CHAPEL HILL – One of the rewards for whichever team wins the annual Duke-North Carolina football game is they keep the Victory Bell for a year until the rivals meet again on the gridiron.
And one of the pleasures for UNC is that when Duke week returns the following fall, out comes the Bell during the week, and the Tar Heels ring it, and ring it, and ring it some more. Cheerleaders bring it out onto the Kenan Stadium turf for all home games, but it’s the symbolism of the bell during Duke week that really stands out around the program.
So, with the Tar Heels and Blue Devils meeting Saturday night at Wallace Wade Stadium (8 PM, ACC Network), the bell is out and the players are getting a regular earful.
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“Kevin Donnally, he’s the one person, every time I do hear the bell, he’s the one near it,” junior receiver Josh Downs said earlier in the week, referring to former Tar Heel (and NFL player) and current Director of the Koman Game Plan for Success.
The bell came into existence in 1948 when head cheerleaders for both Duke and UNC agreed that the schools needed to play for something significant. Other rivalries, such as Minnesota and Wisconsin competing for Paul Bunyan’s Axe, Mississippi State and Ole Miss vying for the Golden Egg, and Indiana and Purdue battling annually for the Old Oaken Bucket, among many others, are historic and part of the game’s lore.
So, UNC and Duke adopted the Victory Bell as their reward. Carolina has won the last three meetings between the neighbors, and owns a 63-41-4 all-time record versus the Blue Devils. They have met every season since 1922. The Heels don’t intend on losing the bell this weekend.
“That bell’s been here for a while, it’s been here for as long as I’ve been here,” said junior cornerback Tony Grimes. “We can’t lose that bell. The goal at UNC; we gotta beat Duke.”
Not all of the Tar Heels were well versed as of last week on the meaning of this game and the “trophy” that spends a year with the winner. Noah Taylor played four seasons at Virginia, which battles Virginia Tech each year for the Commonwealth Cup. He and the Cavaliers won that in 2019, but this week has been new to the starting jack on defense.
“It’s been sitting here, but I really didn’t know what it was until (Sunday),” he said, smiling. “I’m just starting to gain that, I want that bell. We’re ringing it throughout the whole practice, I’m like, ‘Alright, I see why it’s so important.’”
Downs had an interesting moment with the bell Monday night. He and true freshman running back George Pettaway were at the Kenan Football Center and Downs decided to ring it himself. That was the last time he will do such a thing.
“I didn’t realize it was that loud,” Downs said, chuckling. “It hurt my ears. I’m staying away from it now… It kind of shook my ears a little bit, and I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m gonna step away.’”
But the Tar Heels aren’t going to collectively step away from the bell. In fact, if they beat the Devils on Saturday night, they will rush to the bell ringing it incessantly. Seniors will get the priority.
Grimes says it’s about continuing the team’s recent surge in performance having won consecutive games and sitting at 5-1 overall and 2-0 in the ACC. But it’s also about that trophy.
“Going down there in Durham, we’ve got to put on a show,” he said. “(And) we’ve got to keep the bell here.”
