CHAPEL HILL–From Zero Dark Thursday to Tar Heel Downtown to DJ’s and live bands to ever-changing uniforms to Military Appreciation events, the UNC Athletic Department has been revving it into high gear lately with new, exciting marketing promotions.

And the man largely responsible for engineering these game day attractions is Senior Associate Athletic Director for External Communications Rick Steinbacher.

Steinbacher certainly has a lot on his plate. He’s already created a better game day environment with Tar Heel Town set up right outside Kenan Stadium for each home football game.

Steinbacher says he’s excited about finishing out the Carolina football season on a high note in Charlotte Dec. 28 for the Belk Bowl.

“Charlotte is a Carolina city. The title sponsor of the bowl game is some great Carolina people, the Belk family. They’ve really put so much into making this event even that much more special. It’s already got a Carolina feel. I just can’t tell you how excited everybody down there is that we, Carolina, are playing in this bowl game and how anxious they are to put on a great show for Carolina fans,” Steinbacher says.

Fans will be treated to all sorts of attractions like a Tar Heel basketball viewing party at the EpiCentre, a free Blake Shelton concert and a 5K run.

You can view all the bowl festivities by clicking here.

Steinbacher says he has been working on a Dean Smith tribute for halftime at Saturday’s basketball game against Kentucky. And thanks to Nike, the game will also be a “white out” event for national television.

“We got a lot of fun things coming up this year, and it starts this Saturday. The most important thing this Saturday is we’re going to do a tribute to Dean Smith winning the Presidential Medal of Freedom. […] Nike is getting very involved this weekend. They’re giving us 22,000 white t-shirts for the Kentucky game, so we’re going to do a ‘white-out’ in the SmithCenter,” Steinbacher says.

And the fun doesn’t stop there. Steinbacher says he has a bunch of other plans in store for Carolina basketball in the coming months including honoring a Carolina graduate who is an active Brigadier General in military and a “blue-out” in the spring semester.

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