Carolina Alumni Review - November/December 2009

The snap was good, the spot was good and Max stepped toward the ball. If he made it, we were off to the Gator Bowl; if he missed it, Max was off to home for the holidays with his girlfriend. As everyone stood in frozen silence, the ball sailed off Max’s foot and, flying straight and low, it cleared the crossbar by inches. Carolina 16, Duke 14.

By the time we left for Jacksonville, the limbs of the maple trees hung bare over sweeps of scattered brown leaves. The team arrived in Florida before Christmas, stayed at the historic and luxurious Ponce de Leon Hotel, practiced gently once a day, saw the sights, gathered around an evergreen tree on Christmas morning, played among the swaying palms and stayed out much too late every night. After all, we reminded ourselves each evening, Coach Hickey had said, “Men, we’re going down there to win a game, but the trip is a reward for the season; just go and have fun.” He kept his word: no curfew, no bed checks, no questions.

On game day, Dec. 28, with the team feeling loose and almost giddy, and before a capacity crowd that included Max Chapman’s girlfriend, Carolina won its first bowl championship, a 35-0 victory over the Air Force Academy in the Gator Bowl. Every member of the team played.

On the weekend of Oct. 3, 2003, as the Navy Field trees were off on their annual run through the colors, the Team of ’ 63 gathered in Chapel Hill to celebrate the 40th anniversary of its Gator Bowl championship. At the Friday night dinner, nearly every member of the team rose to speak. The room echoed with pride in what we accomplished back then and far greater pride in what we had accomplished since.

For those of us who were alive at the time, the death of President Kennedy seemed to change nearly everything: the University, the state, the nation, the world and the course of history. We lost our individual and collective innocence and gained furrowed brows. Yet, through the days of change that followed the president’s death, coaches and players on the Team of ’ 63 acquired, at the core of their beings, an abiding appreciation for things that never change: The Navy Field trees always come back to green.

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deep knee in discovery

Christ School makes the most of its natural 500-acre campus – both in terms of recreation and in terms of education, like handy outdoor laboratories for biology experiments.