High Noon Society, 1974

On November 19, 1974, a group of parents took it upon themselves to write Chancellor Ferebee Taylor an ultimatum: “It is the consensus of my husband, myself, and a large number of our friends (including several attorneys), that if action … Continue reading

On November 19, 1974, a group of parents took it upon themselves to write Chancellor Ferebee Taylor an ultimatum: “It is the consensus of my husband, myself, and a large number of our friends (including several attorneys), that if action is not taken to stop this illegal activity on state-owned property that we may bring suit against the university…”

An image from The Daily Tar Heel opinion page. (DTH, 10/18/1974)

The source of the writer’s ire is an organization known as the High Noon Society. The purpose of the club, as reported by its 227 members in the October 25, 1974 issue of The Daily Tar Heel, was to gather at the Bell Tower or Forest Theatre and “take it easy.” Students would form a crowd and just get to know each other, relaxing and taking a moment to unwind from the stress of academics. So why did the club attract so much attention from concerned parents?

Mostly it was because of the marijuana.

The Daily Tar Heel reported that the club was a group that “smoke[s] pot and socializes on Fridays at noon,” and they certainly weren’t wrong. (DTH, 1/10/1975) “To imply that there is no marijuana smoked would be less than candid,” admitted even a letter defending the club. (DTH, 10/25/1974) High Noon quickly became famous as High Noon, and the publicity caused it to blossom from a dozen members at its formation to a large gathering approaching 300 members.

News release from the Dean of Student Affairs Donald Boulton, 9 January 1975.

By early January 1975, press coverage and public interest had pushed UNC’s administration into action. A mysterious plan was announced to “halt the marijuana use of the High Noon group,” but its members were unphased. The club met that Friday and smoked pot anyway, and the university put its plan into action. Several photographers were placed atop Wilson Library to photograph around 50 of the Nooners entering the Bell Tower lawn. The Daily Tar Heel reported that an assistant dean of student life admitted that surveillance was part of the plan to end the smoking. (DTH, 1/10/1975)

At the same time photographers were spying on them, leaders of High Noon held a conference with 30 members about alternatives to smoking pot. A High Noon with beer or liquor rather than weed was an idea tossed around for a while. The group then remembered that public consumption of alcohol is also against North Carolina law. Around half the Nooners smoked pot after the photographers left, blazing it even in the face of adversity. (DTH, 1/13/1975)

Several Chapel Hill lawyers declared that the photos would have no value in court, mostly because it was impossible to tell whether the club was smoking tobacco or weed. One lawyer went so far as to call photographing High Noon “the most incredible, mind-boggling invasion of civil liberties [he’s] seen in a long time.” (DTH, 1/17/1975)

The Chapel Hill town council later met with the police to discuss the photos. It’s unclear how the meeting ended, but the High Noon Society disbanded shortly thereafter, ending its short (but dramatic) life. It’s not easy being green.

References:

“High Noon, 1974” in the Office of Chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Nelson Ferebee Taylor Records #40023, University Archives, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Finding aid: http://finding-aids.lib.unc.edu/40023/

Various articles from The Daily Tar Heel cited above.

58 and 0: a Clemson streak of frustration

The UNC Tar Heels will host the Clemson Tigers on Tuesday, January 16th, 2018 in the Dean E. Smith Center on the Carolina campus.  The game will mark the 59th meeting between the two teams when playing in Chapel Hill.  … Continue reading

The UNC Tar Heels will host the Clemson Tigers on Tuesday, January 16th, 2018 in the Dean E. Smith Center on the Carolina campus.  The game will mark the 59th meeting between the two teams when playing in Chapel Hill.  Carolina has won all 58 of the previous Chapel Hill games, an NCAA record for the longest winning streak against a single opponent.  Morton Collection volunteer Jack Hilliard offers a look back at the Clemson streak of frustration.

Prolog

The Clemson frustration in never having won in Chapel Hill was summed up by Clemson Head Coach Rick Barnes following his loss in 1997.  When asked in the Clemson locker room after the game by a reporter, who obviously didn’t know Coach Barnes very well:  How do you explain your program’s head-shaking losing streak in Chapel Hill?  Said Barnes, “If you really need an explanation, take you’re a– out there and look up at the rafters.”

Front page headline from the 16 January 1926 issue of The Daily Tar Heel.: "Tar Heels Beat Clemson Tigers by 5–20 Score. South Carolinians Swamped by Getting Late Start In Game. Rowe's Boxers Perform. Entire Fourth Team Plays Last Part of Melee—Cobb, Hackney, Devin, and Dodderer Star.

