University of North Carolina Athletics
Car-O-Lines: Lotz Made A Difference Off The Field
May 12, 2001 | Men's Basketball
May 12, 2001
By Rick Brewer, SID Emeritus
CHAPEL HILL--Despite what some people think, college athletics is not all about wins and losses.
And it's not about simply making money.
To me, that concept has always been the strangest one of all--that college athletic departments are using student-athletes to build large bank accounts.
Having sat in on numerous budget meetings over the years, I can only say that money trail is being well-hidden if it exists and the athletic directors I've known should all be on Broadway.
Certainly, everyone wants to win. Making money is a necessity to maintain a well-rounded athletic program such as Carolina has. No state money is used, or should be used for that matter, in trying to make the experience student-athletes have here a positive one.
Another part of that experience is learning about community service. This is an area where Carolina has made great progress is recent years. One of the biggest reasons for that was the work of John Lotz.
Lotz was the director of Carolina's community outreach program. In that role he helped get student-athletes involved in numerous community projects.
He passed away last weekend, leaving a huge void not only in his own family, but in the Carolina athletic department as well.
To most people, Lotz is best known as former assistant coach on Dean Smith's basketball staff. He was especially adept at helping players with their shooting techniques and was regarded as an outstanding recruiter. He was on Tar Heel staffs that went to four Final Fours, including three in a row from 1967 to 1969.
He left Carolina to become head coach at Florida in 1973, but was back in 1980 to take the position he held until he passed away.
"I never knew Coach Lotz on the basketball court, but I know he enjoyed the game a great deal," said Shammond Williams, the star backcourt player of the late 1990's last weekend. "He would come around the basketball office a lot to talk and see how the players were doing.
"But, I also know he had a great interest in all our other teams--wrestling, track and field, football, field hockey, women's basketball and all the others. I don't know how he kept up with everyone and everything he had going on."
Lotz wanted all the student-athletes to get involved in some kind of community project. However, with his coaching background, he realized the tremendous demands that were already being placed on them--going to class, studying, practice, games, travel, conditioning and off-season strength programs.
He often would come up with one project and turn it over to a team to handle or have members of that team be responsible for getting other student-athletes involved.
The one that attracted the most attention over the years was the annual Thanksgiving food drive for underprivileged families. Money would be collected to purchase and prepare turkey dinners. Then the student-athletes would gather at Carmichael Auditorium and take the food into the Chapel Hill-Carrboro themselves.
"I always thought this was one of the greatest days of the year," Lotz once said. "Our kids could see how much what they had done really meant to someone in need."
And the student-athletes bought into the idea completely.
One Duke football game in Durham stands out vividly in my memory. This was the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Each player had to place his equipment bag onto the back of a truck after showering and getting dressed. Offensive tackle Russell Babb and a couple of other players stood by the truck and talked to each player about donating their meal money for that night to the food drive.
This was something the players had obviously talked about earlier. They got something from everyone, including the coaching staff.
It was an amazing scene, but one Lotz had seen countless times previously by other teams.
Some student-athletes raised thousands of dollars through the Juvenile Diabetes Walkathon, others would go out to simply clean up trash that was littering a highway, many got involved in collecting clothes for the needy.
Lotz also arranged for student-athletes to serve as speakers at Boy's Club meetings, to civic groups, at high schools and other organizations. Some got involved in talking to junior high and high school students about the importance of staying in school and getting an education.
Working with youth groups, in fact, was an area Lotz enjoyed the most. He worked with the Chapel Hill and Carrboro police in speaking to kids about the danger of drugs. When tickets were occasionally available, he would bring young people onto the Carolina campus for an early-season football game or an exhibition basketball game.
"You don't know what an impression it can make on a youngster to actually be on a college campus and see an athletic event," he once explained. "The idea is to get them interested, not necessarily in athletics, but in college itself. We want them to stay in school and strive to come back here someday as a student.
"As far as athletics is concerned, for some they can see it as an outlet to get them off the street and out of possible trouble."
As a coach and administrator, John Lotz hated to lose. He also knew he had to live within a budget he had been given because money is important.
But, he also knew college athletics needed to offer more to young people than just their particular sport. They needed to see they could make a positive difference in the lives of the less fortunate.
That's something they can carry with them and hopefully continue for the rest of their lives. It's a lesson many Carolina students learned well thanks to the work of John Lotz.
