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UNC Fans Should Honor Mike Fox Friday
A perspective from Tom Jensen
The UNC Baseball team’s regular season is coming to an end this weekend in Chapel Hill with a lot on the line at Boshamer Stadium as the Tar Heels host Florida State Thursday and Friday nights and Saturday afternoon. The team has been on a recent hot streak with key series victories over NC State and Wake Forest to add to earlier wins over East Carolina and Duke for an impressive ‘state championship.’ A couple wins against FSU would likely lock up yet another NCAA tournament bid for the program.
Legendary UNC coach Mike Fox would tell you the only reason you should get to the ballpark this weekend is to support the current team in its postseason quest. But there’s another reason Diamond Heels fans should flock to the ballpark. On Friday night, at 5:30, the program will honor Coach Fox for his incredible 22 year tenure at the helm of the program that established Carolina Baseball as part of the cream of the crop nationally.
Mike Fox is a humble person. He did not ask for this. He retired in the middle of the summer two years ago because he didn’t want a lot of fuss. He would be the first person to tell you that the players and his staff deserve all the credit for whatever success he’s had and that people are making too big of a deal about him.
But the reality is that he did something that’s very rare in college sports these days- he put together a program that was the nation’s best on the field- and did it 100% the right way. UNC Baseball fans have never had to be embarrassed about players in the police blotter or recruiting violations or any of the sorts of things most elite sports programs have to accept as part of the price of success. Coach Fox set incredibly high standards for how things should be done and held to them and allowed supporters of the program to feel like they were a part of something that they could truly be proud of.
The greatest honor you can give anyone associated with UNC is to say they are worthy of being mentioned in the same breathe with Dean Smith and between the winning Coach Fox did and the way he did that winning, he is one of the small few who deserves that distinction. (He learned well during his time in the JV basketball program!)
Now just because his standards were high didn’t mean Coach Fox couldn’t be fun. Have you ever heard of getting ‘post game ejected?’ A decade ago in the ACC Tournament Coach Fox vigorously argued the final call of a game the Heels had lost, and the umpire ejected him after the game was over! He rightfully stood up for his team but it meant he was suspended for the next game, and he missed a good one as the Heels finally broke up 11 scoreless innings with four runs in the 12th for a big win over NC State.
When the players got back to the stadium from Greensboro in the middle of the night Coach Fox was waiting for them- with all the ingredients needed for a celebratory ice cream party! Getting ‘post game ejected’ never tasted so good.
Coach Fox has sent a ton of players to Major League Baseball. But off hand I can also think of former players who are doctors, lawyers, teachers, ministers- those who have benefited from four years of his tutelage are contributing to society in about any way you can imagine. During Coach Fox’s last 15 seasons at UNC he had four different salaried assistant coaches. They now all have programs of their own- Scott Forbes here at UNC, Scott Jackson at Liberty, Robert Woodard at Charlotte, and Chad Holbrook at the College of Charleston. All their teams are thriving. Putting in your time on Coach Fox’s staff taught you what you needed to know to be a successful head coach.
I could probably write a book extolling the virtues of Mike Fox’s stewardship of the UNC Baseball program. But at any rate- when he is honored Friday at 5:30 before the second Florida State game I hope there will be a full, early arriving house at the Bosh to show proper gratitude to Coach Fox for all he gave us fans. There will never be another like him and everyone who cares about Carolina Baseball must be there to show their gratitude.
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