This weekend, North Carolina and East Carolina will play a football game. For some people, it will be a big deal. For me, it won’t be.
But before anyone in Greenville starts cutting up magazines to paste together a death threat, I’d like to explain — without using the term “irrelevant” — why I and many other Tar Heels are ambivalent toward athletic competition with ECU and N.C. State.
Let’s tap into the ethos and pathos of what it means to be a Tar Heel and figure out why we (no offense!) just aren’t that into hating you.
First, a little background. I was born and raised in Chapel Hill, and, like most people of that description, I was taught to support the Tar Heels and hate Duke. As a child, I never considered that fan bases for other schools existed. I imagined, without nuance, the UNC-Duke rivalry as a struggle between good and evil. When I discovered other schools had fans, I was confused. Were State fans simply moral relativists? What did this mean?
But soon, the Wolfpack became my second-favorite team. This was mainly because their name contained the words “North Carolina” right up front, which rendered them similar enough in my mind to the beloved Tar Heels. To be sure, they remained peripheral figures in the main battle between light and dark blue, but I rooted for them when I could.
In grade school, though, the pervasive nature of the rivalry overwhelmed any sparks of vitriol I might have otherwise detected from the N.C. State camp. I had heard stories of Wolfpack fans, but growing up in Chapel Hill, I don’t recall ever actually meeting one.
So when I enrolled at UNC, I was shocked to find that those unseen hordes clad in red and white had hated us all along. I wanted desperately to reciprocate the animosity concealed up until that point by the stretch of I-40 separating Franklin and Hillsborough Streets, but I couldn’t. It was too late.
Of course, I’ve found myself at least annoyed by N.C. State or ECU at times (mainly by their more belligerent fans), but it’s just not the same, and that’s the crux of the matter — there’s only room enough in our hearts for one true hatred.
I acknowledge you, ECU and State fans, and I apologize for my narrow-minded fandom up to this point. Maybe in another era, you were the ones we despised above all others. But here’s the thing: our generation of Tar Heels has already fallen in hate.
