Two sections of Interstate 40 through Chapel Hill and Durham will officially be designated as the Roy Williams and Dean Smith Highways before the spring.
Governor Roy Cooper, UNC Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz and Chapel Hill Mayor Pam Hemminger were among those who presented the highway signs to Williams and the family of Smith at halftime of Saturday’s Duke-Carolina men’s basketball game at the Smith Center.
“It’s clear that Coach Dean Smith and Coach Roy Williams are two of the greatest basketball coaches in the history of college basketball,” Cooper, a UNC alumnus, said at the ceremony. “But perhaps it’s what Coach Smith and Coach Williams did off the court that was even more important.”
The North Carolina Department of Transportation originally approved UNC’s request to rename the stretches of highway in early December, with support from the Town of Chapel Hill. Now, Hemminger expects the official signage will go up within a few weeks.
“Sometime in the next month is what we were told,” Hemminger told 97.9 The Hill.
The Roy Williams highway will stretch from exit 266 to exit 270, while the stretch between exit 270 and exit 273 will be named for Dean Smith. Both provide access to the Dean Smith Center and the UNC campus.
“I’m flattered and consider myself to be a very lucky person to receive such an honor,” Williams said at the time of the announcement. “It’s something our family and friends will share with a great deal of pride and will mean even more years from now as our grandkids and their families can see those signs with pride and enjoyment.”
Featured image via Carolina Basketball on Twitter
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