Al Groh in a fight?
That's what Virginia's head coach got himself into the first time he butted helmets with North Carolina. Though Groh is better known for his ability to inspire his players into battle than for joining the melee himself, he found himself involved in some, shall we say, "extracurricular activities" back in his playing days as a Cavalier.
"In my first season here, when I was a sophomore, it was the opening game of the season," Groh said. "We played [North Carolina] down there. The final was either 7-3 or 10-7, and there was a big fight that followed it. I remember that part of it very well."
Groh may not have remembered the correct final score -- it was actually an 11-7 UNC win -- but he did accurately recall the intensity of the Virginia-Carolina game. That contest was the first in Groh's college career, played Sept. 21, 1963, when freshmen had yet to be granted varsity eligibility. It surprised me that the mild-mannered Groh I've gotten to know would have been involved in an on-field fracas, and not unexpectedly he claimed to have had nothing to do with instigating the fight.
"I got kind of in the middle as it was going on," Groh said. "I was just running off the field, and all of a sudden there was all this activity going on around me."
Newspaper articles from the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Roanoake Times and Charlottesville Daily-Progress that covered the game didn't even mention the post-game hostilities much less Groh's involvement in the fight, so it's impossible to corroborate his story.
But what's most important was the passion surrounding what used to be a much bigger rivalry. Groh experienced it on both sides in the '60s and '70s, playing for Virginia from 1963 to 1965 and serving as defensive line coach in 1971 and 1972 before joining Carolina in 1973 and serving five years as linebackers coach.
Groh noted yesterday that anticipation for the Virginia-Carolina game has diminished since his playing days, but he maintained that it still means something come kickoff.
"Maybe down there [in Chapel Hill] the N.C. State rivalry has become more important, and here the Virginia Tech rivalry has been really intense," Groh said. "But when I think the [Virginia-UNC] game is played, it's important. It just doesn't have the same yearlong implications."
The game is still boasted as the South's Oldest Rivalry, and Saturday will be the 109th installment of the contest. The all-time record is very close considering the number of meetings between the two schools, as Carolina holds just a 55-49-4 advantage.
With the results roughly equal since the first matchup in 1892, how did the game fall out of favor as Virginia's biggest rivalry? My guess is the unevenness of the game over long stretches -- the Tar Heels won 12 of 13 from 1969 to 1981, and the Cavaliers are 15-6-1 since then.
But to hear Virginia's current players tell it, the game hasn't lost all of its luster.
There are "a couple of individual rivalries -- guys coming out of Carolina not being recruited by North Carolina," senior offensive guard Elton Brown said. "In my case, they recruited me, and then they stopped recruiting me. There's a little more incentive about this game."
In Brown's case, an arrest and conviction in juvenile court before his senior season of high school led UNC to stop recruiting him.
As for the other players who will see the field Saturday, there remains a familiarity between the two rosters that increases the stakes of the game. Seven UNC players hail from Virginia, and five Cavaliers grew up in the Tar Heel state.
When asked what he thought of Groh's involvement in the fight against Carolina 41 years ago, Brown laughed and then said, "I hope he was in there battling with his team. It's an intense game -- emotions run high. Hopefully [Saturday's game] won't come to that, but, like I said, it's a rivalry."
Virginia fans are probably more likely to remember UNC's 2-10 record last season than the closeness of the rivalry's past, but don't suggest that the intensity is gone. Groh, for one, has been known to fight about it.
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