Front page headline from the 16 January 1926 issue of The Daily Tar Heel.

It all started on Friday, January 15th, 1926, in a metal-constructed arena on the UNC campus called the Indoor Athletic Court (It would become known as the “Tin Can.”)  UNC’s “White Phantoms” (as the basketball team was often called in those days) beat Clemson College by thirty points, 50-20.  The student newspaper, “The Daily Tar Heel” called the point spread a “massacre.”

While the Carolina band blared the note of “Hark the Sound” and “Here Comes Carolina,” the Tar Heel tossers took the court and limbered up for the massacre.

Headline from the 4 January 1934 issue of The Daily Tar Heel: "White Phantoms Get Off To Fast Start In Opener Downing Clemson 38–26"

Headline from the 4 January 1934 issue of The Daily Tar Heel.

Seven seasons would pass before the two teams met in Chapel Hill again, in 1934.  This time Carolina won by twelve, with a final score of 38-26 as 2,500 fans packed the “Tin Can” to open the 1933-34 season.

The game on January 3rd, 1936 was the closest game to date in the Chapel Hill series.  Carolina won 24-23 in the final game played in the “Tin Can.”

When the two teams met in Chapel Hill for the fourth meeting in the series on February 1st, 1938, Carolina was hosting in Woollen Gym with a 44-34 win.  UNC would host and win the three games of the 1940s by double digits, winning the 1943 game by twenty, 52-32.

Clemson played twice at Chapel Hill during Morton’s years as a UNC student photographer.  Only once—UNC’s 47-30 win on February 19— when he would have been able to photograph the game.  Neither the student newspaper, The Daily Tar Heel, nor the nor the yearbook,  The Yackety Yak, published a photograph from the game.  The second Clemson visit to Woollen Gym was on February 2, 1943, but Morton enlisted in the United States Army during the autumn of 1942 and only came back to campus to photograph for the yearbook on one occasion in October 1942.

Cover of the official gamely program for the 1952 Clemson College versus UNC basketball game, played in Woollen Gymnasium.

Cover of the official gamely program for the 1952 Clemson College versus UNC basketball game, played in Woollen Gymnasium.

Eight seasons later, on December 10th, 1952, game eight in the series played out in Woollen with a Tar Heel win, 82-55. It would be UNC Head Coach Tom Scott’s only Carolina–Clemson game in Chapel Hill.

When Clemson came into Chapel Hill on December 19th, 1953, the two teams were now members of the newly-formed Atlantic Coast Conference and Carolina’s new Head Coach Frank McGuire led his Tar Heels to a thirty-seven-point-victory, 85-48—the largest point difference in the series to date.

A thirty-three-point-win in 1954 and a fifteen-point-win in ’55, set up two Tar Heel wins heading into that famous 1956-57 NCAA Championship season when McGuire let the Heels to two more Chapel Hill wins over Clemson, 94-75 on December 8th, 1956 and 86-54 on January 11th, 1957.

When Clemson came into Woollen Gym for the fourteenth meeting, on December 7th, 1957, something had been added.  Television producer C.D. Chesley had brought in his TV cameras for the first regular season ACC game ever and Carolina came away with a 79-55 win.

Coach McGuire and his Tar Heels met Clemson one more time in Chapel Hill during his time as coach, an 83-67 win on December 3rd, 1958.

On January 3rd, 1961, new Head Coach Dean Smith led Carolina to a 77-46 win—the first of twenty-eight Chapel Hill wins over Clemson during his Tar Heel tenure.  The Heels won by sixteen in 1962, and when Clemson came into Chapel Hill on December 1st, 1964 for the eighteenth meeting, they were no longer called Clemson College but were called Clemson University—but continued the losing streak, 77-59.

UNC's Dave Chadwick drives for a layup while Clemson players and Blue Heaven fans watch the action during the teams' 1971 pairing.

UNC’s Dave Chadwick drives for a layup while Clemson players and Blue Heaven fans watch the action during the teams’ 1971 pairing.

Coach Smith led his Tar Heels to double digit wins, in 1966, 1968 and 1971.  Photographer Hugh Morton was in place in Carmichael Auditorium (now called Carmichael Arena), for Carolina’s 1971 win, 92-72.  Surprisingly, it was Morton’s first coverage of a UNC–Clemson contest on a UNC basketball court.

Dale Gipple dribbling to the right side of the key during the 1971 Clemson at UNC basketball game.

