AJ: 127 Years, 124 Games And This Is It?

Nine days after North Carolina and Virginia met on the football field for the first time establishing what is still known as the South’s Oldest Rivalry, Grover Cleveland defeated incumbent Benjamin Harrison to win the presidency.

It was the second time Cleveland won a presidential election, though his administrations bookended Harrison’s. That might be the most memorable thing about Cleveland’s time in office, and in the 122 meetings between UNC and UVA since, the most unforgettable game just may have taken place in 1996.

That also happened to be the first time this then-young scribe covered a sporting event of any kind. It was Nov. 16 and may still be the most damaging loss in UNC football history.

Virginia 20, Carolina 17.

But it didn’t appear headed that way nearly 50 minutes into the contest, though.

Mack Brown’s Tar Heels entered the game with an 8-1 record and ranked No. 6 in the nation. UNC’s defense was rated No. 1 in the land and the Heels’ only blemish was a 13-0 loss at Florida State, which played for the national championship that season. UNC held FSU’s explosive offense to just 213 total yards and seven first downs on the day.

So, this was an awfully good Carolina team, one that went into the game with a chance at earning a spot in the Bowl Alliance, which was an agreement between the Sugar, Orange and Fiesta bowls to try and match the top two teams in the nation to effectively stage as true a national championship game.

There was no playoff and the BCS’ birth was just around the corner, so the Bowl Alliance was a really big deal. The pay out to each participating team was $8.5 million, so that was big-time stuff. And with a win in Charlottesville and a certain defeat of a horrid Duke team a week later, Brown and the Heels were about to literally jump into the upper echelon of college football.

And there they were, leading the Cavaliers 17-3 with 10:17 left in the game and facing a third-and-goal at UVA’s 9-yard-line. Just don’t turn over the ball and the worst the Heels were going to do is kick a field goal and go up three scores. No way George Welsh’s Wahoos come back from that. No way.

But that’s not what happened.

UNC quarterback Chris Keldorf dropped back to pass looking for Octavus Barnes and eventually threw the ball to the spot where Barnes was supposed to be waiting for the ball. It was just four yards away at the 5-yard-line, so it was a bang-bang play.

Yet, Barnes wasn’t exactly there. He was actually at the 3, and stepping in front of him snaring the ball was Raleigh native Antwan Harris who raced 95 yards the other way into the end zone. Scott Stadium erupted into a wild frenzy and the Tar Heels never recovered.

UVA QB Tim Sherman, who had earlier thrown an interception that Dre’ Bly returned 51 yards for a touchdown, scored on a 7-yard run, and Rafael Garcia booted a 32-yard field goal with 39 seconds left lifting the No. 24 Cavaliers to the improbable victory.

Gone for UNC was a shot at a major bowl and a year later, after leading the Heels to a second consecutive top-10 final national ranking, Brown was also gone, off to Texas where he eventually won a national championship and became a College Football Hall of Famer.

Brown is back now and remembers that game well. It gnaws at him, too, as it should. The great ones always remember the games that got away from them, and that one did.

On Saturday night, the Wahoos and Tar Heels will get together again. This time inside Kenan Stadium. And while the stakes aren’t as high as they were 23 years ago, there’s still a lot on the line and it’s safe to call this the biggest game between these once-bitter rivals since the Keldorf-Barnes miscommunication flap. In some respects, this might be the biggest game UVA and UNC have ever played against each other.

By the time both were nationally competitive at the same time in the 1990s, Florida State owned the ACC, so this border war never determined anything banner-worthy in conference play. But it does this Saturday.

Both clubs are 3-2 in the ACC, and as members of the chaotic Coastal Division, the winner Saturday night will be well positioned to claim the division title and face Clemson in the conference title game in December.

Like the game in ’96, the stadium will be full, it will be cold outside and something significant will be on the line.

It is, to be frank, the biggest game these teams have played against each other since. And that’s pretty cool.