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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:
Greg Ellis (1994-97)
Ellis is UNC’s all-time leader in sacks with 32.5 and was a three-time All-America: honorable mention as a sophomore, second team as a junior and first team as a senior in 1997. He was also a three-time first-team All-ACC selection.
He racked up 50 career tackles for a loss of yardage, and overall had 134 tackles and 83 career QB hurries on UNC teams that went 36-12 overall, including 3-1 in bowl games, and finished nationally ranked three times, including twice in the top 10. Carolina went 21-3 over his last two seasons.
He was perhaps the most important member of a Tar Heels defense that finished No. 2 in the nation in each of his last two seasons. Ellis was so reliable he made the rest of the line better.
Professionally, Ellis was the No. 8 overall section in the 1998 NFL draft. He played in the Pro Bowl in 2007, a year he was also named the NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year by several services.
He registered 84 career sacks in the NFL, forced 23 fumbles and recovered 10 fumbles. Had 397 tackles during his 12-year NFL career. Plus, Ellis had four interceptions, returning two for touchdowns. He started 155 of his 162 games as a Dallas Cowboy. He played his final season with the Oakland Raiders.
Since football, Ellis has worked as a television and film producer, best known for his role as executive producer for the movie “Carter High.” He also served one season as head coach at HBCU Texas College.
