by Charly Mann

On March 31, 1962 the residents of Chapel Hill had one thing on their mind, and almost everything else in town was canceled or postponed. The next day at 7 PM in Kenan Stadium the UNC Scholastic Team was going to meet Harvard in the 23rd annual National Championship Academic Bowl. Every seat in the stadium had been sold-out within two hours of the National Academic Council's announcement that the contest would be held in Chapel Hill. Tickets to the event with a face value of $15 (which is the equivalent of $107 today) were being scalped for as much as $100 that very day.

UNC students celebrating on Saturday March 31th, 1962 in honor of the UNC team's appearance in the Academic Championship Bowl the next day

Since the inception of the Academic Bowl in 1939 no southern university had ever made it to the championship. Chapel Hillians were simply ecstatic that their team had gotten this far, and were well aware that the Tarheels had little chance of beating Harvard. The last non-Ivy League school to win the National Academic Championship was the University of California at Berkeley in 1957. Harvard had an incredible team that had won three out the last four championships, and this year's team returned two starters from the previous year's team that had trounced Stanford 330 - 55 in the 1961 final.

1962 UNC National Champion Academic Team
First row: Mark Armstrong, Donald Springen, and Bill Imes
Second Row: Hayward Clayton, William Patterson, George Carson, Charles Heatherly, and Kellis Parker

On Sunday, the day of the championship, even church services were canceled throughout Chapel Hill and most restaurants were closed. Both of the local TV channels, WTVD in Durham and WRAL in Raleigh preempted all their scheduled shows for live newscasts that focused almost exclusively on the match. The national media also swarmed over Chapel Hill, and the Bell Tower parking lot was littered with television trucks. The headlines of that day's New York Times proclaimed "Greatest Brains in College History Compete Today".

Werner Friedrich was the 1962 UNC Academic team coach and also the chairman of the Department of Comparative Literature. He received his PhD at Harvard, the school he coached against in the 1962 National Academic Bowl.

Fans began arriving early for the contest, and by 5 PM Kenan Stadium was packed. The Tar Heels and the Harvard Band performed for more than an hour. At 6:50 PM the national anthem was sung by Frank Sinatra, who had flown in from Las Vegas on his private jet and was staying with Kay Kyser. Next the two teams were introduced. First the defending champion Harvard Crimson team and coach were introduced to polite applause from the partisan crowd. As soon as Art Fleming, the host and inquisitor of the match, began announcing the Tarheel team, the crowd on both sides of the stadium came to their feet and erupted into the loudest cheers and applause I have ever heard in my life. None of the names could be heard above the roar, but the four starters for the UNC team were Donald Springen, Hayward Clayton, George Carson, and Kellis Parker.

At 7:00 a national TV audience joined the event that was carried by NBC. The two teams were seated on a podium on the West side of Kenan Stadium. In the center of the stage was Art Fleming and on the left side was a long table with four chairs where the Tar Heel team was seated. On the right sat the four members of the Harvard team. In front of each team member was a buzzer. The game began with a 20 point question which could be answered by the first team to hit the buzzer indicating they knew the answer. The first question was, "He studied scientific farming under George Geddes several years after his vision recovered from the sumac poisoning he suffered as a youth. After heading the U.S. Sanitary Commission during the war, he became chair of Yosemite property for California where he implemented ideas like the 'parkway.' An outspoken essayist, works like The Cotton Kingdom expressed his abolitionist politics, while his urban designs, often collaborations with Calvert Vaux, were meant to bring nature to the masses. He planned the terrace of the U.S. Capitol, the Stanford Campus, and Jackson Park in Chicago, now for twenty points, name this engineer and landscape architect who remains best known for designing Central Park?" The instant he completed the question Harvard buzzed in and correctly answered "Frederick Law Olmsted." The score was Harvard 20 and UNC O.

UNC students cheering as UNC Academic Team is introduced before championship at Kenan Stadium in 1962

The Next question was, "For 30 points this Englishman discovered Hawaii on his third voyage, and on his first voyage aboard the Endeavor he sailed the entire length of Australia’s eastern coast, which he claimed for Britain and named New South Wales." Again Harvard buzzed first and answered correctly, "James Cook." Harvard was ahead 50 to 0.

