So--How did UNC basketball jerseys get so
big? To answer that question, we need to
look first at four background factors, and
then take a look at some more specific history
and biographical information about UNC jerseys
and especially Dean Smith. The first background
factor has to do with "sports space"
in the American South. Major league professional
sports were very late coming to the South.
In the immediate postwar era, the southern-most
major league franchises were the Washington
Redskins and Washington Senators. Even after
Florida and Atlanta got pro teams in the
1960s, huge geographical swaths in the southeast–including
the atlantic coast states of the Carolinas
and Virginia, as well as the Deep South
states and Tennessee, lacked pro sports
until the end of the 1980s and 1990s. Yet,
the South remained as passionate about sports
as any area of the country. Where did this
passion go?
Into college sports, primarily, and secondarily,
into the South's one indigenous professional
sport, stock car racing. College sports
have been far more important historically.
In the deep south, college football became
and remained a massive phenomenon in the
postwar era, In the atlantic coast states,
however, college basketball acquired equal
and probably greater importance than football.
In 1952, the Atlantic Coast Conference was
formed by 7 schools which broke away from
what is today called the Southeastern Conferences–North
Carolina, Duke, Wake Forest, N.C. State,
Maryland, Clemson, and South Carolina. Virginia
joined shortly thereafter, and in subsequent
years South Carolina dropped out but Georgia
Tech and Florida State were added. The most
important thing the ACC did was to establish
a post-season basketball conference tournament–the
ACC Tournament–with the winner qualifying
for the NCAA national tournament. This was
the first conference tournament in the country,
and because regular season success meant
little if you lost in the tournament–in
those days only one school per conference
could go to the national tournament–these
were extremely tense and exciting games,
played between rival schools. Between 1953
and 1974 the ACC Tournament became by far
the most important sporting event in the
Carolinas and the Atlantic Coast region,
and began attracting substantial national
attention as well.
So the absence of pro sports in the south
left a vacuum for college sports, and in
particular college basketball, to fill.
Especially after the rise of television,
college sports in the South attracted significant
fan attention from people not affiliated
with universities–schools such as
UNC began to acquire their own sports publics.
And as that started to happen, loyalties
formed within families to particular schools,
which often got transmitted through the
generations. About 70% of current Carolina
fans expect and regard it as important that
their children to grow up to be Carolina
fans wearing UNC jerseys too and that probably
would be true of many other schools as well.
The second background factor to mention
is the prominent role played by large state
universities in the development of the American
South more generally–UNC is a prime
example of this. For decades, UNC has been
a leading producer of businessmen, lawyers,
and politicians in North Carolina: at any
given time, a very large percentage of the
North Carolina state legislature and also
usually the governor consists of UNC graduates.
UNC alumni, in short, helped constitute
the power elite in the state of North Carolina
for many decades, and continue to do so
today. Many of these alumni came to take
a special pride in wearing UNC basketball
jerseys, which has served as a unifying
force for the UNC community; and, deep-pocketed
UNC alums who had big successes in the business
world have become leading boosters and underwriters
of North Carolina sports.
The third background factor to mention
is the town of Chapel Hill itself. For decades,
the most educated community in North Carolina,
it also is generally regarded as the most
progressive as well. A classic college town,
most residents in the town historically
had some sort of connection to the university,
either directly or indirectly: the university
employed thousands of people directly and
served as the anchor for the local economy.
In short the university lay at the heart
of the town's identity; and the Tar Heel
sports teams were the most visible part
of that identity. So whereas the wide appeal
of college basketball produced people who
became fans via TV with no real connection
to the university, and whereas alumni throughout
the state also became a primary consituency
for Carolina basketball, the town too produced
highly devoted Carolina fans who saw the
Tar Heels as their hometown team. And because
of the specific qualities of Coach Dean
Smith, many local Chapel Hillians came to
regard Carolina basketball as reflecting
the unique character and self-conception
of the town itself: Moreover, as a relatively
small town–50,000 or so residents
when I grew up in the 80s, though it has
grown considerably since then–many
local residents had the experience of meeting
either a Carolina coach or player, who were
known to turn up at local school and community
events from time to time. In research for
my book, I found that over 90% of Carolina
fans who are Chapel Hill residents had at
least met a UNC player at some point and
that over 40% reported personally knowing
a player in an ongoing way, and that over
75% had at least met a current or former
UNC coach.
The fourth background factor is geographic:
namely, the close proximity of the 4 universities
in North Carolina playing major college
basketball. Chapel Hill is just 8 miles
away from its arch-rival Duke, a private
university funded historically by tobacco
money which is regarded by many in Chapel
Hill as the antithesis everything UNC stands
for. 25 miles from Chapel Hill to the east
is North Carolina State University, which
historically has emphasized engineering
and agriculture as opposed to the liberal
arts, and which consequently has a rather
different student and alumni base than UNC
in sociological terms: State alumni tend
to resent the perceived snobbiness of UNC
and tend to have more conservative social
and cultural attitudes. About 90 miles to
the west of Chapel Hill is Wake Forest,
another private university, that also regards
Carolina as its archrival.
The close proximity of the Big 4, and especially
Duke, State, and UNC, combined with the
massive popularity of college basketball
jerseys means that for residents of that
area, being a fan or supporter of a particular
school is a major statement of personal
identity, and, in many cases also a statement
of cultural values and social standing.
Carolina fans, in short, like to think they
are smarter and more sophisticated than
State fans but not as arrogant and stuck-up
as the fake Ivy League crowd at Duke. Fans
of the other schools have less charitable
characterizations of Carolina fans. There
is no doubt, however, that college basketball
allegiance is a major and at times dominant
presence in everyday life in the Triangle
area, penetrating not only the campuses
but also workplaces, schools, and the like.
