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. 6: Chris Hanburger (1962-65)
Chris Hanburger wasn’t obsessed with football or the adulation that came with being great on the field, which is what he was. But he was obsessed with being great.
He played both ways at UNC, first at linebacker and then also at center. Hanburger was one of the last great two-way players in college football, earning first-team All-ACC honors as a linebacker in 1963 and 1964, and remaining a starter paving the way for Ken Willard and the Tar Heels’ offense, as well.
Hanburger was more ballyhooed as a linebacker, a position in which he later played for 14 seasons in the NFL.
The 1963 Tar Heels were co-ACC regular season champions and finished with a 9-2 mark after clobbering Air Force 35-0 in the Gator Bowl. Following the lead of Hanburger’s blocking was Willard, a tailback who ran for 742 yards that season. A year later, Willard was the No. 2 overall selection in the NFL draft.
Hanburger was selected by the Washington Redskins in the 18th round of the NFL Draft in 1965, and went on to have a Hall of Fame career. He was a nine-time Pro Bowl member, was NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 1972,
He started every game for the Redskins in an eight-year span at one point, played in 187 games for the franchise, 175 of which he started, had 19 interceptions, recovered 17 fumbles, and scored three touchdowns.
Hanburger played in a Super Bowl with the Redskins, is in the franchise’s Ring of Honor, and in 2011 was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
