2011 North Carolina Media Guide
Issue link: http://catalog.e-digitaleditions.com/i/39383
The Charlie Justice Hall of Honor, located on the ground floor, is a multi-media history of Carolina football. Photographs, awards, trophies and artifacts detailing the rich and storied history of the sport in Chapel Hill are on display. The James A. Heavner Theater was made possible by a special gift by the former executive producer of the Tar Heel Sports Network and president of Vilcom. The theater is a 30-person mini-theater equipped with sur- round sound and seven dramatic videos pre- senting the history of UNC football. A number of rooms in the Kenan Football Center have been dedicated in the honor or memory of Carolina’s benefactors, fans and athletic personalities. They include the Brinkley Lounge, the fourth floor reception area named for Harvey M. Brinkley Jr.; the Don McCauley/Paul Miller Head Coach’s Suite; the Norman M. (Buddy) Black Jr. Lounge, the fourth floor hospitality area; the Oscar Davenport/Chris Keldorf Quarterback Meeting Room, as given by Bob Biggerstaff; the Jo Allison Clary Smith Weight Room; the Carolina Football Players’ Locker Room, named in behalf of the more than 400 former Tar Heels who donated more than $2 mil- lion to the project; the Nassif Offensive Staff Meeting Room; the Ann and Paul Lawing Coaches’ Locker Room; Koury Box North, box seating on the north side of the stadium named for Maurice J. Koury; the John W. Pope Academic Support Facility; the John W. Pope Stadium Box, a stadium box on the north side; the John D. Swofford Auditorium and the Jimmy W. Garrell coaches meeting room. The 1997 expansion project, in which great care was taken to ensure that the surrounding environment would be altered as little as pos- sible, was the first project to connect the north and south concourses to either end of the lower deck via the third level of the Kenan Center. That project also added nearly 8,000 seats, a state-of-the-art football facility, chancellor’s box and preferred seating box. The Rams Club and its members committed more than $50 million to the project. The football center is named in honor of the late Frank H. Kenan, one of the school’s most generous benefactors. Kenan was a Durham resident and chief executive officer of Kenan Transport Company in Chapel Hill. He passed away at age 83 in 1996. Kenan, a 1935 Carolina graduate, was the great-great-grandson of General James Kenan, a member of the University’s founding board of trustees. An Atlanta native, Kenan had a tremendous impact on the growth of the University. He served on many campus boards, including the Board of Visitors and the Educational Foundation Board of Directors. In recent years the William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust, of which he was a trustee, has donated more than $100 million to schools THE KENAN FAMILY James Kenan of Duplin was one of the original trustees of the fledgling campus in Chapel Hill and was present on Oct. 12, 1793, when the cornerstone to Old East was laid. Since then, the Kenan Family has held an integral role in the evolution of UNC as one of the top academic and athletic institutions in the nation. William Rand Kenan Sr. and his wife Mary Hargrave Kenan are the namesakes for Kenan Memorial Stadium. Kenan was the grandson of James Kenan and the father of William Rand Kenan Jr., whose fortune made in the early 1900s in chemicals, power, railroads and hotels financed the construction of the stadium in 1926-27. William Jr., an 1894 Carolina gradu- ate and Tar Heel halfback in football and later a professor in chemistry, honored his parents with the naming of the stadium. William Rand Kenan Jr. & Bob Fetzer Another branch of the Kenan family included Frank H. Kenan (right), a Tar Heel football player in the 1930s, a 1935 Carolina graduate and a successful businessman with interests in oil, trucking and real estate. Mr. Kenan had a tremendous impact on the growth of the University. He served on many campus boards, including the Board of Visitors and the Educational Foundation Board of Directors. He passed away in 1996 at the age of 83, just one year before seeing the new football center in his name open for the 1997 season. Today the Kenan legacy lives on through the William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust, which has donated more than $100 million to schools in the state’s consolidated university system, including Carolina, N.C. State and the N.C. School of the Arts. Among other things, the trust funds 92 William R. Kenan Jr. Professorships at 56 colleges and universities nationwide. in the state’s consolidated university system, including Carolina, NC State and the N.C. School of the Arts. Among other things, the trust funds 92 William R. Kenan Jr. Professorships at 56 colleges and universities nationwide. Kenan served on the steering committee of Carolina’s Bicentennial Campaign, the University’s largest fund-raising effort. Gifts by him, his family and the trust during the campaign exceeded $31 million. The largest portion of that was targeted for the business school. In 1991 the school was renamed the Kenan-Flagler Business School after a $10 million gift. The preferred seating box that rises above TarHeelBlue.com • 79