Dale Gipple dribbling to the right side of the key during the 1971 Clemson at UNC basketball game.

When the two met in Chapel Hill for the twenty-second time on January 10th, 1973, Tar Heel broadcaster Woody Durham, “The Voice of the Tar Heels,” was in place for his first Carolina vs. Clemson-Tar Heel home game, a 92-58 Carolina win.  Woody would do play-by-play for the next 33 Carolina – Clemson games in Chapel Hill.

The games in 1974 and 1975 were one and two point wins respectfully for the Heels.  A fifteen-point-win in 1976 and a thirty-four-point-win in 1978 preceded another close one in 1980, 73-70.

The game on February 21st, 1981, saw the Heels win by fourteen, 75-61.

Carolina’s 1982 National Championship team beat Clemson 77-72 on January 27th, 1982 on their way to the national title. Tar Heel legend Michael Jordan played his first of two games against Clemson in Chapel Hill, scoring 14 points.

UNC legend Michael Jordan and possibly Murray Jarman look skyward in anticipation of action above the basket. The year of this image is not known.

UNC legend Michael Jordan and possibly Murray Jarman look skyward in anticipation of action above the basket. The year of this image is not known.

The wins in 1983 and ’85 closed out the era in Carmichael, and Hugh Morton was there for that last meeting on February 23rd, 1985—a thirty-four-point-victory, 84-50.

The Carolina vs. Clemson game on February 1st, 1986 was the first Chapel Hill meeting between the two in the Dean E. Smith Student Activity Center (often called the “Dean Dome”). Hugh Morton was there for this UNC-Clemson game as well as the next four meeting between the two, which included a thirty-six-point win in 1988 and Carolina’s first 100 point effort on February 25th, 1989, 100-86.

UNC's Warren Martin #54 with the ball; UNC's Joe Wolf #24 in background during the 1986 Clemson at UNC matchup, their first in the "Dean Dome."

UNC’s Warren Martin #54 with the ball; UNC’s Joe Wolf #24 in background during the 1986 Clemson at UNC matchup, their first in the “Dean Dome.”

Two double-digit wins, in 1990 and 1991, were followed by another 100+ effort on January 9, 1992, 103-69.

Carolina’s 1992-93 National Championship run contained a thirteen-point-win, 80-67 on February 17th, 1993 before 21,147 in the Smith Center. The ‘93 NCAA Championship would be Coach Dean Smith’s second national title.

The game number forty meeting in January, 1994, was a 44-point-winner, 106-62…Carolina’s largest victory margin of the Chapel Hill series.

Coach Smith closed out his career with double-digit-wins in ’95, ’96, and ’97 with Hugh Morton shooting from courtside at each game. Smith’s January 26th, 1997 win over Clemson was listed by UNC basketball author and historian Adam Lucas as the eighth top game in Smith Center history.

Bill Guthridge, Dean Smith’s assistant from 1967 until 1997, took over the head coaching duties beginning with the 1997–98 season. Coach Guthridge managed three wins over Clemson in Chapel Hill: 1998, 1999, and 2000.

When Clemson arrived in Chapel Hill on January 17th, 2001 for game number forth-seven in the series, new Tar Heel Head Coach Matt Doherty was in place and led the Heels to a twenty-seven-point-win, 92-65.  Coach Doherty would add two more Chapel Hill wins over Clemson iin 2002 and 2003.

Current UNC Head Coach Roy Williams was on board for the fiftieth Carolina – Clemson-Chapel Hill meeting on March 2nd, 2004 and continued the winning ways with a 69-53 victory.

When the fifty-first meeting took place on February 19th, 2005, Carolina was on the way to another NCAA Championship.  That ’05 win was a thirty-two-point-blowout, 88-56. Coach Williams continued the winning streak with a 76-61 win on February 4th, 2006.

Although game number fifty-three on January 10th, 2008 was a ten-point winner, it was much closer than the final score might indicate.  At the end of regulation, the score was tied at 82.  After overtime number one it was 90-90.  And finally the Tar Heels were able to pull out the 103-93 win in the second overtime.  All-America Tyler Hansbrough led the way with 39 points and 13 rebounds.

The twenty-four-point-win on January 9th, 2009 was once again a stepping stone to a national title. Recent games fifty-five through fifty-eight have been double-digit wins for Coach Williams and his Tar Heels.  And that brings us to tonight’s fifty-ninth meeting between Clemson and Carolina in Chapel Hill.  Whoever wins game 59 . . . the streaks will continue or new ones will begin.