Frank Heath
I was not present last Saturday for UNC’s thrill-a-minute 34-31 loss to East Carolina, but I can imagine Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium in Greenville must have been a pretty loud and frenetic place, packed to the gills with 40,000 screaming Pirates fans.
That’s because the last time North Carolina lost to ECU, I had the singular privilege of spending the afternoon on a fishing boat with one of the Pirates’ more vociferous — and perhaps typical — supporters.
It was October 25, 1975, and my father had finagled a day trip at the coast for my brother, him and me on an impressive yacht that belonged to one of his colleagues. I’d never been on a boat (other than a canoe at Grandma Lake), so it took a bit to get accustomed to the rolling of the deck, the speed and spray and the roar of the engine. Once that happened, though, the adventure became quite fun. We departed in the morning out of a place called Wanchese and an hour or so later we were miles out in the open water, away from view of any land. It was a completely new experience for this dry-land guy.
There was the anticipation of fish to be caught, and sandwiches to be eaten, and one other thing — would the transistor radio on the boat get the game? The Tar Heels had been enduring a lackluster season in football, but that Saturday’s match-up was a home game against East Carolina, so the three of us Chapel Hillians remained optimistic that the Heels could squeeze out a win.
The only other person present on the boat was the captain, a rugged sort who I guess you could say had our lives in his hands. The row of instruments he sat in front of may as well have been the control panel of a jet plane, for all the three of us could make of it.
It turned out that, yes, the boat’s radio was able to pick up the game, but in order to hear it we had to sit up on the second deck with the captain, who, being a coastal resident, turned out to also be an ECU fan.
You think State fans and ABC’ers are obnoxious? They paled in comparison to this fellow.
Once Cappy found out we liked the Tar Heels, there was no end to the constant chatter and boasting about how the Pirates were gonna whip some tail today. And as the game turned from bad to worse for Carolina, the captain grew more and more gleeful. ECU ran the new-fangled wishbone offense at the time and quarterback Mike Weaver was picking the Carolina defense apart with his shifty moves at the corner.
Carolina tailback Mike Voigt kept racking up the yardage, but ECU pretty much scored at will and made it a downer of a game.
It got to the point where for one of the only times I can remember during a Tar Heel football or basketball game, my dad and I elected to go do something other than keep up with the action. Neither Voigt’s 209 yards nor the unanimous agreement in Thursday’s Chapel Hill Newspaper of CHN prognosticators Howard Owen, Steve Levin, Dan Collins, Carl Fincke and Tim Kirkpatrick that Carolina would beat the Pirates could change the fact that Carolina was getting hammered by its little step-brother. Luckily, the experience of being on the boat managed to win our attention back by the end of the afternoon.
But if our boat captain that day was a typical ECU fan — which I sort of get the feeling he was — then the 2007 version of the Tar Heels must have gotten a true dose Saturday of what a real road game is. And I hope that somewhere in those stands, among the throngs, our yacht captain was out there, enjoying East Carolina’s first win over Carolina since that afternoon 32 years ago. It could be a while before they get another one.
Leaving ECU behind, Carolina is now preparing for what will be its first ACC game, this Saturday against Virginia in more hospitable Kenan Stadium. The Cavaliers’ fortunes have been on a downward slide in recent seasons, but they still managed to blank UNC last season up in Charlottesville. With Butch Davis now at Carolina and Steve Spurrier at South Carolina, one wonders when UVa may pull the trigger on “upgrading†its leadership as well.
Even though Virginia whipped the Heels in ‘06, Coach Davis and his team do not consider this a “revenge†game; Davis prefers to approach each contest as an opportunity to learn and compete, and an equal challenge to all of the others. I liked his quote this week: “There’s no wasted game for us. You could put black helmets and black jerseys with no numbers on all 12 opponents and it would seem significant as far as I’m concerned.â€
The rebuilding process continues on Saturday.
Butch Davis, 0-3 vs ECU.
Wow, an obnoxious ECU fan. I guess I could dredge up some memory of a arrogant UNC fan to even things up but why write that much about one opposing fan. If this guy was a real fan he would have been there to support his team last Sat. and then he could have found at least one rude pirate to write about, but he wasn’t there and he doesn’t know if DF was inhospitable or not. I did meet many very friendly and civilized fans from UNC-CH and we enjoyed a tremendous game. It’s probably better this writer wasn’t there.
I’m glad you had a good time on your fishing trip. I know you people in CH hate the “little people” in Greenville, NC. I, apparently like you, don’t like losing. If “little” ECU had been playing you for the last 32 years instead of just 11 games total, I would be willing to bet there may have been a few more victories for the “little” step brother down east.
By the way, the wish bone wasn’t new-fangled. It had been around quite a while.
You people can say all you want that these games with ECU means nothing to you but you sure do rant regardless of whether you win or lose. Maybe that’s what you people do best.
By the way, when did you graduate from UNC-CH?
I’d like to invite Mr. Heath to Greenville I think he would be surprised to find that we are not all fishing boat captains or rednecks. Many of the UNC fans I spoke with were impressed with facilities and our civility. Yes, ECU has had and continues to have a “chip” on our shoulder concernong our treatment by the powers that be in Chapel Hill but we long ago dropped the neagative attitude. No longer is playing or beating UNC-Ch our biggest goal, not when we have West Virginia to play in a couple of weeks. By the way, EVERY home game this year is a sell out not just last weeks.
As a UNC fan that actually attended the game, I can say that you are way off base here. Greenville and the pirate fans were very hospitable and have a great game atmosphere. Try going to a game next time…
As both an ECU and UNC grad all I can say is I hope this rag doesn’t pay you to write.
I get so sick of hearing how ECU has a chip on our shoulder. What this so-called “writer” proved was the chip isn’t on our shoulder. Yes it was great watching ECU beat UNC last weekend (I was actually at the game)but I like watching ECU beat ANY team. Who really cares that UNC is ahead in the amount of wins. Maybe if UNC would have played ECU in the past, it would be a different story.
So you didn’t go to this game, you didn’t go to the other game you reference in 1975, because you were fishing, but you feel qualified to write about what you “think” it must have been like. You base this on your day at sea with ONE Pirate fan. Wow, I can’t imagine how a talent like you, with a knack for such deep research, has managed to avoid being discovered by a bigger, more reputable news sight. By the way, why are you still talking about last week’s game. Get over it! We have. We beat a team that we expected to beat. We beat a team we were favored to beat. We beat a UNC Chapel-Hill team that is 33-50 over the last 7 years, 13-26 on the road. We beat, arguably, the weakest non-conference opponent we face this year. You’re football “program” is only a measuring stick, for other teams, in your own mind. It was a fun game for all. Now we get ready for our conference opener, as UNC Chapel-Hill does. And by the way, the atmosphere was electric, as it will be this weekend, with 44K people who truly love their football!
It actually won’t be long before ECU beats UNC again….it will be in 2009 in Chapel Hill. Mabye you can actually make it to that game.