Let the Games Begin
Posted on Sept. 15, 2008The late Charles Kuralt ’55, after noting that as editor of The Daily Tar Heel he once wrote an editorial critical of big-time college sports, observed in the GAA’s award-winning sound/slide show On the Road in Chapel Hill that “you can’t get 50,000 people to buy tickets to watch students study.”
Doug Dibbert ’70
Many fans of college athletics are mostly interested in football and men’s basketball. Happily, Carolina alumni not only care about these two popular sports but also follow many of our other 26 sports. We were proud that 20 of our students or alumni competed in the 2008 Olympics in China — in women’s field hockey, women’s soccer, men’s soccer, and women’s track and field.
Alumni, students, faculty and staff were excited that Carolina’s baseball team returned to Omaha for the third consecutive year and eagerly await the reopening of the expanded and renovated Boshamer Stadium. Likewise, last fall, Carolina fans were delighted when the women’s field hockey team won another NCAA National Championship.
The long dominance of Carolina’s women’s soccer program is so widely known that Dean Smith once responded to someone who had asserted that UNC was “a basketball school” by noting that “we’re really a women’s soccer school.” The women’s basketball team has won a National Championship and is a consistent national contender.
We are as proud of the Carolina student-athletes who win individual competitions as we are of those who contribute to their teams’ victories. We are particularly proud of those who earn recognition on the ACC Academic Honor Roll (last year, 295 did). Our coaches understand and enthusiastically support Carolina’s long commitment to recruit athletes who can be successful students and are committed to earning their Carolina degree.
Carolina fans are proud of the fact that “the Carolina Way” means that our coaches, athletes, athletics department staff, faculty, students, alumni and campus staff respect and follow ACC and NCAA rules. Athletes know they are representatives of Carolina every minute of every day as long as they have the privilege of wearing a UNC uniform.
At Carolina, we don’t measure success by the size of the athletics department budget, the generosity of the coach’s contracts or the grandeur of our athletics facilities. Instead, we have long focused on the individual experience of each of our student-athletes. Are they successful in the classroom, and do they graduate? Do they individually improve in their chosen sport? Is their team competitive within the ACC and nationally? Do their coaches care about them as people and nurture their development into successful young adults? Do they and their coaches represent themselves, their team and Carolina appropriately at all times? Do they understand that the name on the front of their Carolina jersey will always be more important than the name on the back?
Fans flock to Kenan Stadium, the Smith Center, Carmichael Auditorium, Boshamer Stadium, Henry Stadium, Fetzer Field and Carolina’s other athletics venues because of their desire to return to Chapel Hill, to witness the color and pageantry of rivals competing and to share the emotions associated with college students participating in and observing college athletics.
At Carolina, we are comforted that the faculty carefully monitors our athletics program; that our Academic Support Program — which serves nearly 800 student-athletes — reports to academic administrators; and that the decisions about whether to admit a student-athlete to Carolina are made in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions.We should be proud that our broadly based, 28-sport program consistently ranks high in the annual U.S. Sports Academy Directors’ Cup, which measures NCAA postseason performance.
Over the years, as a charter member of the Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, which first convened in 1989, I had the rare opportunity to learn much about the challenges that continue to face college sports. In crafting our initial and follow-up reports, commission members developed an appreciation for the complexity of the issues, an understanding of the forces that shape college sports, and a commitment to the reforms essential for college sports to remain financially viable and preserve broad public support.
Not all alumni are fans, and not all fans are alumni. Alumni who are fans care about protecting the value of our diploma, and we want athletics to bring us pride, not embarrassment. Athletics can be of immense benefit to those who compete, who coach and who cheer. Athletic competition rallies our campus community and brings many who care about Carolina together around a shared focus. As children, we were taught,”It isn’t important whether you win or lose but how you play the game.” At Carolina, may we always be proud of how our athletes play, our coaches coach and our fans support our players, coaches and teams.
Yours at Carolina,
Douglas S. Dibbert ’70
