College basketball teams shortened their seasons and “churches and
moving picture shows were discontinued,” according to The Tar
Heel, at the time the “Official Organ of the Athletic Association of
the University of North Carolina.” Over in Durham, the local
machine gun company suspended its weekly drills to comply with
health officials’ urgings to ban public gatherings.
But not even the influenza epidemic plaguing post-World War I
America delayed the advent of what became college basketball’s greatest rivalry.
Athletic relations between UNC and Trinity College had been suspended for years; the
private institution had dropped “foot-ball,” the premier intercollegiate sport, from 1895
through 1919. In
1920, the schools
agreed to play
home-and-home in
the relatively new
game of basketball.
YACKETY YACK 1920 HUGH MORTON ’ 43
Both squads were
laden with military
veterans, including
Carolina coach Maj.
Frederick C. Boye, a
West Point graduate.
The first meeting
Jan. 28, 1920: A rivalry born
Perhaps this photo
of the 1920 team
was taken before
everybody earned his
letter. Besides
games with in-state
rivals and Virginia,
Maj. Fred Boye, former West Point captain, took his team
on a “northern tour”
of Georgetown,
Catholic University
and Navy. UNC finished 7-9. Captain
Billy Carmichael ’ 21,
for whom the auditorium is named, is at
center, holding the
ball.
Previous page:
Is there a more
classic picture of
Carolina basketball?
Tommy Kearns ’ 58
drives on Wake
Forest’s Jackie
Murdock in the dramatic 1957 ACC
Tournament game.
(More on page 24.)
YACKE TY YACK 1946
