Chronology

Search and filters

Entries

1. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944

2. 1934
   Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Carl Snavely becomes head football coach at UNC

   Snavely came to Chapel Hill from Bucknell University in 1934. His first UNC team won seven games, lost one and tied one, and included George Barclay, the university's first football All-American.

3. 1934
   Award or honor · Chapel Hill Jim Tatum is named an All-Southern tackle at UNC

   Tatum enrolled at UNC with the persuasion and financial aid of his uncle William Donald Carmichael Jr. He played tackle under Chuck Collins and Carl Snavely, was named All-Southern in 1934, also caught for the baseball team, and graduated in 1935.

4. April 1936
   Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Carl Snavely leaves UNC for Cornell after the Graham Plan dispute

   Snavely did not see eye to eye with university president Frank Porter Graham, whose Graham Plan would have reduced the place of big-time football at UNC and across the Southern Conference. Snavely left Chapel Hill in April 1936 to become head coach at Cornell University.

5. 1939
   Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Jim Tatum returns to UNC as director of freshman athletics

   After following Carl Snavely to Cornell as an assistant football coach and head baseball coach, Tatum came back to Chapel Hill in 1939 as UNC's director of freshman athletics.

6. Civil rights era · 1945–1975

7. 1945
   Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Carl Snavely returns to coach UNC football

   Snavely came back to Chapel Hill in 1945 after being assured that his program would have the full support of the administration. His 1946 to 1949 teams, built around Charlie Justice and returning servicemen, won two Southern Conference championships and played in three bowl games.

8. 1946
   Life event · Chapel Hill Charlie Justice chooses Carolina and begins four seasons at Chapel Hill

   Justice was one of the most sought after players in the country after playing for the Bainbridge Navy team, and he chose Chapel Hill over South Carolina and Duke. He played tailback for Carl Snavely from 1946 to 1949, gaining 170 yards on 17 carries against Virginia in his freshman season.

9. November 19, 1948
   Publication, speech or performance · Memorial Hall, UNC, Chapel Hill Kay Kyser leads a rained-out pep rally in Memorial Hall

   When rain cancelled the outdoor rally and torchlight parade before the Texas game, Kay Kyser, his wife Georgia Carroll and coach Carl Snavely entertained more than 1,800 students in a packed Memorial Hall.

10. 1952
    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Carl Snavely leaves UNC after three losing seasons

    Disputes over the size of the recruiting budget and Snavely's difficulty moving from the single wing to the split T weakened the program. After losing seasons in 1950, 1951 and 1952 he left UNC with a record there of 59 wins, 35 losses and 5 ties.

Suggest a correction to an entry →

A dated event is a fact, filed on the page of the subject it belongs to: a person, a place, a theme, or a named event or history. Pages are subjects, with their own works and sources; the Place, community, or institution filter also gathers the institutions that recur in the entries without a page of their own. The page opens on the highlights; a search or any filter looks through every dated event and storyline, and each filter’s counts say how many entries choosing it would show alongside the others. A storyline is a longer history that gathers related dated events, and each storyline’s page lists its own. Counts give dated events and storylines separately. Dates come from the sources named on the cards and from the index’s event pages; where sources disagree, the card follows the county records. Entries marked approximate or needing research say so on the card; the rest were checked against the source named on it. The correction link under the entries opens the contact form; name the entry and its date and the Friends will check the source. Suggest an event →

Compiled and maintained by the Friends of the Orange County Public Library from county records, the sources named on each card, and the index’s event pages. Last updated October 2, 2026.