University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Football Office.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill had its first intercollegiate football game in 1888. In the 1930s, it began filming its football games to provide coaches with a means to evaluate and train players and to review strategic plays.

From the description of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Football Office records, 1934-1990. WorldCat record id: 505222363

Football became popular at American colleges and universities in the 1880s. The University of North Carolina's Dialectic Society and Philanthropic Society played each other on Thanksgiving Day 1887. The following fall, the sophomore class formed a team and defeated teams from all the other classes. It then challenged Wake Forest College to a game that was played on 18 October 1888 in Raleigh during the State Fair. This was the University of North Carolina's first intercollegiate football game. Shortly afterward, a football association with 87 members was organized on campus. The team played only one other intercollegiate game that season, against Trinity College (later Duke University) on Thanksgiving Day.

Football teams at that time consisted of as many men as were willing to play, and spectators often engaged in the action as well. Until 1894, UNC's team was uncoached except for a brief period in 1889, when it benefited from the services of Hector Cowan, who had played for Princeton University. The earliest intercollegiate matches were arranged by the students, and some ended in disorders. In September 1889, the University's faculty resolved that the foot-ball team and other athletic clubs be allowed to play only on the regular grounds of the various colleges and not on any city ground. Later that fall, a member of the team broke his collarbone during a game. In February 1890, the Board of Trustees, on the advice of the faculty, banned all intercollegiate games. In December 1890, when students asked for the ban to be lifted, the faculty appointed a committee to consider the matter; this was the genesis of the faculty's standing committee on athletics. Subsequently the faculty recommended to the trustees that the ban be lifted and that an advisory committee composed of a faculty member, an undergraduate student, and a graduate student be created to supervise intercollegiate contests.

Though the football team's record was uneven, it distinguished itself in 1895, becoming the first college team to use the forward pass. In a game against the University of Georgia that fall, George Stephens caught the forward pass and ran 70 yards for a touchdown, winning the game for UNC. That season's coach was T.G. Trenchard, who, like Cowan and several other early coaches, had played for Princeton University. The team finished the season with a 7-1-1 record.

In 1900, at President Venable's urging, the University joined the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association but withdrew just two years later, in part because none of its closest rivals had joined and in part because alumni opposed the association's new one-year player eligibility rule. The University then established its own rules, which were nearly the same as the association's except for eligibility. The University's rule was No student shall be eligible for an athletic team in the University of North Carolina unless he has registered on or before October 12th. By 1908-1909, the rules had been strengthened, and the faculty committee on athletics was responsible for certifying eligibility, one of the requirements for which was a prior enrollment of five months.

Until the popularity of basketball skyrocketed in the years after World War II, football dominated all other intercollegiate sports and the University of Virginia was the University of North Carolina's main rival. Though UNC was successful against many other rivals, it lost to Virginia in the majority of games played between 1900 and 1914. In December 1912, after a 66-0 loss to Virginia, the Alumni Athletic Council of the Alumni Association asked for and received from President Venable a greater role in athletic matters. The council participated in the re-hiring of T.G. Trenchard as football coach in February 1913. Trenchard immediately began pushing for the liberalization of the five-month eligibility rule for players. He and members of the council tried to circumvent the faculty and administration by lobbying directly with the Board of Trustees. In June 1913, the trustees passed a resolution that allowed attendance in the Summer Law School to count as part of the five-month requirement. The faculty was irate. In the fall, a game with the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (now North Carolina State University) was scheduled; games with A & M had been suspended since 1906. When Trenchard learned that A & M, which had no five-month rule, had brought in some new players, he canceled the game. A great deal of argument ensued in the press.

President Edward Kidder Graham, who succeeded Venable, took a firm stand. He insisted that the faculty and administration, not the Alumni Athletic Council, should control athletics. In January 1914, the trustees concurred with him. In 1915, the University of North Carolina, along with the University of Virginia, the University of South Carolina, and the University of Tennessee, established the Southern Athletic Conference of State Universities. When Trenchard's contract expired in 1916, the University let him go and hired Thomas J. Campbell as football coach and director of athletics. In the fall of 1916, the University of North Carolina and the University of Virginia tightened their athletic regulations, and both adopted a one-year eligibility rule.

In 1921, the University became a charter member of the Southern Conference as did the University of Virginia and 12 other southern schools. The remainder of the 1920s was relatively unmarred by scandal and controversy. By the 1930s, however, Consolidated University President Frank Porter Graham had become concerned about the influence of money in intercollegiate athletics. In 1935, he proposed his Graham Plan, which called for: no special financial aid for athletes; no special remuneration for athletic staff except from their colleges; faculty control of athletics; the auditing and publishing of athletic accounts; limited recruitment; and no postseason games. Faculty supported the plan, as did six of the ten members of the Southern Conference. However, there was fierce opposition from other constituencies, and the University's Board of Trustees would not endorse the plan. The University of Virginia threatened to withdraw from the Southern Conference over the issue. Eventually Graham had to accept that his plan would not be adopted.

In 1953, the University of North Carolina, along with the University of Maryland, the University of South Carolina, Clemson Agricultural College of South Carolina, Duke University, North Carolina State College, and Wake Forest College, formed the Atlantic Coast Conference and withdrew from the Southern Conference. This move was due, in part, to the Southern Conference's ban on postseason games.

The University's earliest football team adopted as its colors the light blue and white that had been the colors of the Dialectic Society and the Philanthropic Society, the two debating societies established in 1795. From 1916 until 1927, the team played its home games in Emerson Stadium, which was on the site of an earlier playing field (the site is now occupied by Davis Library). Since 1927, home games have been played in Kenan Memorial Stadium. The team chose the bighorn ram as its mascot in 1924; the choice was inspired by fullback Jack Merritt, who had been nicknamed the battering ram. The most celebrated era in UNC football was the period from 1946 to 1949, when All-America halfback Charlie Choo Choo Justice established national records in offense and punting.

From the guide to the Football Office of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Records, 1934-1990, (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. University Archives.)