Media Guide - North Carolina

Carolina History
The 2002 Tar Heels captured the 25th ACC championship
in school history.
The University of North Carolina men’s tennis
program began its march to greatness in 1908.
The 2008 season will mark 100 years since that
first Carolina team played the Tar Heels’ first varsity
season. Because three teams were not
fielded in later years the 2008 campaign will actually
mark the 98th season of UNC tennis. The
2010 campaign will mark the 100th UNC team
of all-time.
Carolina’s tennis history is rich in nature. The
Tar Heels have won more dual matches than
any other school in history.
Over the course of the past 18 seasons during
the assistant coach and head coach tennure
of Sam Paul, the Tar Heels have claimed six Atlantic
Coast Conference regular-season or tournament
championships (1990, 1991, 1992,
1996, 2002, 2004); earned 10 final Top 25 national
rankings from the Intercollegiate Tennis
Association (1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994,
1996, 2000, 2004, 2006, 2007); and merited 15
spots in the NCAA Tournament field (1992,
1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000,
2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007).
The 2007 squad received the school’s highest
seed ever in the NCAA Tournament at No. 6; the
2004 and 2006 teams were both seeded No. 11
in the NCAA Tournament. The Tar Heels hosted
an NCAA regional in 2004 for the first time since
the tournament went to its current 64-team format
in 1999. The 2006 team also hosted an
NCAA regional and beat Clemson in the regional
final to advance to the NCAA Sweet 16
for the first time since 1993. In 2007, Carolina
again hosted an NCAA regional at the Cone-
Kenfield Tennis Center.
The results of the past 18 years have been
cause for celebration for Tar Heel head coach
Sam Paul and his players. Carolina’s proud tennis
program regained momentum in the 1990s
Wayne Hearn earned 1985 Atlantic Coast Conference
Player-of-the-Year honors.
2008 UNC MEN’S TENNIS • PAGE 34
In the 1960s and 1970s, the Tar Heels regularly
drew capacity crowds at the Cobb Dorm clay
courts, then the home of UNC tennis.
similar to that from its early years in the nascent
decades of the 20th century. It seems only appropriate
that the first decade of the 21st century
match the accomplishments long associated
with the sport of tennis in Chapel Hill.
Carolina has always had an especially rich
tradition in the sport of tennis, featuring a long
list of great coaches, players and teams. Over
the past 100 years, since the first team was
fielded in 1908 and during 97 successful seasons,
UNC teams have compiled a phenomenal
won-loss record that cannot be rivaled in all of
college athletics.
The Tar Heels’ overall dual-match record
stands at 1,422-351-8, a winning percentage of
.801. It was during the 2002 season that North
Carolina reached the point in its history where it
had 1,000 more wins than it had losses, any
amazing feat of long-term excellence. The milestone
will came on February 9, 2002 when UNC
defeated West Virginia 7-0 at the Cone-Kenfield
Tennis Center. The win gave the Tar Heels
1,000 more wins in history than losses for the
first time as UNC’s record stood 1,307-307-8 at
the end of that day. Going into the 2007 season,
UNC teams have won 1,071 matches more than
they have lost.
Since the first Tar Heel team was fielded in
the spring of 1908, 84 of 97 North Carolina
teams have posted winning records, five have
had break even seasons and only eight have
had losing records and even one of those was
good enough to qualify for the NCAA Tournament.
During three years in the early part of the
20th Century, the University fielded no team at
all and in only five of the eight all-time losing
seasons did the team actually play more than
two matches on its entire schedule, finishing 3-
4 in 1945, 8-9 in 1957, 14-16 in 1986, 11-14 in
1999 and 11-12 in 2003. Nineteen of the 97
The 2004 UNC team earned the privilege of
hosting an NCAA Torunament regional for the
first time in school history.
Allen Morris served as UNC head from from
1990-93 and was succeeded by his assistant
Sam Paul.
teams have finished their campaigns undefeated,
the last time coming in 1970 with an 18-
0 mark. During the late 1930s and early 1940s,
Carolina teams put together a 67-match winning
streak, a collegiate record in its time which was
eventually broken by William & Mary in 1949.
Twenty-four Carolina teams have finished the
season ranked among the nation’s Top 25
teams, topped by a tie for third place at both the
1947 and 1948 NCAA Championships. The University
of North Carolina also played host to the
71st National Collegiate Tennis Championships
in 1955 on the Campus Courts in Chapel Hill.
Since the NCAA abandoned flight play and went
to a team tournament format in 1977, Carolina
has made the NCAA field on 17 occasions — in
1977, 1978, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996,
1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004,
2005, 2006 and 2007.
Success in the Atlantic Coast Conference has
also been the rule of the day during Carolina’s
vaunted tennis history. Since the conference’s
formation during the summer of 1953, Tar Heel
teams have won a total of 25 league championships,
including 23 outright crowns. In fact, in
54 years of Atlantic Coast Conference competition,
the Tar Heels have finished outside of the
upper division of the league standings only five
times and have been either first or second in the
standings in 39 of those 54 years. The Tar Heels’
cumulative regular-season dual-match ACC
record stands at an amazing 305-80, a winning
percentage of .792. Carolina players also won
86 ACC singles championships and 37 doubles
titles before flight champions were eliminated
after the 2001 season.
The Birth of Tar Heel Tennis
The roots of tennis competition at the University
of North Carolina date back to 1884 when
Tommy Bradford won the 1953 Southern Conferene
and 1955 Atlantic Coast Conference doubles
titles.