Download event flier (pdf)

Gridiron Glory Film Showings
Saturday, Oct. 27, 2012
9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (continuous 20-minute loop)
Wilson Library, Pleasants Family Assembly Room
Free and open to the public
Information: (919) 962-3765 or wilsonlibrary@unc.edu

The football rivalry between UNC and North Carolina State University will be played out in the archives as well as on the field Oct. 27.

In this third annual Gridiron Glory event, great football moments from UNC’s past will again be on view in the Wilson Special Collections Library, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The 20-minute film, Gridiron Glory, will run in a continuous loop during the University’s Tar Heel Town pregame festivities.

New this year, the UNC University Archives and the NCSU University Archives will team up for an exhibit of football memorabilia from both schools. Programs from past match-ups between the two, historical photographs of both teams, and student newspapers will be on view. UNC and NCSU have been football rivals since 1894.

A special feature will be materials from the collection of Jack Hilliard, UNC class of 1963, including pennants, ticket stubs, bubble-gum cards, and sheet music for the song “All The Way Choo Choo” about UNC great Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice.

The film showings and exhibit are free and open to the public.

The archival film clips in Gridiron Glory feature highlights from 13 UNC games played between 1934 and 1985. Woody Durham, who retired last year as the “Voice of the Tar Heels,” provides the narration.

Among the highlights are:

• UNC’s first game against #1-ranked Notre Dame at Yankee Stadium in 1949, with a brief appearance by an injured Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice (#22);
• Justice passing, running, and kicking in the 1950 Cotton Bowl game against Rice University;
• All-America #85 Bob Lacey in the 1963 UNC vs. University of Virginia game;
• #20 “Famous Amos” Lawrence rushing against East Carolina in 1978.

Gridiron Glory films are drawn from the University Archives in Wilson Library, where they are part of the records of the UNC Football Office. Most are original 16mm recordings and are badly in need of repair.

To learn more about the University Archives’ football collections and the efforts to preserve UNC’s football films, contact Jay Gaidmore, University Archivist, gaidmore@email.unc.edu or (919) 962-6402.

Related Links

• Gridiron Glory preview (video selections only, no voice-over)
• Photos of Woody Durham recording sound for Gridiron Glory

Download event flier (pdf)

Update: View full recordings of this event on the sites of The Daily Tar Heel and ReeseNews.

Panel Discussion with Taylor Branch, William C. Friday, and Charles T. Clotfelter
Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2012
5:30 p.m. Program | Sonja Haynes Stone Center Theater
Free and open to the public
Information: LizaTerll, Friends of the Library, (919) 548-1203

Three prominent critics of collegiate sports will discuss the topic “Big-Time College Sports: What Needs to Change?” during a panel presentation Feb. 28 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The free public program will begin at 5:30 p.m. in the Sonja Haynes Stone Center Theater.

The panel will feature Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and historian Taylor Branch, UNC President Emeritus William C. Friday, and Charles T. Clotfelter, author and professor at Duke University. Author Will Blythe will moderate.

At the program, the Southern Historical Collection in the Wilson Special Collections Library will display archival materials from the papers of Branch and Friday, and from the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics. The collection is sponsoring the program, along with Friends of the Library and the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History.

Branch’s article “The Shame of College Sports” appeared last year in The Atlantic magazine. An expanded e-book version, The Cartel: Inside the Rise and Imminent Fall of the NCAA, is available at Byliner.com. Branch’s previous books include The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling with History and the President and studies of the American Civil Rights movement. Branch, a 1968 alumnus, is a Morehead-Cain Alumni Visiting Distinguished Professor at UNC during the spring 2012 semester.

Friday served as president of the UNC system from 1957 to 1986, and later as president of the William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust. He was a founding co-chair of the Knight Commission, which was established in 1989 with the purpose of drafting a reform agenda for the administration of intercollegiate sports. He earned a UNC law degree in 1948.

Clotfelter is the Z. Smith Reynolds Professor of Public Policy and professor of economics and law at Duke University. His most recent book is Big-Time Sports in American Universities (Cambridge University Press, 2011).

Blythe is a former editor of Esquire magazine. His books include To Hate Like This Is to Be Happy Forever (HarperCollins, 2006), a chronicle of the UNC-Duke basketball rivalry. A 1979 UNC alumnus, he has written for the New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated, and the New York Times Book Review.

At the event, the Bull’s Head Bookshop will be selling books by Branch and Clotfelter.

Related Links

• Southern Historical Collection
• Taylor Branch Papers, 1865-2009
• William C. Friday Papers, 1942-1999
• Knight Foundation. Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics Records, 1989-2007

For event information, please contact Liza Terll, Friends of the Library, liza_terll@unc.edu, (919) 548-1203.

