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Tar Heel Super Fan

UNC student Josh Mayo just might be the most recognizable Tar Heel fan at Carolina games these days.
UNC student Josh Mayo just might be the most recognizable Tar Heel fan at Carolina games these days. (Bruce Young, THI)


CHAPEL HILL - Roy Williams, Joel Berry, Justin Jackson, Josh Mayo.

Josh Mayo?

Turn on a UNC basketball game these days and they are among whom viewers will see. Yet, most Carolina fans that have repeatedly seen Mayo don’t know him by name.

They know him by his exuberance, passion, spirit, that he’s seemingly at every North Carolina football and basketball game, and they know him by his hair.

You know the hair: Dark, frizzed out like a 1970s rock star, and kind of all over the place. He’s that guy.

Josh Mayo is UNC’s super fan and he’s on TV almost as often as the Tar Heels.

“I was born in Chapel Hill to a mother that didn't go to UNC and father that went to Duke,” Mayo said, sitting in his small dorm room on Carolina’s campus, walls adorned everywhere with Tar Heelia. “I grew up a Duke fan until the age of five. For some reason, one day I was upset with my dad for something and I threw a temper tantrum and became a Carolina fan.”

A senior public policy major at UNC, Mayo is winding down his career as Carolina’s student super fan. Saturday will be his final home basketball game, and likely the last time he will stand in the risers representing Carolina Fever at the Dean Dome.

But it’s been a heck of a ride for someone who is almost as recognizable on campus as many of the Tar Heels he so fervently cheers on.

“Yes, a lot more than I ever thought,” Mayo said about the attention he gets. “Just this past week, I was just going on a run, and I was running by a parking lot and a car all of a sudden pulls up and parks across three spaces and a dude hops out and says ‘Hey I see you from TV, can I get a picture with you?’”

Pictures of Mayo at games are easy to come by because seemingly every time a TV camera hits the student section Mayo is right there in the middle. He’s sort of like UNC’s modern-day version of the John 3:16 guy from back in the 1970s and 80s. Turn on the Tar Heels and Mayo is there.

UNC at Florida State in football? He’s there.

UNC at Virginia in football? He’s there.

ACC Tournament, Final Four? He’s there.

And, of course, any time the Tar Heels are at home, Mayo is there.


THE HAIR

UNC fans know him because he’s always on TV, and he’s always on TV because the camera simply knows where to find him, and vice versa. And what makes him stand out is that hair. It’s one-of-a-kind stuff, and it’s his signature.

"This is how I've worn my hair since fourth grade," Mayo said. "I've only trimmed it maybe twice since just to get rid of split ends."

Make no mistake, Mayo isn’t out to seek attention. He doesn’t go to games to get on TV, though his parents enjoy it and have captured many of those moments with photos. Mayo supports Larry Fedora’s and Williams’ teams just like he does women's soccer, women's basketball, volleyball, softball and all of Carolina’s other athletics teams.

"I appreciate the recognition and all that, but if I never showed up on TV, I would be perfectly fine,” Mayo said. “As long as I get to be in the risers or in the football stands and making as much noise as possible and giving as much support to the players as possible; that's the real reason I go to games.”

He’s not Carolina’s super fan with a caveat, he truly is UNC’s super fan. But he has his favorites.

Football and men’s basketball get him most jacked up. He travels to see those teams play and will even wait in awful weather conditions to cheer against a certain basketball team that hails from eight miles up 15-501. For example, 2014 and the snow out.

“The Duke 2014 game, that was my 1st year here,” he recalled. “My first chance to be in the student section for a Duke-Carolina game and that just happened to be the game that was delayed by snow.

“We stayed out in the snow for two hours and then they moved us into the pool for four hours and then they told us the game was cancelled. I think I spent in total 16 hours waiting in line spread out over two days.”


THE DIGS

When in the smallish confines of his dorm, Mayo is comforted by an array of Carolina lore, both past and present. Few spaces aren’t emblazoned with something Tar Heel. Even everything in his closet, it’s UNC all the way and every way.

If anything stands out, though, it’s a large “800” on the wall he and some other students proudly displayed in front of the risers after UNC defeated Syracuse in January for Roy Williams’ 800th career victory.

And like any hardcore fan, surely Mayo has his favorites.

"My favorite football player has been Marquise Williams,” he said. “He was always appreciative of us (students). He always came over to us after games to shake our hands, after wins or loses and I really appreciated that.

“I love when players come and recognize us, it's just nice to be appreciated for that dedication for the team."

How about basketball?

“Kendall Marshall…,” Mayo said. “I always loved his pass-first mentality."

While the Tar Heels have their routines on game days, so does Mayo. He and some friends begin painting each other about four hours before the games begin and for football get to Kenan Stadium three hours before the gates open. That’s how a super fan gets a front row spot.

UNC employs a lottery ticket system for basketball games, but the 150 students that go to the most sporting events are guaranteed tickets to every basketball game. Naturally, super fan Mayo is among the limited throng.


THE FINALE

The regular season for the basketball Tar Heels is just about over, and that means Senior Night for Isaiah Hicks, Kennedy Meeks, Nate Britt, Stilman White and Kanler Coker. But, it’s also Senior Night for Josh Mayo.

This will be his last time in the risers at the Smith Center.

"It's been a fun experience being a student here and really trying to help the players because that's what it's all about," Mayo said. "The idea of missing a game at home kind of pains me right now, so dealing with that next year is not gonna be fun."

But for now, he has one more game, one more chance to have whatever impact he can on a Tar Heels’ basketball game, and that Duke and the player Mayo most disdains is venturing over to the Dean Dome, Grayson Allen is sure to get an earful from the alum of a Cameron Crazy.

But that’s okay. Mayo is a Tar Heel, a Tar Heel Super Fan, and that’s the way it’s supposed to be.

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