folder 387 |
Newspaper Clippings, 1949 |
Folder 388 |
Newspaper Clippings, 1950 |
Folder 389 |
Media Guide, 1963 |
Folder 390 |
Media Guide, 1964 |
Folder 391 |
Media Guide, 1965 |
Folder 392 |
Press Releases: Heel Prints: Men's Cross Country, 1978 |
Folder 393 |
Media Guide, 1986 |
Folder 394 |
Media Guide, 1987 |
Arrangement: chronological.
Folder 395 |
Media Guide, 1989 |
Folder 396 |
Media Guide, 2005 |
Folder 397 |
Media Guide, 2006 |
Arrangement: chronological.
For a number of years, the Sports Information Office kept copies of materials related to a particular football game together in an envelope called a game day packet. Packets typically included some or all of the following: the game program, press releases, newspaper clippings, and statistics. While the envelopes have been discarded, their contents have been kept together here as discrete units.
Arrangement: chronological.
Folder 645 |
Newspaper Clippings, 1928 |
Folder 646 |
Newspaper Clippings, 1930 |
Folder 647 |
Newspaper Clippings, 1931-1932 |
Folder 648 |
Newspaper Clippings, 1935 |
Folder 649 |
Newspaper Clippings, 1936 |
Folder 650 |
Newspaper Clippings, 1937 |
Folder 651 |
Newspaper Clippings, 1938 |
Folder 652 |
Newspaper Clippings 1939 |
Folder 653 |
Newspaper Clippings, 1940 |
Folder 654 |
Newspaper Clippings, 1941 |
Folder 655 |
Newspaper Clippings, 1942 |
Folder 656 |
Newspaper Clippings, 1943; 1945; 1946-1948 |
Folder 657 |
Harvie Ward, Clippings About, 1947 |
Folder 658 |
Finley Golf Course, Clippings About, 1950 |
Folder 659 |
Newspaper Clippings, 1951 |
Folder 660 |
Media Guide, 2005 |
Folder 661 |
Media Guide, 2005-2006 |
Arrangement: chronological.
Folder 662 |
Media Guide, 2004-2005 |
Folder 663 |
Media Guide, 2005-2006 |
Folder 664 |
Media Guide, 2006-2007 |
Arrangement: chronological.
Folder 665 |
Statistics, undated |
Folder 666 |
Rosters and Records, 1906-1925 |
Folder 667 |
Schedule and Varsity Results, 1951 |
Folder 668 |
General, 1952 |
Folder 669 |
Schedule and Statistics, 1953 |
Folder 670 |
General, 1954 |
Folder 671 |
General, 1955 |
Folder 672 |
Swedish National Team Exhibition, Men's and Women's Team, 1955 |
Folder 673 |
Newspaper Clippings and Statistics, 1955-1956 |
Folder 674 |
National Collegiate Gymnastics Championship, Statistics, 1956 |
Folder 675 |
National Collegiate Gymnastics Championship, Clippings About, 1956 |
Image Folder PF-40308/15 |
Photographs of Gymnasts, 1951-1956 |
Folder 676 |
General, 1969-1970 |
Folder 677 |
General, 1971 |
Folder 678 |
General, 1972 |
Image Folder PF-40308/16 |
Photographs of Gymnasts, 1971-1972 |
Folder 679 |
Statistics, 1973 |
Folder 680 |
General, 1973-1974 |
Folder 681 |
Newspaper Clippings, 1973-1974 |
Image Folder PF-40308/17 |
Photographs of Gymnasts, [1973-1974?] |
Arrangement: chronological.
Image Folder PF-40308/18 |
Carolina Gym Camp, Photographs, 1971-1972 |
Folder 682 |
Media Guide, 1978 |
Folder 683 |
Media Guide, 1980-1981 |
Folder 684 |
Media Guide, 1982 |
Folder 685 |
Media Guide, 1983 |
Folder 686 |
Media Guide, 1984 |
Folder 687 |
Media Guide, 1986 |
Folder 688 |
Media Guide, 1988 |
Folder 689 |
Media Guide, 1989 |
Folder 690 |
Media Guide, 1990 |
Folder 691 |
Media Guide, 1991 |
Folder 692 |
Media Guide, 1992 |
Folder 693 |
Media Guide, 1993 |
Folder 694 |
Media Guide, 1994 |
Folder 695 |
Media Guide, 1995 |
Folder 696 |
Media Guide, 2004 |
Folder 697 |
Media Guide, 2005 |
Folder 698 |
Media Guide, 2006 |
Arrangement: chronological.
Folder 700 |
Media Guide, 1994 |
Folder 701 |
Media Guide, 1995 |
Folder 702 |
Media Guide, 2005 |
Folder 703 |
Media Guide, 2006 |
Arrangement: chronological.
