North Carolina’s football program never has and likely never will have a recruiting footprint in the state of North Dakota. The Tar Heels don’t recruit that region of the country at all.
However, Phil Farris found his way to Chapel Hill and turned in a solid football career for the Tar Heels.
Born in Charlotte, Farris grew up in the South Pacific and attended high school in North Dakota. He spent a lot of time on military bases. His path to UNC was paved, in part, by his cousin, Ray Farris, who played quarterback for the Tar Heels in the 1960s. He was instrumental in then-UNC Coach Bill Dooley recruiting Phil in the mid-1970s.
“I made the visit and decided to come back down and go to Carolina,” Phil said. “Great choice. I picked that over schools out west.”
Farris’ exploits in another sport may have been what sealed the deal in Dooley’s interest in bringing him in.
Going to high school in Langdon, ND, Farris was a track star and his senior year named the state’s top athlete. So, every once in a while his name pops up in the Grand Forks Herald or the more local paper, the Cavalier County Extra.
For example, in the May 31, 2007 edition of the Herald, Farris was acknowledged for his induction into the North Dakota High School Track & Field Hall of Fame. The paper read:
Farris was a hurdles and long jump champion at Langdon in the mid-1970s and holds the retired 180-yard low hurdles-curve record. He went on to compete in football at North Carolina.
Track was a tool to get noticed in other sports, Farris said.
“The small town where we lived, football was what it was, but was when you had a chance to really accomplish something and get your name out there,” he said. “You had times or distances and that could be measured against somebody anywhere in the country.
“And that’s probably what got me into Carolina. I actually went there to play football and run track.”
In addition to playing football for the Tar Heels, Farris ran track for four years. His time on the gridiron is what most people outside of the Dakotas remember.
At 6-foot-1 and 198 pounds as a senior, Farris initially played a few positions first for Dooley and his last three seasons for Dick Crum. Wearing No. 45, he played defensive back and running back before settling in at wide receiver where he had more success.
Farris’ biggest plays came during his senior campaign. In a big home game against Pittsburgh and quarterback Dan Marino, Farris scored the go-ahead touchdown on a 43-yard pass play from Kupec giving UNC a 14-7 lead in a game the Tar Heels eventually won 17-7. The play impressed the Panthers’ legendary coach.
“They ran great patterns on that one,” Jackie Sherrill told the AP after the game.
Farris remembers the play and season well.
“We had a really good start that year,” he said. “We beat South Carolina in the opening game and beat Pitt. We got off to a really good start. We had a lot of great players on that team: LT (Lawrence Taylor); Buddy Curry; Famous Amos (Lawrence), you could just go on…
“We finished it off, went and played Michigan in the Gator Bowl, didn’t have a lot of respect going into that game and managed to pull that game off.”
The 17-15 victory over Michigan in the 1979 Gator Bowl remains one of the most important football wins in UNC history, and one can argue its importance in ACC football lore is significant, as well.
Farris caught a 12-yard touchdown pass from Matt Kupec to give UNC the lead for good in its surprising win.
“It was kind of late in the game and was a little bit of a busted play,” Farris recalled. “Matt Kupec was the quarterback, and I think (it) was a little bit of a sandlot play and he just threw it up and I happened to be back in the corner of the end zone and caught it, got hit and hung on.
“It was just one of those things that happens. Sometimes, you’re just in the game at the right time and in the right place and you don’t really realize what you did until after it happened.”
For his career, Farris ran the ball 67 times for 252 yards and a touchdown, and he also caught 10 passes for 177 yards and four touchdowns, though the bowl stats back then didn’t count. He also returned five kickoffs for 134 yards in 1979.
He was selected in the 11th round of the NFL draft by the Denver Broncos in 1980. His highlight at UNC, though, wasn’t that play against Michigan or any one specific thing, it was the camaraderie built with his teammates at a time where there weren’t nearly as many practice restrictions as there are today.
Farris never went back to North Dakota to live but has been back a few times. He lives in Lake Norman, NC, and is one of the principal owners of a new propane gas company, 3H Energy.
