Congratulations to Coach Bunting and staff and everyone who\'s had a hand in these new developments with the Lettermen\'s Association. I am really excited about the potential of our group and the prospects for the future.
I\'ve lived in Durham for nearly 30 years since my playing days in Chapel Hill, so I\'ve been fortunate to remain fairly close to our program. Two of my sons, David, who turns 27 in June, and J.P., who is 25, both played and lettered, so I was around a lot during the late-1990s and the 2000 season, when they played.
A lot of my teammates have lost touch with the program, and I hope we can bring them back into the fold. There is a core group of five or six guys from the late-1960s teams who stay in touch and attend the Lettermen\'s reunions, but there are some I\'ve not seen or heard from in many years. I\'d love to see these guys active in our program and returning to Chapel Hill regularly.
It was fun to see some of the guys at the Spring Reunion in April. We get a laugh out of some of the old stories. We were kidding one guy, who shall remain nameless, about how he adjusted his old Ridell helmet during one grueling pre-season so he would get knocked out and be able to sit out the rest of practice. That\'s a true story. He was knocked cold and delighted to be seeing stars that afternoon.
I\'ll never forget our first home game during Coach Bill Dooley\'s first season in 1967. We had lost to N.C. State and South Carolina on the road to open the season and were playing Tulane in Kenan Stadium. We were huddled just outside the dressing room in the old field house, waiting to run onto the field. One of our linemen was pulling his pants back on after a pre-game trip to the john, and he was still trying to get them up when the band starting playing and we ran onto the field. So he started trying to run with us but got tripped up in his pants and fell to the ground. That caused the guy behind him to fall and he knocked someone else down.
Well, we got beat pretty badly, 36-11, and on Monday we\'re in the film room to watch the game. The room is dark and the coaches start the film, and the very first thing on the film is the team taking the field and this cluster of players falling all over themselves. A few guys started giggling. Coach Dooley hit the roof. He screamed at us about trying to build a program and be respectable, and here we can\'t even take the field without looking like a bunch of buffoons.
That was a long season. We were 2-8. But we worked hard, never gave up, and the next year, my senior season, we dominated Duke in the fourth quarter to beat them 25-14 and improve our record to 3-7. We knew the program had turned the corner, and it just kept going up and up under Coach Dooley. I take a lot of pride and satisfaction in playing a role in helping turn the program around.
That 1968 Duke game in Kenan Stadium was a special game for me personally. I ripped my groin on a two-point conversion attempt late in the first half and could barely walk as we went into the locker room. The doctors asked me at halftime if I wanted a shot of Novocain. I said, ?Heck yeah, this is my last game. I want to play no matter what.? I went back in after the first series in the third quarter and had one of my best games ever. We ran a lot of bootleg stuff and I remember converting on a lot of third downs. It was a great way to finish my career.
Everyone has their own special memories of their days as a Tar Heel. Our Lettermen\'s Association will help preserve them and hopefully create a lot more good times.
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