South's Oldest Rivalry

South's Oldest Rivalry

North Carolina Tar Heels Virginia Cavaliers
Sport	Football
First meeting	October 22, 1892 Virginia 30, North Carolina 18
Latest meeting	October 14, 2017 Virginia 20, North Carolina 14
Next meeting	2018
Statistics
Meetings total	122
All-time series	North Carolina leads 63–55–4[1]
Largest victory	Virginia 66, North Carolina 0 (November 26, 1912)
Current win streak	Virginia, 1 (2017–present)

The South's Oldest Rivalry is the name given to the North Carolina–Virginia football rivalry.^[2] It is an American college football rivalry game played annually by the Virginia Cavaliers football team of the University of Virginia and the North Carolina Tar Heels football team of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.^[3] Both universities have been members of the Atlantic Coast Conference since 1953, but the Cavaliers and Tar Heels have been playing much longer. They played their first two football games 61 years before the ACC existed, with the series starting 1–1 after a split doubleheader in 1892. Virginia and North Carolina have played each other more times than any other opponent^[4] and their rivalry is tied for the second-most played rivalry in Division I FBS, after the game between Wisconsin and Minnesota (for Paul Bunyan's Axe) in the Big Ten.

As the name of the rivalry indicates, it has long been the most-played rivalry game in the South, although the Deep South's Oldest Rivalry (between Auburn and Georgia) has also been played since 1892 and the SEC version was played twice in 2017 to finally equal the number of games played as the South's Oldest Rivalry. The Virginia–North Carolina game has been played continuously since 1919, while the Auburn–Georgia game has continued uninterrupted only since 1944.

Series history

Long being the most played game among all Football Bowl Subdivision series in the Southeastern United States, it has become known over the years simply as the South's Oldest Rivalry. It is also the oldest series in this highest division in the east. The 2017 meeting marked the 122nd edition of this game (played continuously since 1919), five more than the Army–Navy Game (played continuously since 1930), and now only equal to the "Deep South's Oldest Rivalry" (Georgia–Auburn, played continuously since 1944) which was recently played twice in the same year in 2017.

The game was first twice played in 1892 (Virginia won the first, and North Carolina the second, splitting the southern title). Virginia then claims a southern championship for every year of 1893–1897, with North Carolina gaining a Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association title in 1895 (only loss to Virginia) and 1898. Both overshadowed by Sewanee in 1899, Virginia again went on a tear from the turn of the century until 1905 when North Carolina pulled the upset.^[5]

Virginia and North Carolina have faced each other 122 times. North Carolina leads the all-time series, 63–55–4.^a In 2010 UNC broke a long losing streak in Charlottesville, UNC's first road win in the series since 1981. It ended what many UNC fans mockingly described as the "Charlottesville Curse." UVA led the series from 1893 to 1944, and UNC has since led from 1945 onward. Virginia closed to within two games in 2009, but UNC then proceeded to win seven in a row. Even after the losing streak, Virginia is 20–13–1 in the rivalry since 1983, the year that UVA snapped a long losing spell to the Heels, during which Virginia only beat UNC once from 1969 to 1982.

Second-most played is 103 for North Carolina versus the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, and second-most played for Virginia is 95 against Virginia Tech for the Commonwealth Cup.

Nature of the Rivalry

There is considerable historical lineage and academic standing between the two universities involved. The University of Virginia was founded by third President of the United States and founding father Thomas Jefferson, whereas the University of North Carolina was the first operational state university in the United States. William Faulkner was Writer-in-Residence at UVA, and Peter Taylor was on the UVA faculty and retired in Charlottesville. National Poet Laureate Rita Dove serves on the UVA faculty, and UVA is the alma mater of Edgar Allan Poe and eight winners of the Pulitzer Prize (including Edward P. Jones, Ron Suskind, Virginius Dabney, and five others). UNC is the alma mater of Thomas Wolfe, Walker Percy, and Shelby Foote. President Woodrow Wilson attended UVA and was President of its Jefferson Literary and Debating Society, whereas President James K. Polk attended UNC and was a Senator in its Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies. Assassinated Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was a graduate of UVA's law school.

When the 1985 Richard Moll book was published listing the original eight "Public Ivies," public colleges with rigorous academic standards, there were only two sharing a common athletic conference: the University of Virginia and the University of North Carolina. For at least nine consecutive years, U.S. News & World Report has ranked UVA second and UNC fifth among all public universities, and they are first and second in the east.^[6] The two were also the first future members of the Atlantic Coast Conference to be elected to the prestigious Association of American Universities: UVA was elected in 1904 and UNC in 1922. Only Duke University would join them, in 1938, before the ACC was formed in 1953.

The rivalry is often called a "Gentlemen's Rivalry." One reason for this moniker is the prestigious image, both academically and socially, of both universities in their states and throughout the region. The institutions' student bodies also tend to somewhat mirror one another from a social and academic standpoint. As for today and recent decades, the rivalry itself has been lackluster and less heated as neither program has finished at the top of the ACC since the 1990s.

Contributing factors

Famous Spectators

President Calvin Coolidge attended the 1928 game held on Thanksgiving Day in Charlottesville.

Probably the most famous spectator of this rivalry was present on Thanksgiving Day 1928. United States President Calvin Coolidge and First Lady Grace Anna Goodhue Coolidge were among the 20,000 spectators watching the game at Charlottesville to see North Carolina win 24–20 over Virginia.^[10]

Game results

^{^*} North Carolina forfeits due to using an ineligible player

Other sports

Comparison with other football rivalries

At 122 games played, the "South's Oldest Rivalry" is tied for the second most played rivalry game nationwide among college football's Power Five conference schools, behind only the Paul Bunyan's Axe rivalry between the Wisconsin Badgers and Minnesota Golden Gophers. The UNC-UVA rivalry recently surpassed the Lone Star Showdown between Texas and Texas A&M and Border War between Kansas and Missouri due to the 2010–13 NCAA conference realignment, as one school from each of those pairs moved from the Big 12 to the Southeastern Conference in 2012.

The Deep South's Oldest Rivalry (Auburn-Georgia) may eventually surpass "South's Oldest Rivalry" (UNC-Virginia) in number of games played due to the conference expansion of the SEC and ACC conferences. With the possibility of a same-season rematch in the SEC Championship, Auburn and Georgia can play a second game in the same season; North Carolina and Virginia, however, are in the same division of the ACC, making a similar North Carolina vs. Virginia ACC Championship matchup impossible. Georgia and Auburn's second meeting in the 2017 SEC Championship equaled the UVA-UNC rivalry in total games played at 122.

See also

• List of NCAA college football rivalry games
• Most played rivalries in NCAA Division I FBS

Notes

^a North Carolina forfeited the 1956 game to Virginia for using an ineligible player.^[11][12][13] The UNC athletic department does not acknowledge the forfeit when reporting on the result, and chooses to count the game as a UNC win in its marketing materials.^[14]

¹Virginia won the first game played in 1892.
²North Carolina won the second game played in 1892.

References