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Sports
Briefs
Wrestlers to Grapple
In ACC Tournament
The North Carolina wrestling team
will compete in the 2002 ACC
Tournament on Saturday at Reynolds
Coliseum in Raleigh. The Tar Heels,
who tied N.C. State for the 2002 regular
season title, will be looking for their
ninth conference title in the last 11
years.
UNC is led by seniors Brad Byers
(141 pounds) and Matt Kenny (heavy
weight). Kenny is a three-time defend
ing ACC champion and finished this
season with a 19-7 record including five
pins and six major decisions. Byers is a
two-time ACC Tournament finalist and
completed the 2002 regular season with
a 27-11 record, recording eight wins by
major decision.
Freshmen Chris Rodrigues and Evan
Sola also have been impressive for
UNC coach Bill Lam this season.
Rodrigues (125 pounds) finished the
year at 27-10 and totaled 10 wins by pin
fall. Sola (133 pounds) completed the
regular season by winning 14 straight
matches to improve to 24-8 for the year.
Both Rodrigues and Sola earned ACC
Performer of the Week honors earlier
this season.
Other Tar Heels competing are:
Nick Richmond (184 pounds), who
was 17-12 this year; Michael Booth (149
pounds), who tallied an 11-6 record in
2002; Chris DiGuiseppe (165 pounds),
who finished 13-12; and Mark Canty
(174 pounds), who was 15-11 this sea
son.
Action gets underway Saturday at
11 a.m. The consolation finals are at
4:30 p.m., and the finals start at 7 p.m.
9 Swimmers Invited
To Women’s NCAAs
Nine members of the North
Carolina’s 15th-ranked women’s swim
ming and diving team earned invita
tions Thursday to compete in the 2002
NCAA Women’s Swimming and
Diving Championships to be held
March 21-23 at the University of
Texas. ~
Seven of the nine swimmers have
participated in the NCAA meet in pre
vious years. Junior Laura Collier and
sophomore Whitney Smith are first
time invitees.
Other swimmers qualifying for the
meet are seniors Katie Hathaway,
Stefanie Rulis and Molly Sullivan,
junior Christy Watkins and sophomores
Becky Acker, Jessi Perruquet and Kelly
Weeks.
Hathaway, Perruquet and Weeks
have earned first-team All-American
honors in previous years at the NCAA
Championships while Acker, Rulis and
Watkins have earned honorable men
tion All-America status.
UNC, UM Gymnasts
To Meet for Ist Time
The UNC gymnastics team travels to
Minneapolis to take on ninth-ranked
Minnesota on Saturday at the Sports
Pavilion.
UNC’s No. 22 ranking marks the
first time since 1991 that the Tar Heels
have been listed in the top 25. UNC’s
highest regular season ranking was in
1986 when the Tar Heels reached
N0.12.
This is the first time that UNC and
Minnesota have met in competition.
Men’s Lacrosse Looks
To Build on 6-OT Win
The lOth-ranked North Carolina
men’s lacrosse team returns to action for
the first time since its six-overtime
thriller against Navy when the Tar Heels
host the Delaware Blue Hens on
Saturday at Fetzer Field at 1 p.m.
UNC is off to a 3-0 start under sec
ond-year head coach John Haus. The
Tar Heels have a three-overtime win
against Ohio State, a victory at Bucknell
and the win against Navy.
The Blue Hens dropped their opener
to Loyola at home but have since beat
en Rutgers and Mount Saint Mary’s.
Baseball Heads to Ala.
After Thrashing ODU
Coming off a 23-3 win at Old
Dominion on March 5, UNC travels to
Auburn this weekend for three games at
Hitchcock Field at Plainsman Park.
The Tar Heels (6-5) and the Tigers
have met just three times on the base
ball diamond, including last year at the
Coca-Cola Classic in Mobile, Ala.
Auburn won that seven-inning game
11-1.
UNC defeated the Tigers 3-2 at the
1978 South Regional held in Auburn. In
their only other meeting, the two teams
played to a 3-3 fie in 1923.
From Staff Reports
Former Foundation Head, 79, Dies of Stroke
Ernie Williamson, who led the
Educational Foundation for
30 years, was remembered as
graceful and accomplished.
Staff Report
Ernie Williamson, former North
Carolina football player and 30-year
executive director of the Educational
Foundation, died Wednesday after suf
fering a stroke. He was 79 years old.
“The University of North Carolina
had no better friend nor greater ambas
sador than Ernie Williamson,’’ said
Director of Athletics Dick Baddour.
“Thousands of student-athletes over the
past five decades were given an oppor
tunity for a great education and a chance
to compete in intercollegiate athletics
due to his tireless efforts leading the
Educational Foundation.
Tennis Enters Break With Sweep
The UNC men's tennis team
won eight of nine matches
in its ACC-opening 7-0 win
Thursday against N.C. State.
From Staff Reports
North Carolina opened its ACC
men’s tennis season Thursday afternoon
with a 7-0 victory against N.C. State at
the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center.
The Tar Heels won two of the three
doubles matches to earn the doubles
point before sweeping all six singles
encounters in straight sets.
UNC improved to 7-2 overall on the
season and 1-0 in the ACC. The
Wolfpack is 3-8 overall, 0-1 in the con
ference.
The No. 33 Tar Heels earned the dou
bles point after the No. 2 and No. 3 dou
bles team won in straight sets.
