Kenan Field House Leveled to Clear Way for Expansion
For 10 years after he left the coaching job at Car- olina, Bill Dooley had no occasion to come back to Kenan Stadium. On the day of his return, in
1987, his first Wake Forest team beat the Heels, but
apparently it was not an altogether happy day for the
Old Trench Fighter.
When Rick Brewer ’ 71, the former sports informa-
tion director, went to offer congratulations, the first
thing Dooley said was, “This is the worst locker room I
have ever been in.”
Anyone who’d ever been in the guests’ quarters in
Kenan Field House could not accuse him of exaggera-
tion. While the home team had a decent-sized room in
the other wing, the visitors’ looked as if it had been
designed to induce claustrophobia, or suffocation.
The charming Spanish colonial building, its red
terra cotta roof such a pleasant part of the Kenan landscape, was of another era. Football stadiums are being
rebuilt with a priority on cherry paneling, plasma TVs
and A/C, for fans and players alike.
In May, the trustees approved a $70 million privately
funded project that will close in the east end of the stadium. It will add 2,980 seats to the current 60,000-seat
capacity. It’s expected to be ready for the 2011 season.
The field house, which had been expanded five
times since its construction in 1927, was torn down
in June as a head start.
The new five-story structure will include a Center of
Excellence for athletes, the athletics department’s Carolina
Leadership Academy, an Olympic (nonrevenue) sports
strength and conditioning center, club seats and individual
suites. The visiting teams, which inherited the old home
team locker room when the Heels moved their digs to
the west end in the late 1990s, will get a new facility.
Sales of club seats and individual suites, which began
in October, will provide about half of the funding. Private donations will pay for the rest of the project.
The academic center will total 30,000 square feet,
tripling the size of the one that opened in 1986. It will
include classrooms, computer labs, a writing center,
auditorium, individual and group tutorial/conference
rooms, and offices for the academic support staff.
The additional seating in the end zone, called the
Blue Zone, offers 1,836 seats in the Concourse
Club/Loge a few feet from the field, 824 seats in the
Upper Club/Loge on the fourth floor and 320 seats in
20 suites on the fifth floor.
The individual suites, each of which has 16 seats,
sell for $50,000 a year. Each seat in the club/loge levels
range from $750 to $2,500 a season.
For photos, see Sightings and back cover.
For more, go online to
alumni.unc.edu/fieldhouse
and
bit.ly/east-end-zone.
ONLINE:
Demario James Atwater appears to be headed for a life sen- tence without the possibility of parole in the kidnapping and shooting death of Eve Carson ’08, UNC’s former student body president. Atwater pleaded guilty in late May to state
charges of kidnapping and murder. In April, he entered the same
plea to federal carjacking, kidnapping and weapons charges.
Sentencing is scheduled for September, and both plea arrangements included an agreement to spare him the death penalty.
The state court hearing revealed that Atwater had discussed his
role in the crimes with his girlfriend, including his having fired the
shot that killed Carson.
Laurence Alvin Lovette also is charged in the crimes, and his
trial is pending. Lovette was a minor at the time and thus is ineligible for the death penalty.
Orange County District Attorney Jim Woodall ’ 82 said the
details Atwater shared with his girlfriend led to his arrest.
According to The News & Observer of Raleigh, Woodall said
Atwater and Lovette encountered Carson in the early morning
hours of March 5, 2008, either inside or just outside her home on
Friendly Lane near downtown Chapel Hill. They kidnapped her
and drove in her vehicle to automatic teller machines in Orange
and Durham counties, where they forced Carson to withdraw
$1,400. Woodall said Lovette’s DNA had been found in the vehicle.
Atwater Pleads to State Charges
in Murder of Eve Carson
Online Digest
Read these stories in detail and more
in From the Hill Online at
alumni.unc.edu.
n The Eve Marie Carson Carolina
Way Scholarship, a full ride for an
undergraduate student, has been endowed
by the Morehead-Cain Foundation.
n The University was unsuccessful
in hiring its finalist for dean of the dental
school; former Dean John Stamm has
taken over as interim dean as the search
continues.
n More than 3,200 historic maps
of North Carolina, including nearly every
original map of the state
published from 1584
to 1923, are now available online as part
of a project based in UNC Libraries.
ONLINE:
n The Chapel Hill Museum can’t afford
to remain open and will start returning
exhibit items to their owners, after 14 years
on Franklin Street.
Class Gifts:
The Age
of Choice
As it’s become more difficult to
get seniors to rally
around a physical
class gift — such
as a tree, a fountain
or a statue —
Carolina’s develop-
ment office has been
steering graduates
toward personally
designated gifts.
The most recent
physical gift was
a welcome sign for
McCorkle Place in
2006. Only 16.5
percent of seniors
participated; that
jumped to 30.5
percent the next
year, the first using
the new approach.
Seniors now
choose some place
or program on campus that appeals to
them, and the class
chooses where nondesignated gifts will
go — this year, the
University Library
Endowment.
Stone pavers
installed by the Bell
Tower are inscribed
with the class year
as well as the participation rate for that
class, which creates
a competition among
classes.
The goal for 2010
is 43 percent and is
aimed at beating out
2009’s 42 percent.
At press time, the
class of 2010 had
raised $70,000 with
35 percent of the
class participating.
