University of North Carolina Athletics
From Fetzer To Finley
January 13, 2003 | Men's Soccer
Jan. 13, 2003
By Dave Lohse
Associate Athletic Communications Director
If only the Queen Mum had still been alive she would have certainly enjoyed the ceremony honoring Carolina's 2002 Patterson Medal winners that was held at halftime of the North Carolina-Davidson basketball game at the Dean E. Smith Center on January 8, 2003. She would have been duly proud of what her citizens had contributed to the athletic prowess of the colonies' first public university.
The 2002 Patterson Medal winners as the outstanding senior student-athletes at Carolina were soccer player Danny Jackson, a native of Leeds, Sussex, England and a proud citizen of the Mother Country, and Katie Hathaway, a swimmer from Matthews, N.C. Whoa, Matthews, N.C.? Where are we going with this? Well, in fact, Katie happens to be the daughter of Ken Hathaway, who in his youth was a dashing United States Air Force officer, and the lovely Jan Hathaway, a native of, you guessed it, the country of our founders' ancestors.
What I do know is that after seeing these two student-athletes compete for four years at the University of North Carolina, I am very happy they decided to be Tar Heels. Their contributions to UNC athletic lore are quite significant indeed. Of course, neither was a sure bet to be a Tar Heel, but in reality it was a little easier to lure the black-haired lad from Leeds United to Chapel Hill than it was the fair-haired All-America girl from suburban Charlotte. Go figure.
Danny Jackson, a three-year captain of the Tar Heel men's soccer team, was living in his hometown of Leeds and playing for Leeds United when he heard an uncle who lives in Raleigh, N.C. describe what the University of North Carolina was all about. His interest piqued, Jackson sent UNC coach Elmar Bolowich his resume and Bolowich dispatched then assistant coach Jay Howell to England to watch Danny play. Danny had already become enamored of UNC and when Howell saw Jackson play it became a match. Of course the fact that Jackson's mother is German must have also helped convince Bolowich (with a name like that) even more that Jackson needed to be a Tar Heel.
Ironically it was not as easy for Comfort to convince Hathaway to be a Tar Heel even though she swam at East Mecklenburg High School and the Mecklenburg Aquatic Club, both less than three hours drive from Chapel Hill. With Ken Hathaway having been in the Air Force, the Hathaway clan had lived all over the United States. Older sister D'Arcy had been a swimmer at the University of Texas and given Katie Hathaway's appearance at the 1996 U.S. Olympic Trials, she was a highly recruited young lady indeed.
Jan Hathaway had her heart set on seeing her daughter swim at Southern Methodist University. She liked the private school atmosphere there and at the time SMU was finishing higher than UNC was at the NCAA Championships. Comfort's biggest challenge was winning over Jan Hathaway, not necessarily Katie. But Katie loved Chapel Hill and she overcame her mother's fears about her becoming a Tar Heel. Since that time Jan Hathaway has become a devoted Tar Heel in every respect. Son Drew followed Katie to Chapel Hill a year later and also became a swimmer for Comfort.
Meanwhile, these two athletes went about plying their trades as Tar Heels. Jackson led the Tar Heels to the NCAA Tournament his last three years, earning All-Atlantic Coast Conference honors and All-America honors as a junior and senior. He led the Tar Heels to a national No. 1 ranking in his junior year and then clinched UNC's NCAA championship his senior year with a goal in the late stages of Carolina's 2-0 win over Indiana. He graduated from UNC with his degree in political science in three and one-half years and went on to play last year for the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer.
Hathaway came to Carolina after the Tar Heels had failed to win ACC championships in back-to-back years for the first time in a decade. Her athletic ability in the pool quickly manifested itself as she led UNC to a trio of ACC championships her sophomore through senior years and to a No. 9 NCAA placing as a junior and a No. 13 placing as a senior. She won first-team All-America accolades all four years she was a Tar Heel, was named one of the ACC's Top 50 swimmers of all time and set the ACC record in the 200-yard breaststroke in her final swim as a Tar Heel. An academic All-America selection, she earned a degree in child development and family studies and currently teaches grade school in Winston-Salem, N.C.
When all was said and done the two ended up being voted the top senior athletes in the UNC Class of 2002. With an assist from jolly ole England. We're sure glad they found their way to Chapel Hill.