The third question was, "Act II of this play features one of the characters remembering his time in Morocco where he had to fend off a child prostitute, while Act IV begins with Dr. Baugh arriving to deliver some morphine and a woman coming to realize that her husband has terminal cancer. One of the central characters repeatedly asks for solid quiet and drinks until he hears a click in his head so that he can forget the death of his best friend, and possible lover, Skipper. Ultimately, the greedy and oddly fertile Mae and Gooper lose out as Big Daddy names the other Pollitt son as his heir. For 30 points, name this 1955 play that revolves around the doomed marriage of Brick and his wife Maggie, a work by Tennessee Williams." As before Harvard buzzed first, but this time they answered incorrectly, saying, "The Long Hot Summer". For an incorrect answer to a 30 point question Harvard lost 15 points. UNC then correctly answered the question with, "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", and the score was Harvard 35 and UNC 30. There were sixteen more questions in the first round which lasted thirty minutes. At the end Harvard seemed to have an insurmountable lead with 170 to 55.

The final round did not get off to a good start for UNC. The first question was, "For 30 points, take the number of German Reichs and add the number of French Republics. What is the answer?" This time UNC buzzed first and answered "seven." "Incorrect," Fleming said and UNC was down by 170 to 40. Then Harvard gave the correct answer of "eight," and it became 200 to 40. An embarrassing blowout for the Tarheels seemed inevitable.

The next question was, "For 20 points this was the port city where on September 15th 1950 MacArthur landed troops behind the North Korean lines sending the North Koreans into retreat." UNC again got to the buzzer first and this time answered correctly, "Inchon." Harvard 200 and UNC 60.

Throngs of UNC students heading to Kenan Stadium for the Harvard - UNC National Academic Championship in 1962

The third question was, "The Treaty of Paris ceded this area to the US, and the Continental Congress passed an ordinance in 1787 to set up the area's administration. For 30 points, name this early American territory, which has since been divided into five states and part of a sixth."  This time Harvard answered first and said, "the Northwest Territories." Fleming said this was incorrect, and the Harvard captain shook his head in disbelief. UNC then said "Northwest Territory," which the correct answer. Harvard now led 185 to 90.

For the next 10 minutes UNC tried to make up its deficit, but with less than four minutes remaining the score was Harvard 285 and UNC 190. The next question was, "The ostensible villain of this work is the heir to the estate Coombe Magnon, and he must marry Sophia Grey to ensure that inheritance. The heroine briefly becomes the confidante of Lucy Steele, who had entered into a secret engagement with a man the heroine loves. However, that engagement is broken and the path becomes clear for the two weddings that end the novel in which Colonel Brandon and Edward Ferrars are the grooms. For 25 points, name this novel in which Elinor and Marianne Dashwood represent the title sentiments, a work by Jane Austen." UNC's Kellis Parker seemed to buzz as soon as the last syllable to the question was uttered, and answered correctly, "Sense and Sensibility." Harvard 285 and UNC 215.

The next question was, "For 30 points, what was the name of the first transatlantic passenger steamship?" Several Harvard team members seemed sure of the answer even before the question was complete, but were confused about which member would hit the buzzer. As a result UNC buzzed a couple of seconds later, and correctly answered, "Great Western." Now it was Harvard 285 and UNC 245 with less than two minutes remaining.

UNC students on Franklin Street Chapel Hill in a massive all night celebration of the University of North Carolina's Academic Championship

The next question did not take much time to ask, "Solar cells work on this principle where electrons are ejected from a metal surface upon exposure to electromagnetic radiation. Einstein used Planck’s quantum theory to describe it mathematically. For 30 points name this principle." Instantly a UNC player buzzed and said, "The photoelectric effect." "Correct," said Fleming and UNC now trailed by 10 points with exactly 35 seconds to go.

Every UNC fan was praying that there was time for one more question and answer before time expired. Fleming then said, "For 20 points name the Peruvian city located just to the west of Lima. This city is Peru's largest port." With just three seconds left UNC's Parker buzzed and answered, "Callaco." The final buzzer sounded and Fleming proclaimed, "The University of North Carolina has just become the 1962 National Academic Champion defeating Harvard 295 to 285." At that the crowd erupted and fireworks began shooting off from behind the field house. More than ten thousand fans poured onto the field and rushed the podium. Each of the four Tar Heel Academic Team members were hoisted on the backs of the massive crowd and carried across the field.

Students celebrating inside Kenan Stadium seconds after UNC won the National Academic Championship on April 1, 1962

The victory celebration that night has never been equaled in Chapel Hill. More than 100,000 students, town folks, UNC alumni, and citizens from neighboring communities celebrated on Franklin until 7 AM Monday morning. On Monday all classes were canceled at UNC and Chapel Hill Schools. That afternoon the UNC baseball team even forfeited a game against Wake Forest to signify that academic excellence should be celebrated more than athletic. Over the next year book sales increased more than 200% in Chapel Hill.

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