Our series ranking the 20 best UNC football teams of all time continues today. Once this series concludes, we will rank the best UNC basketball teams of all time:
No. 9: 1922
Record: 9-1 (5-0)
Bowl: None
Ranking: None
Coach: Bill Fetzer
All-Americans: None
Honors: None
What's To Know: Although they were Southern Conference champions, there wasn't anything special about the 1922 UNC football team other than it simply won games. At least according to the record books, it finished the season ranked 36th in scoring at 19.1 points per contest, 49th in points allowed at 7.2, yes, that was 49th in the nation at the time.
The Heels’ lone loss was 18-0 at Yale in which three UNC touchdowns were called back because of penalties. UNC’s 20-0 win over Duke, which was still Trinity College at the time, was the first meeting in their rekindled series after Trinity restored the program. Carolina and Duke have played every year since.
The ranking system used at the time, I.B. Thomas, ranked the Heels No. 11 a few months after the season concluded.
Of course, record books don't take into consideration culture, and while UNC didn't adopt a ram as its mascot until the 1924 season, it was Jack Merritt's ascent to greatness in 1922 that helped create the foundation of what would eventually become a deep part of the UNC athletics culture and highly recognized brand.
Merritt was a stud running back on the '22 team, and by the time '24 rolled around he had a well-known nickname as the "Battering Ram." So, when UNC began its quest to come up with a mascot, as rival NC State had recently done, adopting a wolf, the ram was adopted because Merritt was easily the most recognizable player on the team.
