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Will Chapel Thrill do it for us, finally?
UNC is tackling a problem in its football gameday atmosphere in another way this season. Something called Chapel Thrill will go on in Polk Place three hours before the game and will join organized groupings at The Pit and around the Bell Tower.
Carolina has tried this forever, and it was either the UNC arborist or someone’s injury at the festivities or the weather that not only killed the on-campus stuff but also Franklin Street where businesses depend heavily on the pre-game purchases, almost desperately.
Chase Rice and Eric Church, two lifelong Tar Heel fans and now country singers, have both written songs about Carolina, and they were supposed to stick as new game day anthems. Neither did.
Inside Kenan Stadium, the music blares over the PA system and by Jeff Fuchs’ Marching Tar Heels, but let’s give everyone something to sing while leaving the stadium.
At Yankee Stadium, once the last run has scored or the last out made, you get Frank Sinatra and “New York, New York.” Does anyone get tired of that song by that guy? Wrigley Field in Chicago belts out “Go, Cubs, Go!” after every home game. At Fenway Park, they play “Dirty Water” about the Charles River.
At Carolina, the team and coaches go down to the home end of the stadium and sing the Alma Mater after every game. That’s a nice moment but it doesn’t pop as they say in music and writing.
When Mack Brown left for Texas in 1997, I asked him and Sally if they had heard the new song, “God Bless Texas” by Little Texas, but they said they didn’t want to interrupt “The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You.”
UNC has a signature song, written by a brilliant star who grew up in Chapel Hill and became famous around the world. That’s when James Taylor wrote “Carolina in My Mind” so he wouldn’t be homesick every time he strummed it and sang it.
Why isn’t that song played right after games end at Kenan, the Dean Dome, Dorrance Field, Karen Shelton Stadium and every other sports venue on campus? It’s right there, so much more famous than any song a singer can write these days.
In football, the players are shaking hands and hopefully celebrating on the field before going down to sing Hark the Sound. Meanwhile, every person exiting the stadium would have Carolina on his or her mind, win or lose, walking out. Plenty of time for it and for a new tradition that doesn’t have to be invented. It’s here.
“In my mind I’m gone to Carolina, Can’t you see the sunshine, can’t you just feel the moonshine, Ain’t it just like a friend of mine to hit me from behind, I’m gone to Carolina in my mind.”
We have that song in our hearts forever. Play the frickin’ thing at the end! It will stick.
Featured image via Associated Press/Chris Seward
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