February 9, 2012
A Carolina Valentine: A Poetry Reading by Jeffery Beam Celebrating 35 Years at UNC (read more)
Poet and recently retired UNC Library employee will read from his work. Attendees are encouraged to bring canned goods for donation to the Food Bank of Eastern and Central North Carolina.
5:30 p.m. – Reading, Historic Playmakers Theatre
6:30 p.m. – Book signing, Anne Queen Faculty Lounge, Campus Y

February 28, 2012
Big-Time College Sports: What Needs to Change? (read more)
Panel discussion with author and historian Taylor Branch, former University of North Carolina President William C. Friday, and Duke University public policy and law professor Charles T. Clotfelter. Will Blythe, author of To Hate Like This Is to Be Happy Forever, will moderate
5:30 p.m. – Panel discussion, Sonja Haynes Stone Center Auditorium

March 10, 2012
The Moseley Manuscript Map of North Carolina of 1737: Its History and the Hunt for Its Provenance (read more)
A recently discovered 18th-century map by Surveyor General Edward Moseley.
10 a.m – Program with independent scholar Michael McNamara

March 13, 2012
A Tribute to Son House (read more)
Southern Folklife Collection Blues Legacy Series.
5:30 p.m. – Lectures by Daniel Beaumont and Dick Waterman, and a panel discussion with Rory Block, Joe Beard, and John Mooney
7:30 p.m. – Tribute concert featuring Rory Block, Joe Beard, and John Mooney. Carolina Union
Purchase concert tickets through the Carolina Union box office, (919) 962-1449. Available February 14, 2012.

March 20, 2012
Southern Roots, Enduring Bonds: African American Families in North Carolina (read more)
Exhibit opening highlighting materials from the African American Family Documentation Initiative, including items from the papers of WRAL-TV broadcaster J.D. Lewis and his family.
5 p.m. – Exhibit opening
5:30 p.m. – Program with family and friends of J.D. Lewis

March 23, 2012
Music from the True Vine: A Tribute to Mike Seeger (read more)
Remembering musician and historian Mike Seeger (1933-2009), a member of the Seeger Family. The Mike Seeger Collection is held in the Southern Folklife Collection.
5:30 p.m. – Talk by Bill Malone, author of a biography of Mike Seeger
6:30 p.m. – Tribute concert with Alice Gerrard, Ginny Hawker, and Tracy Schwarz

March 29, 2012
“Maidens Call It Love-in-Idleness:” Potions, Passion, and Fairy Knowledge in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (read more)
In conjunction with the Rare Book Collection exhibition Nature and the Unnatural in Shakespeare’s Age.
5 p.m. – Exhibition viewing, Melba Remig Saltarelli Exhibit Room
5:30 p.m. – Program with UNC professor Mary Floyd-Wilson

April 4, 2012
Lux Libertas in Perpetuity: Historic Preservation at UNC (read more)
The 2012 Gladys Hall Coates University History Lecture, with Wendy Hillis, historic preservation officer at UNC.
5 p.m. – Exhibit viewing, North Carolina Collection Gallery
5:30 p.m. – Program with Wendy Hillis

April 10, 2012
The Invention of Scientific Reading (read more)
Adrian Johns, Allan Grant Maclear Professor of History at the University of Chicago, delivers a lecture in the UNC English and Comparative Literature department’s Critical Speakers series.
5:30 p.m. – Program with Adrian Johns

April 14, 2012
Researching African American Family History Workshop (read more)
Resources and techniques for using primary sources to research African American history.
9:30 a.m. – Coffee
10 a.m. – 1 p.m. – Program

April 24, 2012
The Japanese American Incarceration at Poston (read more)
A program about the experience of the Poston incarceration camp for Japanese Americans during World War II.
5 p.m. – Undergraduate researchers display Poston materials from Wilson Library
5:30 p.m. – Presentations by Poston survivor Joanne Iritani and UNC law professor Eric L. Muller

April 25, 2012
Campus Buildings and Libraries – Gallery Talk and Tour (read more)
In conjunction with the exhibitions “A Dialogue Between Old and New”: Notable Buildings on the UNC Campus and Knowledge Building(s): The Libraries at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
2:30 p.m. – Gallery talk for Knowledge Building(s). Meet in Davis Library.
3 p.m. – Campus walking tour of significant buildings. Meet in Davis Library

June 2, 2012
Currency in Chaos: How the Civil War Changed America’s Money
A discussion about Civil War currency and an opportunity to have experts evaluate your notes, coins, and other money items from the Civil War era.
9:30 a.m. – Coffee
10 a.m. – 1 p.m. Program

Great football moments from UNC’s past will be on view in the Wilson Special Collections Library Sept. 17, from noon to 3 p.m. A 20-minute film, Gridiron Glory, will run in a continuous loop during the University’s Tar Heel Town pregame festivities. The showings are free and open to the public.

