Daily Tar Heel: ‘Old college try,’ R.I.P.

“In his nine years as coach at the gridiron-conscious University of Maryland, Big Jim Tatum saw his Terrapins cover themselves with glory: they won 71 games, lost only 13, played five bowl games. It was only natural, therefore, to expect that when Big Jim announced that he had accepted a $15,000 coaching job at the University of North Carolina, Maryland should be plunged in gloom. But the gloom was hardly universal — nor was there cheering at Chapel Hill….

“Roared North Carolina’s Tar Heel on Tatum’s imminent arrival: ‘Now that we have this parasitic monster of open professionalism in our midst, let’s not hold on to any delusions about it. Let’s not think that it will fail to dye the whole fabric of athletics at the university. Let’s not think either that it will fail to take its toll on the academic health of the school. Let’s not believe that Jim Tatum . . . will play the game any more for the old college try here than he did at Maryland. He will play to win and win alone.’ ”

— From Time magazine, January 23, 1956