Kenan Stadium

In the chronology

1. 1926 William R. Kenan Jr. gives $275,000 for a football stadium Kenan announced a gift of 275,000 dollars to build Kenan Memorial Stadium in honor of his parents, William Rand and Mary Hargrave Kenan. Construction began in November 1926.
2. November 12, 1927 Kenan Memorial Stadium opens Kenan Memorial Stadium, the gift of William Rand Kenan Jr., hosted its first event on November 12, 1927, when Carolina beat Davidson 27 to 0. It was formally dedicated before the Thanksgiving Day game against Virginia on November 24, when Governor Angus McLean accepted it for the state and the University. People: William Rand Kenan, William Rand Kenan Jr., John Sprunt Hill
3. November 11, 1931 Frank Porter Graham is inaugurated as president in Kenan Stadium On Armistice Day, delegates from campuses across the country attended a full-dress ceremony in the stadium. In an address of more than an hour and a quarter, Graham restated the university's freedom to teach and to report findings whatever powerful lobbies thought, and praised Chase. It was the last such inauguration for the Chapel Hill campus alone.
4. June 2, 1943 Governor Broughton speaks at a Pre-Flight School graduation in Kenan Stadium Broughton and UNC president Frank Porter Graham both spoke at Navy Pre-Flight School graduation exercises in Kenan Stadium on June 2, 1943. People: Frank Porter Graham
5. October 12, 1961 President John F. Kennedy speaks at UNC President John F. Kennedy received an honorary degree at UNC's University Day ceremony, held on the University's 168th birthday, and spoke to an estimated 32,000 people in Kenan Stadium. He pledged that Americans would be neither Red nor dead, and announced a $1 million federal materials research contract for UNC. People: William C. Friday, John F. Kennedy
6. October 12, 1993 UNC and Chapel Hill celebrate their bicentennial UNC marked 200 years since the laying of Old East's cornerstone with a Bicentennial Convocation in Kenan Stadium, where President Bill Clinton spoke to about 45,000 people. The town dedicated Michael Brown's mural of the October 12, 1793, lot auction at the Franklin Street post office.
7. September 2001 Bunting's Tar Heels beat sixth-ranked Florida State 41-9 at home In Carolina's 2001 home opener, moved after the September 11 attacks postponed the SMU game, Bunting's team beat Bobby Bowden's Florida State 41-9 for his first win as head coach.
8. April 24, 2004 UNC dedicates the William E. Scroggs locker room at Kenan Stadium Lacrosse alumni and the Educational Foundation paid to refurbish the men's lacrosse locker room at the old Kenan Field House, and it was dedicated in Scroggs's name before lacrosse alumni and fans.
9. September 28, 2017 UNC's Noteworthy Firsts program honors Karen Parker At a reception in Kenan Stadium, UNC honored Parker among 21 people whose names were given to need-based undergraduate awards and graduate fellowships in its Noteworthy Firsts initiative, begun by Chancellor Carol Folt in 2016. People: Carol L. Folt
10. October 2018 UNC moves Kenan Stadium's honor from William R. Kenan Sr. to his son Chancellor Carol Folt announced that, after talking with the family, the university would change the stadium plaques to remove the honor to William R. Kenan Sr., who led a white supremacist unit in the 1898 Wilmington massacre, and focus instead on the donor, William R. Kenan Jr. People: Carol L. Folt
11. May 10, 2025 Mia Hamm gives UNC's spring Commencement address in Kenan Stadium Former Tar Heel soccer player Mia Hamm, class of 1994, delivered the 2025 Commencement address to 6,829 graduates in Kenan Stadium.

Open these in the chronology →