Return to Chapel Hill

Had the opportunity to return to Blue Heaven over the weekend to see the Notre Dame Fighting Irish square off against the Tar Heels of my alma mater, the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

In an exciting matchup, the Heels ended up edging the Irish by a 29-24 margin that came down to the final whistle.

As great as the game was, it was secondary to the sights and sounds of the game in making this a fulfilling experience.

The Kenan Stadium PA announcer, "The Voice of the Tar Heels" needs to buy professional strength afrin. His nasal intonations grated on my nerves. I wanted to stab my eardrums with a pen when he would say "First DOOOOOOWOWOWOWOWOWOWO
WOWNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
CaroLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINAAAAAAAAAAA"

There is nothing freakier than seeing fans decked out in Notre Dame gear and striking up a conversation with them only to get an answer in an accent straight out of Deliverance. "I'm from Albermarle...Some call it a sling blade, um huh. I like Jimmy Claussen."

Carolina football fans are a bigger wine and cheese crowd than our basketball fans. Seriously, we're the JV SEC when it comes to Southern football. Throughout the game, their ignorance of college football was readily apparent. Like when they demanded a roughing the kicker call when a Tar Heel player ran into their own kicker. Nice job.

Some gems from the obnoxious Carolina fan behind me:

1. "Go back to Raleigh!" To the ACC refs working the game, apparently they weren't partisan enough.
2. "And the Oscar goes to..." To the ND punter on a roughing the kicker call.
3. "Back to the North!" Anytime the 'Let's go Irish' chant started (get it? Let's go Irish... back to the North.)
4. "1861-1865; North 1, South 0" That was what Officer O'Brien said about the Carolina fan behind us.

Putting the exclamation point on Tar Heel Nation's poor performance was when fans threw lemons on the field as the last play of the game was being reviewed. Real classy.

GAME NOTES: Notre Dame integrated Kenan Stadium in 1953, it took the South a few years to catch up...I saw Hansbrough at Players Dance Club, but for some reason he wouldn't take a picture of me and the Victor brothers...Some girl on the line at Players thought Dash Victor (aka Mr. Jane Slater) was Spencer Pratt and asked for a photo with him:

Spencer!

In what happens to be the shock of the century, they closed BW-3 on Franklin Street...Blue Cups at He's Not Here are freaking big...The game started with a B-2 Flyover (probably piloted by an ND alum):