Every offseason, we run historical ranking series focusing on North Carolina basketball and football.
The purpose each spring isn’t to make declarative statements, but to have fun offering a subjective look at the best teams and players ever at Carolina. This effort is to generate discourse, debate, and take UNC fans down memory lane.
This season, we are doing something a little different, combining football and basketball, as we offer our take on the Top 40 UNC football and basketball players of all time. The criteria is quite simple: The process includes playing careers with the Tar Heels and professionally, other relevant impacts they’ve had on their sports, coaching, and championships. We also gave a lean toward all UNC accomplishments.
So, this isn’t a UNC-only list, a pro-only list, or a straight up purely best ever list. Some Tar Heels on this list didn’t have great pro careers but were so good and historic at UNC, they simply had to make the cut. Some on this list weren’t stars at UNC, but had outstanding and/or highly distinguished pro careers, that it warranted their place among these 40 athletes.
We hope you enjoy the list and feel free to disagree, as we know many will.
We continue our countdown with:
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No. 12: William Fuller (1980-83)
A defensive end, Fuller was a two-time first-team All-America in 1982 and 1983, was the only unanimous All-ACC selection in 1983, and a three-time, first-team All-ACC performer.
As a senior, he registered 81 tackles, including 22 for a loss of yardage. He set the school’s career record with 57 tackles for a loss, registered 20 career sacks as a Tar Heel and broke up nine passes in his career at UNC, too.
Fuller was a vital part of UNC teams that reached high rankings of No. 3 in 1981, No. 5 in 1982, and No. 3 in 1983, and were ranked in the top-10 in 18 of 45 polls.
He’s a member of the College Football Hall of Fame and was named to the 50-year 50 Greatest ACC Players Ever team.
Professionally, Fuller was drafted in first-round of NFL Supplemental draft after signing with the USFL, where he played for two seasons with the Philadelphia Stars. He ended up playing 13 seasons in the NFL with the Houston Oilers, Philadelphia Eagles, and San Diego Chargers. Fuller was four-time Pro Bowl player, one-time All-USFL, registered 100.5 career sacks, had 483 tackles, forced 19 fumbles and intercepted one pass.
He was on two USFL championship teams with the Baltimore Stars, set a Philadelphia Eagles’ record by recording a sack in seven consecutive games in 1994. Fuller was named NFL Defensive Player of the Week three times.
Fuller has helped raise more than $5 million for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation. He has also served in roles with numerous other charities and organizations include the Special Olympics.
