4:35PM: UNC Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham issued a statement about scrapping the new policy on the Victory Bell.

Original Article: Chansky’s Notebook: Belled Over

The new bell has got to go.

Seriously now, does anyone think the newly non-ecumenical Victory Bell is going to remain the way it is now? When you worship either Carolina Blue or royal blue, you are just not going to meet in the middle, as the new paint job does.

Whichever team wins Thursday night in Durham will somehow find a way to rid the bell’s platform of the alt color and logo of the rival school. By decree of the head coaches and athletic directors, it may not happen on the field at Wallace Wade Stadium, thanks to the Tar Heels’ painting spree in 2014 after their 45-20 romp that cost Larry Fedora and Bubba Cunningham 13-plus grand each out of their own personal checkbooks.

So no spray cans will be allowed on either sideline and no $22,000 carpet (ahem!) will have to be replaced in the visitors’ locker room. But, should UNC win its third straight game over the Dukies, that bell is going to lose its devilish logos and dark paint before it crosses the Orange County line. Even if the team bus has to be stopped by the pranking Chapel Hill police.

It will be nice to retain the bell for like the 23nd time in the last 26 seasons, but imagine having to look at it that way for an entire year? A better idea might have been to paint one side of a flat platform light blue and the other side dark, so it can be turned over with the losing side eating dirt until they meet again.
Cunningham and Duke AD Kevin White eventually came up with the new-tral design. What’s the next move, take off the pads and helmets and play flag football? This is a bell meant to be seen and heard by only the winning team, covered in only the winning team’s colors. It’s been that way before there was an ACC, since Choo Choo was swivel-hipping his way down the field.

Fedora played dumb when asked about the bell this week, even though he and Bubba bristled at the da Vinci-like invoice the Dukies sent over two years ago. Fedora says there will be no painting, win or lose, after the game. Let’s make that right after the game.

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