The UNC baseball team is getting set to wrap up the regular season, with one final home series against Florida State – but before they put a bow on 2022, the Diamond Heels are coming together to pay tribute to a coaching legend.
Before Friday’s game at Boshamer Stadium, UNC will hold a special ceremony to honor longtime head coach Mike Fox, who retired in 2020 after 22 seasons in Chapel Hill.
During Coach Fox’s tenure, UNC won 948 games and reached seven College World Series, including two trips to the CWS final in 2006 and 2007. (Fox did win a College World Series title, though not with Carolina. Prior to his arrival in Chapel Hill, Fox spent 15 years as the head coach at Division III North Carolina Wesleyan, making eight College World Series appearances and winning the Division III national title in 1989.) In 2017, Fox was inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame. In all, he ended his 37-year coaching career with 1,437 wins, making him the 12th winningest college baseball coach of all time.
Longtime Tar Heel superfan Tom Jensen spoke with 97.9 The Hill’s Aaron Keck this week to discuss Mike Fox’s legacy – and to encourage fans to attend Friday’s game to help pay tribute.
Click here to listen to their full conversation.
Tom Jensen: I think the greatest tribute that you can pay to anybody associated with UNC is to compare them to Dean Smith. And I really think Mike Fox is deserving of that. Not only did he lead North Carolina to become one of the most successful college baseball programs in the entire country, but he always did it while doing things the right way. His players went to class, graduated. We know about all of Mike Fox’s players who became major-league players. What people might not know is how many former players have become lawyers, ministers, successful businessmen, doctors. I mean, he’s really set people up well for the game of life.
One of the things that I appreciate the most about Coach Fox’s tenure: obviously, when you go to a school, you’re really proud when they win all the time, and the baseball program always did that. But (we were also) able to be so proud of everything that the program stood for as a whole, beyond just wins and losses. You never had to have any sort of trade-off, where it was like, “oh, we can win all the time, but you have to accept some sketchiness.” We won all the time without any sketchiness at all. I mean, we really were, I think, throughout most of Coach Fox’s tenure, the model program for the entire country, in terms of winning and winning the right way.
Aaron Keck: Favorite Mike Fox story? Or the most emblematic?
Jensen: (There’s one) that shows the way that he just defended his players, and loved his players so much over the course of his career.
A decade ago in the ACC tournament, he got post-game ejected. I never knew there was such a thing. But he didn’t like a call that went against the Tar Heels on the last play of the game. And he let the umpire know about it, stood up for his players, so he got ejected after the game.
So it turns out that when you get post-game ejected, you’re suspended for the next game. The next game was against NC State, and the NC State legend Carlos Rodón pitched in the game. It ended up going 12 innings. Nobody scored in the first 11 innings. The Tar Heels finally scored four runs in the 12th and won the game. They take the bus back from Greensboro, it’s like the middle of the night, they get to the stadium – and Coach Fox is waiting there with everything to have an ice cream party, to celebrate the team (beating) NC State, even when he wasn’t there.
And I think that just shows – the ice cream party in the middle of the night, it’s like he loved his players so much that even though he couldn’t be there, because he loved his players so much and stood up for them a little too much, he was (still) there. And I’m sure people remember that ice cream, even more than they remember beating NC State. And I think it just shows the kind of coach he was.
Keck: Would the ice cream have been there even if they had lost? Was it going to be an ice cream party either way?
Jensen: I’m confident that he would’ve let them have their ice cream no matter what. But there’s no ice cream that tastes better than “you just beat Carlos Rodón and NC State” ice cream. That’s the best ice cream there is in college baseball.
Keck: Victory ice cream is my favorite flavor too.
Jensen: (And) I think the big thing that should be noted about the commemoration is that he retired 21 months ago. And the reason we’re only just now doing this is (that) he intentionally retired during the offseason, because he didn’t want a lot of fuss about his retirement. He didn’t want something like this, where everybody’s going to come together and celebrate him. Because he’s a very humble person. It was never about Mike Fox, (it was) always about his players, always about his coaches, always deflecting all of the credit for the things his teams accomplished to those people who played for him and worked for him. And I think that is really why it is so important that we have this celebration. This man deserves to be celebrated for the incredible work that he did over the course of 22 years.
Keck: And in talking about his humility and not wanting to make his retirement about himself – we’re not trying to draw any subtle distinctions with anyone, right?
Jensen: I couldn’t possibly have been contrasting him with a certain other person from a certain other school. No, never, never.
Keck: Coach Mikes are all the same.
Jensen: Just one other thing people should know: Coach Fox would want all the focus on Friday night on the current team. Three weeks ago, UNC would not have made the NCAA tournament if the season had ended then. They’re really on a good run right now. They’ve won series over NC State and Wake Forest. The last two weekends, they’ve won the ‘state championship,’ because (they’ve also beaten) Duke and East Carolina this year. If the Tar Heels can win the series this weekend, I think that will pretty much lock up an NCAA tournament bid for them. I know there’s nothing that would make Coach Fox happier than to see so many of these players who he recruited get to play in the NCAA tournament. So it’s a great time to support this team, and it’s a great time to show appreciation for Coach Fox.
Keck: And for a team that was on the outside looking in, to make a comeback at the end of the season – we’re not trying to draw any subtle comparisons with any other team either.
Jensen: <laugh> Absolutely. Yeah. And Coach (Scott) Forbes, just like Coach (Hubert) Davis, each replaced a legend and I think they’re each making their way and doing a good job.
UNC will pay tribute to Mike Fox in Boshamer Stadium on Friday, May 20, at 5:30 p.m., shortly before their game against no. 20 Florida State.
Photo via the Chapel Hill Magazine.
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