When UNC takes the field against No. 1 Miami Saturday night, it will be the first time the Tar Heels have played a game on Halloween in 56 years. And while the heavily-favored Hurricanes could make things downright spooky for Carolina fans, this weekend’s contest would have to do quite a bit to live up to the legacy left by UNC’s most recent Halloween game.
It was a fascinating football atmosphere in Chapel Hill on Oct. 31, 1970. Bill Dooley was in his fourth season as the Tar Heels’ head coach, and it looked as though 1970 would be his best team yet. UNC began the year 4-0, beating Kentucky, NC State, Maryland and Vanderbilt to vault up to No. 18 in the AP Poll. It was a stunning rise for Dooley’s program, which had gone 2-8 in his first season and had not finished the year with a winning record since 1963.
Then came the downturn: three consecutive losses, beginning with an upset at the hands of South Carolina in Kenan Stadium. Road losses at Tulane and Wake Forest followed, and UNC was left at 4-3.
Next up was Virginia in the South’s Oldest Rivalry at Kenan. It promised to be a festive atmosphere: not only was the game set for Halloween, but it was also Homecoming. Virginia surely would provide a nice bounce-back opportunity for the Tar Heels, as the Cavaliers were 0-3 in ACC play and had only managed to score 31 points across those three losses.
Not so. The Hoos raced out to an early 15-0 lead before the end of the first quarter, with two touchdown passes – one paired with a blocked extra point and the other with a failed two-point try – and a field goal putting Virginia out in front.
That was when Carolina made its move, as quarterback Paul Miller found Lew Jolley down the field for a 62-yard touchdown pass late in the first quarter, then a 20-yard touchdown pass in the third to give Carolina its first lead at 16-15. Star tailback Don McCauley did the rest, running in two short touchdowns to pad the lead and help UNC win going away, 30-15. In the process, McCauley broke his own UNC single-season rushing record by upping his total to 1,130 yards — with three games yet to play in the regular season.
The Daily Tar Heel’s Sports Editor Chris Cobbs captured the feelings of the day perfectly: “What began as a Vincent Price horror show for Carolina,” he wrote, “ended in something like Homeric tragedy for Virginia.”
It doesn’t end there. The lead referee’s name really was Vincent Price. And the comment about Homer was a brilliant double entendre: UVA head coach George Blackburn had fumed at the officials afterward, claiming “We got the business today.”
“One conference coach reported an official as being a ‘Homer’,” Blackburn said. “Well, I saw five out there today.”
But the day’s most interesting action might not have involved any football players. In a short sidebar article, The Daily Tar Heel’s Mike Parnell reported that three people were arrested following a “disturbance” at the game. In the third quarter, one UNC fan had to be removed from the playing field by police after the fan “had been leading cheers from the 20-yard line while the game was in action.”
The fan was eventually apprehended at the west end of Kenan (near the current location of the Kenan Football Center) and then wrestled to the ground and handcuffed, per Parnell’s report. Police said the fan was “belligerent” and refused to cooperate.
The arrest drew a crowd of roughly 200 onlookers who had gathered near the gate, with many claiming police brutality and shouting insults at the officers. According to Parnell, “several fights broke out before police regained control.”
The three men who were arrested were apparently not the original instigators, as police would not identify the fan who had caused the disturbance in the first place. No matter, though; the final line of Parnell’s report notes that “the disturbance went unnoticed by most of the crowd attending the game.”
Epilogue
On the heels of its 30-15 victory, UNC would win its final three games of the regular season to finish 8-4, outscoring VMI, Clemson and Duke by a combined score of 163-54. The Tar Heels then accepted a bid to the Peach Bowl, where they themselves were blown out by No. 8 Arizona State, 48-26.
Dooley was in the process of building a contender, as UNC would finish 9-3 in 1971 and 11-1 in 1972, winning ACC championships both years. The Tar Heels put together solid seasons again in 1976 and 1977 before Dooley left to take the head coaching job at Virginia Tech. He lasted until 1986, when he was replaced by an up-and-coming young coach named Frank Beamer.
UNC replaced Dooley with Dick Crum, who ushered in one of the most successful eras in program history: from 1979-83, the Tar Heels went 4-1 in bowl games, won 10 games twice and won the ACC title in 1980, to this day the most recent league championship in program history.
Featured image via The Daily Tar Heel/Cliff Kolovson
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