In singles, freshman Daniel
Pinchbeck defeated Biyce McGrory 6-1,
6-3 at No. 4 singles, and sophomore
Andrew Metzler defeatedjon Davis 6-3,
6-0 at No. 6 singles to increase the team
lead to 3-0.
Senior Marcio Petrone then downed
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“Our Tar Heel family will deeply
miss Ernie and his friendship.”
Williamson, a native of Crewe, Va.,
played football at North Carolina in
1946 and headed the Educational
Foundation from 1957-1986.
A lineman, Williamson was a team
mate of Tar Heel halfback Charlie
Justice when UNC posted an 8-2-1
record, won the Southern Conference
title and played Georgia in the Sugar
Bowl on New Year’s Day.
Williamson began his professional
football career after just one year at
UNC, but that career ended premature
ly because of a knee injury. He played
pro football with the NFL’s Washington
Redskins and the All-America
Conference’s Los Angeles Dons.
Williamson earned an undergraduate
degree from North Carolina in 1951 and
a master’s from UNC a year later. He
then became an assistant football, track
and wrestling coach at the University of
Matt Lucas at No.
1 by a 6-4, 6-2
score to clinch for
North Carolina.
Freshman Geoff
Boyd, sophomore
Nicholas Monroe
and junior Trystan
Meniane then won
in order to con
clude the 7-0 victo
ry.
The Tar Heels
are idle until play
ing in the Blue-
Gr a y
Championships at
UNC senior
Marcio Petrone
swept N.C. State’s
Matt Lucas 6-4,6-2
in the Tar Heels’
7-0 victory Thursday.
Montgomery, Ala., next Thursday.
Softball Splits in Ist Day of Tourney
PLANT CITY, Fla. - In the first day
of play at the Speedline Invitational, the
North Carolina softball team went 1-1,
beating Temple 6-3 before losing to
Florida Atlantic by the same score
Thursday.
Against Temple in the first game, the
Tar Heels totaled 11 hits and were led by
senior catcher Natalie Anter, who went
3-for-3.
Senior first baseman Kelly Ramsey
Sports
the South in Sewanee, Tenn. He served
as an assistant football coach for two
years and was head coach from 1954-56.
In 1957, Williamson returned to
UNC to lead the Educational
Foundation, a non-profit foundation that
raises money for scholarships for stu
dent-athletes. He led the organization
for three decades and remained as direc
tor of the endowment and consultant for
many years after stepping down as its
director in December 1986.
“Ernie was one of the nicest people I
have ever known,” said Moyer Smith,
who succeeded Williamson as executive
director of the Foundation. “He could
walk into a meeting with a five-dollar
UNC ash tray and walk out with a
$5,000 donation.
“He was just such a genuinely good,
honest, friendly person who never met a
stranger. Obviously, he loved the
University so much, and that just came
through any time he met someone.”
had a two-RBI double and sophomore
shortstop Emily Price added a triple, her
second three-bagger of the season for
UNC.
Senior Shannon Walsh earned the
win, giving up three hits and striking out
seven.
In their game against Florida Atlantic,
the Tar Heels got all of their runs on a
three-run home run by Walsh.
The shot, over the left-center-field
fence, was her second home run of the
season and the team’s eighth on the
year.
But despite out-hitting the Lady Owls
7-5, the Tar Heels were unable to pull
out the win.
Freshman Ashley Allen took the loss
for North Carolina. She pitched 3 2/3
innings before being relieved by fresh
man Erica Ennis.
UNC (9-8) meets Mississippi on
Friday at 10 a.m. and Central Michigan
at 2 p.m.
On Saturday, the Tar Heels will
match up against Nicholls State at 2 p.m.
to wrap up pool play at the 24-team
tournament.
Single-elimination bracket play
begins Saturday at 5 p.m. and runs
through Sunday afternoon.
Prior to coming to UNC in 1946,
Williamson enlisted in the Navy and
became a member of the Great Lakes
Naval Training Station service team
where he played for Hall of Fame coach
Paul Brown. He served in the South
Pacific during World War 11.
Asked in 1973 why he did what he
did for a living, Williamson answered: “I
love this University, and I believe all
(Educational Foundation) members do.
In the course of my many years here
I’ve been offered twice as much salary to
go elsewhere.
“But we weren’t put on this earth to
do things just for money. You know, it
took a world war for me and my three
brothers to realize the need for a college
education. A lot of youngsters today
need athletics to get that same educa
tion.
“If it hadn’t been for the war and get
ting out and seeing places and meeting
people,” Williamson said, “I’d still be up
. S. -I i j
March 12
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on that farm in Virginia.”
At an awards ceremony in 1986,
then-UNC athletic director John
Swofford said: “Buildings have been
built here because of his excellence and
thousands of young people have had the
opportunity for an education because of
him.
“He’s done all of this with grace, dig
nity and good humor,” Swoffor said.
“Ernie has walked with kings but never
lost the common touch. He is one of
those rare individuals who is both
respected and loved.”
He is survived by his wife of 55 years,
Elva Smith Williamson; son, Wayne,
and his wife, Sarah; and daughter,
Carole, all of Chapel Hill.
He is also survived by his three broth
ers, three sisters and two grandchildren.
There will be a memorial service on
Monday, March 11, at 3 p.m. at the
Dean E. Smith Center. The service is
open to the public.
7