CHAPEL HILL – Tylee Craft died Saturday afternoon.
The North Carolina wide receiver, who was diagnosed March 14, 2022, with stage 4 large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma, a rare form of lung cancer, lost his battle while his teammates were playing Georgia Tech at Kenan Stadium.
The Tar Heels lost, 41-34, but the only thing anyone around the program spoke about afterward was Craft. The kind of young man he was, the way he uplifted others, and his effect on the program.
UNC Coach Mack Brown met with the media following the game, as he always does, and did so not long after learning Craft had passed away.
“We just heard that we lost Tylee Craft,” he said, choking up with emotion. “He passed. We knew he was really sick, and talking about it we said to the players on Thursday at practice that we felt like he was going to hospice, and they all know what that means, and that he probably had two days to two weeks.
“So, they all ran to see him, hugged him and talked to him and laughed with him. And uh, we didn’t know; we didn’t know if he was going to make it this morning before the game. And you have to figure out how you’re going to tell a group, and what a difficult thing to tell a group of young people about one of their best friends.”
Craft, who graduated last May, recently turned 23 but was still a part of the program. He announced in July he was retiring from football, but left some hope he might one day be back on the field.
Craft’s last game with his teammates was a 21-20 loss at Duke two weeks ago. He went into the hospital before last week’s home game against Pittsburgh, a 34-24 UNC loss, was released two days later before going into hospice late this past week.
Some members of the program and athletic department learned about Craft’s passing during the game, but didn’t tell Brown or the players. He found out when, after walking off the field and through the team’s tunnel, his wife, Sally, and Jeremy Sharpe, Assistant A.D./Football Communications and Branding, took Brown into a room adjacent to the locker room to inform him of the news. Brown then told the team.
“This young man fought so hard for his two and a half years,” Brown said. “The doctors told us he outlived what he should’ve. And he did it with the Spirit, he did it with a smile on his face, he didn’t miss a meeting, he didn’t miss practice, he coached these other young people. I mean, he’s just an incredible young person.”
Saturday happened to be Cancer Awareness Day for the program, something that was scheduled long ago. The team honored Craft during the game, which took place on the field near the end zone in front of the Blue Zone at the end of the first quarter.
Fourteen members of Craft’s family were there, including his mother, September. She and Brown embraced for close to five minutes. The coach sensed what had happened, and walked back to the bench repeatedly wiping tears from his eyes.
“I usually hide my emotions the best I can, because I need to, because I have to be somebody else,” Brown said. “And that team and Tylee were bigger than my feelings, so I had to go back and make sure that...I mean (receiver) J.J. Jones was crying, there were kids crying when I walked back down there.
“You kick into a mode of doing whatever you need to do at that time to make it. I thought we were going to score and win the game. I thought what a wonderful tribute that would be to Tylee, even though I didn’t know that he had passed at that time. If we’d won the game, they would have been so high and celebrating it was going to be such a downer when we told them that they had lost their friend. It’s a hard thing either way.”
The Tar Heels will wear the number 13 on the back of their helmets and will continue wearing the “Tylee Strong” sticker on the helmets.
Jones, a senior, asked Friday if he could wear Craft’s jersey in the game today with Craft’s last name on it, and it was approved. So a different receiver will wear the number 13 jersey in each of UNC’s remaining games.
Carolina is open next weekend, so the team will have time to honor Craft without having to prepare for a game. No information was given yet on when his funeral and other services might be. Craft will be honored in perpetuity by the program, Brown said.
“There will be something that we will do for Tylee’s family that we had already told him,” the Hall of Fame coach said. “The athletics department and university are going to name the nutrition room outside of the locker room; it’s brand new within a year, the Tylee Craft Nutrition Center…
“He had a big smile on his face when we told him that we were going to do that. So it was good that we were able to tell him.”
Craft graduated in 2020 from Sumter (SC) High School. He was part of UNC’s class of 2020, the first full one Brown recruited in his second stint at North Carolina.
Brown said Craft’s mother, a police woman who regularly made the drive to Chapel Hill to see her son, indicated many times she knew Tylee was in the right place.
“I think the family feels the love and they’ll continue to feel the love,” said Brown, again showing emotion. “What we’ve got to do is be strong, and pray for strength for us as leaders, to help these guys on the field and off the field...
“So more than ever before, I have got to step up and be stronger for them and make sure that I can help them manage the stuff and move forward in their lives. I told them that I had a team win 13 games one time, and they did not learn nearly as many life lessons as this team will.”
#TyleeStrong