The archival film clips in Gridiron Glory feature highlights from 13 UNC games played between 1934 and 1985. Woody Durham, who retired in April as the “Voice of the Tar Heels,” provides the narration. The film loop was first shown in 2010.

Among the highlights are:

• UNC’s first game against #1-ranked Notre Dame at Yankee Stadium in 1949, with a brief appearance by an injured Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice (#22);
• Justice passing, running, and kicking in the 1950 Cotton Bowl game against Rice University;
• All-America #85 Bob Lacey in the 1963 UNC vs. University of Virginia game;
• #20 “Famous Amos” Lawrence rushing against East Carolina in 1978.

Football programs, photographs, and memorabilia from the University Archives and North Carolina Collection will also be on display. A special feature will be materials from the collection of Jack Hilliard, UNC class of 1963, including pennants, tickets, bubble-gum cards, and sheet music for the song “All The Way Choo Choo.”

Gridiron Glory films are drawn from the University Archives in Wilson Library, where they are part of the records of the UNC Football Office. Most are original 16mm recordings and are badly in need of repair.

To learn more about the University Archives’ football collections and the efforts to preserve UNC’s football films, contact Jay Gaidmore, University Archivist, gaidmore@email.unc.edu or (919) 962-6402.

Related Links

• Gridiron Glory preview (video selections only, no voice-over)
• Photos of Woody Durham recording sound for Gridiron Glory

Gridiron Glory
Friday, Nov. 19, 2010
Wilson Library, Pleasants Family Assembly Room
Noon and 12:30 p.m.
Free and open to the public
Information: (919) 962-3765 or wilsonlibrary@unc.edu

The Wilson Special Collections Library will offer the UNC campus community two lunchtime showings of Gridiron Glory on Friday, Nov. 19, at noon and 12:30 p.m., in the Pleasants Family Assembly Room.

The archival film clips in Gridiron Glory feature highlights from Tar Heel football games past, including footage of football legends Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice and “Famous Amos” Lawrence. The action is called by Woody Durham, “Voice of the Tar Heels,” who recorded the play-by-play in the Wilson Library sound preservation studio.

The films are drawn from the University Archives in Wilson Library, where they are part of the records of the UNC Football Office. In the 1930s, the Football Office began filming games in order to help coaches evaluate and train players and review strategic plays. Many of the films provide unique camera angles and views of the games not captured by broadcasters.

Gridiron Glory was shown during football pre-game festivities on October 2 and 30.

Feel free to bring your lunch and enjoy the show on Friday, Nov. 19!

Related Links

• Archival Films Bring Tar Heel Football History to Pre-Games
• Gridiron Glory preview (video selections only, no voice-over)
• Photos of Woody Durham recording sound for Gridiron Glory

Updated Oct. 19: We’ve enhanced Gridiron Glory with audio! Oct. 30 homecoming showing now features Woody Durham, voice of the Tar Heels, calling the plays. Visit our photos on Facebook for a look at his recent recording session in the audio preservation studio in Wilson Library.

Visitors to UNC’s pre-game festivities on Oct. 2 and 30 can catch a special glimpse of Tar Heel football history. A showing of archival film clips in Wilson Library will feature highlights from games past, including footage of football legends such as Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice and “Famous Amos” Lawrence.

“Gridiron Glory” will run in a twenty-minute continuous loop in the Pleasants Family Assembly Room during the University’s Tar Heel Town. Showings will begin three hours before kickoff and continue until shortly before game time. The showings are free and open to the public.

A YouTube preview of the clips is now available.

The film loop will include 13 games from 1934 through 1985. Among the highlights will be:

• UNC’s first match against #1-ranked Notre Dame at Yankee Stadium in 1949, with a brief appearance by an injured Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice (#22);
• Justice passing, running, and kicking in the 1950 Cotton Bowl game against Rice University;
• All-American #85 Bob Lacey in the 1963 UNC vs. University of Virginia game;
• #20 “Famous Amos” Lawrence rushing against East Carolina in 1978.

The films are drawn from the University Archives in Wilson Library, where they are part of the records of the UNC Football Office. In the 1930s, the Football Office began filming games in order to help coaches evaluate and train players and review strategic plays. Many of the films provide unique camera angles and views of the games not captured by broadcasters.

Most of the films are the original 16 mm recordings, said University Archivist Jay Gaidmore, and they are badly in need of preservation.

“We’d like to be able to share these films more broadly,” said Gaidmore. “But many are in too fragile a condition to use or digitize.”

Gaidmore said he hopes that the showing will raise awareness about the collection.

The Library will also display football memorabilia from the collections, including programs, news clippings, and photographs by the late photographer Hugh Morton.

Related Links:

• Online preview of Gridiron Glory films
• UNC Football Office Records in University Archives (finding aid)