University of North Carolina Athletics
We Are Everywhere
June 22, 2000 | General
June 22, 2000
By Dave Lohse, Director of Media Relations for Olympic Sports
There is nothing like a long weekend in Chicago to reassure me that all is right with the world once again. Returning to the site of my birth and breeding never seems to fail in its effort to soothe and comfort me.
There are so many things which harken back to some of the best times of my life--a walk through Grant Park, enjoying a Diet Coke as Buckingham Fountain spews majestically against the backdrop of America's most awesome skyline, perusing the latest exhibit at the Field Museum of Natural History (my father would want me to mention that one of my ancestors worked on the facade of that grand structure), a shopping spree on the Magnificent Mile, meals at the Berghoff, Ann Sather and the Mashed Potato Club. How could life be better than that?
What also strikes me on my return visits to the City of Broad Shoulders is the fact that WE ARE EVERYWHERE. And by that I mean the Carolina influence. A trip to NIKETOWN on Michigan Avenue opens up with story high images of Mia Hamm and Marion Jones in the foyer of the building. Go to the third floor and the influence of that guy named Michael is omnipresent. I will admit that I was tempted in the college section of the building to cover up all the Dook T-shirts and shorts with Carolina items of the same vintage but my traveling partner Angie convinced me that wouldn't be a good thing to do.
Walking around the Lake View neighborhood where our hotel was located, up and down the Magnificent Mile and through Grant Park and the Loop one could not help from seeing Carolina gear everywhere--T-shirts, hats, baggy basketball shorts, the replica basketball jerseys, sweathshirts. I saw far more Carolina gear on people in Chicago than I saw folks touting the University of Illinois, Northwestern or DePaul. The only school that kept up with the Tar Heels was Notre Dame, another school which can boast of being everywhere.
On Friday Angie and I joined a Carolina alumnus friend and his roommate for the Cubs-Expos tilt at the Mecca of baseball, Wrigley Field. Within 30 seconds of entering that famed edifice I saw at least three folks wearing Carolina gear, including a pair of 2000 Final Four T-shirts and one of those obnoxious red baseball caps with the NC on the front and the Tar Heel logo on the back. Red. Why?
We took our seats four rows behind the first base dugout (God Bless you Dennis Ferrazzano) and I struck up a conversation with the large group of middle aged men behind me. Not surprisingly one has a daughter who will be a senior in high school next year and has North Carolina on her short list of schools. Another was the father of a lacrosse player to be at Amherst College who is friends with Tar Heel freshman lacrosse standout Peyton Chane of New Trier High School in suburban Chitown.
Sammy tripled home three to end a seven-run inning for the Cubs as they came from 5-1 down to win 9-8. It was a great way to end a beautiful day on the North Side of Chicago. And as I left the park the organist serenaded us with Show Tunes and I left with the confidence that as a Tar Heel through and through I am hardly alone in this world. Not even in the heart of the Windy City.
