University of North Carolina Athletics
Justice Era Tar Heels Ready for 55th Anniversary Reunion
July 12, 2001 | Football
The Golden Years of Carolina football will come alive again next fall when the Tar Heel players from the Charlie Justice Era return to celebrate the 55th anniversary of their first season.
The reunion will be held over the weekend of the Sept. 15 Carolina-Southern Methodist game, which is the Tar Heels' first home game of the 2001 season. Justice, the All-America tailback who led the 1946-49 teams to the Sugar Bowl twice and the Cotton Bowl once, is expected to attend, along with a large number of the players who made up the squads during those four seasons.
But "it will not be just another reunion," said Bob Cox, an outstanding end and nationally ranked place-kicker on the Justice teams who is chairing the reunion events. "We have a purpose that not only includes celebrating those wonderful years past but also is aimed at strengthening the Tar Heel football tradition for the future. We are joining hands with the entire Tar Heel family in making this a weekend to remember."
Among the major preliminary events will be a banquet on Wednesday, Sept. 12, honoring Justice, his teammates, UNC football lettermen everywhere and new head coach John Bunting. A golf tournament will follow the next day at the recently renovated Finley golf course, and both will be fund-raisers to enhance the Charlie Justice Endowment.
Although no goal has been announced, Cox said the hope is to make it "among the largest and most prestigious scholarships at the university." To that end, Cox added, "we are working in concert with athletics director Dick Baddour, Educational Foundation President John Montgomery and Coach unting. All three share our enthusiasm for perpetuating the tradition established by Charlie Justice and his teammates."
The reunion festivities for the Justice Era players and special guests will continue Friday, Sept. 14, with a morning golf outing at Finley - the 'Mike Rubish Shootout' named for one of their colleagues - followed by a tour of the Frank H. Kenan Football Center and then a dinner in its VIP lounge. On game day there will be a breakfast at the Radisson Governors Inn and, after the game, another banquet/lunch/dinner yet to be announced.
The 1946-49 Tar Heel football teams won 32 games, lost nine and tied two, attaining national rankings of 9th, 9th, 3rd and 16th in the final Associated Press polls for those seasons, respectively. And Justice, as tailback in the single wing of the late Coach Carl Snavely, distinguished himself as an extraordinary runner, passer and punter, made the cover of Life Magazine, was twice runner-up for the Heisman Trophy and was North Carolina's most celebrated sports hero in the years immediately following World War II. Many call him the state*s No. 1 collegiate sports figure of the 20th Century.
In failing health the past couple of years, Justice still protests the period being called the 'Justice Era,' preferring to refer to it as the 'Golden Era' to give proper credit to his teammates. But Cox sums it up this way. "Without Charlie, we would have been a good football team. With him, we were a great team."
