University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dept. of Athletics.

The University of North Carolina's first intercollegiate athletic contest was a baseball game against Bingham Military School in the spring of 1884. Its first intercollegiate football game was against Wake Forest College on 18 October 1888. Initially, intercollegiate games were arranged by the students, but within a few years, a faculty committee was established to provide oversight. The position of director of athletics was written into university policy in 1915, in order to provide needed reform and regulation. Thomas J. Campbell was appointed to the position in 1916. Among the duties of the director was to assure that instruction and facilities were adequate for the participation of all students in athletic activities. Campbell's tenure was interrupted by World War I, but in 1921, the university hired William K. Fetzer as director of athletics and football coach. Fetzer's brother Robert became assistant director and track coach. When William resigned in 1926, Robert A. Fetzer became director of athletics and served in that capacity for more than twenty years.

In 1935, the university established the Department of Physical Education with Oliver K. Cornwell as chair. In 1937, the Department of Physical Education and the athletics program directed by Robert Fetzer were combined to form the Department of Physical Education and Athletics. Cornwell, as professor of physical education, was considered chair of the physical education component of the new department, but Fetzer was chair of the combined department and director of athletics. There was some separation of funds between the two components of the department. The salaries of the physical education faculty came from state funds, while those of the coaches came from Athletic Association funds. The Athletic Association, organized by students in 1876, remained a student organization but was also a quasi-administrative office. Because it received student athletic fees and proceeds from ticket sales, it needed a professional business manager. The first person to provide managerial services to the Athletic Association was Charles T. Woollen, the university business manager. Later, the association's business manager was part of the office of the director of athletics. Another individual who worked closely with the office of the director of athletics was the director of sports publicity. This position was created about 1947; it was technically part of the university's News Bureau at first, but it was funded by the Athletic Association. Eventually, the Sports Information Office was established within the Department of Athletics.

In 1952, when Robert Fetzer retired, administration of the Department of Physical Education and Athletics was modified in an effort to strengthen faculty control over athletics. Oliver K. Cornwell became chair of the combined department while Charles P. Erickson, Fetzer's successor, was simply director of athletics. The combined department ended in 1954-1955, when the director of athletics began reporting directly to the chancellor. The intercollegiate athletics component of the old department became the Department of Athletics; but the names Department of Athletics and Athletic Association were sometimes used interchangeably.

The Educational Foundation was chartered in 1938 in order to provide financial aid to athletes and to support university athletics by building facilities and purchasing equipment. For a brief period in the 1960s, at the behest of football coach Jim Tatum, a parallel organization called The Rams, Inc., took primary control over fundraising efforts for athletic programs at the university. When the Rams' charter expired, the Educational Foundation resumed the role of fundraising. The name Rams Club was later given to a category of donors within the foundation.

Prior to 1971, there were limited opportunities for women students to participate in athletics. The main opportunities were the intramural and co-recreational sports sponsored by the Women's Athletic Association and the Department of Physical Education. There were no official intercollegiate athletic teams for women at the university, although women could compete as individuals in intercollegiate tournaments. In 1971, the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) was established with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a charter member. In 1972, the United States Congress enacted the Education Amendments of 1972, Title IX of which prohibited discrimination against women in athletics and other areas by educational institutions receiving federal funds. In May 1974, Frances Hogan, a member of the university's physical education faculty since 1946, was appointed director of intercollegiate athletics for women. At that time, the women's intercollegiate athletics program was part of the Department of Physical Education. In October 1974, it became part of the Department of Athletics. By 1979, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill had the largest women's intercollegiate athletics program in the state and fielded women's teams in 13 sports. UNC-Chapel Hill remained a member of the Association for Interccollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) until 1982, when its women's teams were placed under the jurisdiction of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

For discussions of the early development of athletics at the University of North Carolina, see Kemp P. Battle's History of the University of North Carolina, 1795-1912 and Louis Round Wilson's History of the University of North Carolina, 1900-1930 .

From the guide to the Department of Athletics of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Records, 1919-1997, (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. University Archives.)