Paul Hoolahan was one of the Carolina building blocks.
Back in the fall of 1970, I was covering UNC sports for the Daily Tar Heel. After practice one day, senior offensive lineman Paul Hoolahan stopped me and said, “Watch out for the Tar Heels this season.”
I wanted to believe the block of granite from New York who everyone called “Hooly.” I saw him a few weeks ago when the 1970, ’71 and ’72 teams had their 50-year reunion and reminded him of that prediction.
He looked great, still a hunk of a man with the big smile and bigger laugh. I am sure glad I got to see him because Hoolahan died suddenly this week in New Orleans, where he still lived after retiring as executive director of the Sugar Bowl in 2019.
He was right about what he said all those years back. Bill Dooley’s rebuilding job was without a winning record his first three seasons, but Dooley, his co-captain Hoolahan and the team knew that was coming to an end.
With athletic lefty quarterback Paul Miller and budding All-American tailback Don McCauley, the Tar Heels finally broke through. McCauley ran for 1,720 yards to break OJ Simpson’s single-season record, and they capped off an 8-3 regular season by blasting Duke, 59-34, with McCauley running for 279 yards and five touchdowns.
All of those yards all season came behind All-ACC tackle Hoolahan and the rest of the offensive line, as Carolina began a run of eight bowl games in 10 years that included three ACC championships.
Hoolahan was more than a football player. A little small for the NFL, he used his Dean’s List intelligence to tour the world and study different religions before returning to Chapel Hill. He began a long career in college sports at UNC and as athletic director at Vanderbilt before moving on to the Sugar Bowl, where he stayed for 25 years.
Along the way, he married TV news reporter Katherine Walters and they had three daughters who all followed him to Carolina. He was enjoying retirement with his family and friends when the unexpected happened.
He was a friend in college and Chapel Hill, and I will always remember the brash confidence he had about where life was about to take him.
Featured image via Sugar Bowl
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