Folder 705 |
Media Guide, 2003-2004 |
Folder 706 |
Media Guide, 2005-2006 |
Arrangement: chronological.
Folder 707 |
Newspaper Clippings, 1937; 1944; 1946-1950 |
Folder 708 |
Media Guide, 1963 |
Folder 709 |
Media Guide, 1993 |
Folder 710 |
Media Guide, 1994 |
Folder 711 |
Media Guide, 2004 |
Folder 712 |
Media Guide, 2005 |
Folder 713 |
Media Guide, 2006 |
Arrangement: chronological.
Folder 714 |
Media Guide, 1998 |
Folder 715 |
Media Guide, 2003 |
Folder 716 |
Media Guide, 2005 |
Folder 717 |
Media Guide, 2006 |
Folder 718 |
Media Guide, 2007 |
Arrangement: chronological.
Arrangement: chronological.
Arrangement: chronological.
Folder 742 |
Rosters and Records, 1906-1923 |
Image Folder PF-40308/19 |
Photograph of Tennis Team Members, 1930s? |
Folder 743 |
Bryan "Bitsy" Grant, Clippings About, 1936-1940 |
Folder 744 |
Bryan "Bitsy" Grant, Clippings About, 1942-1944 |
Folder 745 |
Newspaper Clippings, 1946 |
Folder 746 |
Victor Seixas, Clippings About, 1947 |
Folder 747 |
Newspaper Clippings, 1947 |
Folder 748 |
Media Guide, 2004 |
Folder 749 |
Media Guide, 2004-2005 |
Arrangement: chronological.
Folder 750 |
Media Guides, 1983-1985; 1987; 1989-1990 |
Folder 751 |
Media Guide, 2004-2005 |
Folder 752 |
Media Guide, 2005-2006 |
Arrangement: chronological.
Folder 753 |
Rosters and Records, 1898-1925 |
Folder 754 |
Coach Dale Ranson, Clippings About, 1928-1941 |
Folder 755 |
Bill Alban, Clippings About, 1950-1952 |
Folder 756 |
Jimmy Davis, Clippings About, 1939 |
Folder 757 |
Elliot Galen, Clippings About, 1928 |
Folder 758 |
Southern Conference Track Meet, Clippings About, 1947 |
Folder 759 |
Media Guide, 1966 |
Folder 760 |
Media Guide, 1968 |
Folder 761 |
Media Guide, 1969 |
Folder 762 |
Media Guide, 1970 |
Folder 763 |
Media Guide, 1971 |
Folder 764 |
Media Guide, 1972 |
Folder 765 |
Media Guide, 1973 |
Folder 766 |
Media Guide, 1974 |
Folder 767 |
Media Guide, 1975 |
Folder 768 |
Media Guide, 1977 |
Folder 769 |
Media Guide, 1979 |
Folder 770 |
Media Guide, 1984 |
Folder 771 |
Media Guide, 1985 |
Folder 772 |
Media Guide, 1988 |
Folder 773 |
Media Guide, 1989 |
Folder 774 |
Media Guide, 1990 |
Folder 775 |
Media Guide, 1991 |
Folder 776 |
Media Guide, 1993 |
Folder 777 |
Media Guide, 1994 |
Folder 778 |
Media Guide, 1998 |
Folder 779 |
Media Guide, 2006 |
Arrangement: chronological.
Folder 780 |
Media Guide, 1980 |
Folder 781 |
Media Guide, 1981 |
Folder 782 |
Media Guide, 1982 |
Folder 783 |
Media Guide, 1983 |
Folder 784 |
Media Guide, 1984 |
Folder 785 |
Media Guide, 1986 |
Folder 786 |
Media Guide, 1988 |
Folder 787 |
Media Guide, 1989 |
Folder 788 |
Media Guide, 1990 |
Folder 789 |
Media Guide, 1991 |
Folder 790 |
Media Guide, 1992 |
Folder 791 |
Media Guide, 1993 |
Folder 792 |
Media Guide, 1995 |
Folder 793 |
Media Guide, 2005 |
Folder 794 |
Media Guide, 2006 |
Arrangement: chronological.
Contains negatives for contents of Image Folders PF-40308/1-20.
Image Box IB-40308/4-6
IB-40308/4IB-40308/5IB-40308/6 |
Negatives |
RT 20220110.2 and RT 20220214.1
Contains materials covering all 28 men's and women's sports, including "long-term VIP files." VIP files are arranged alphabetically; other files are organized by sport and by year. Contents include rosters, results, box scores and/or stat sheets, team photographs, action photographs, slides, and newspaper clippings. Some audiovisual materials are also included. These files do not include extensive information about Mack Brown, Hubert Davis, Michael Jordan, Dean Smith, or Roy Williams.