A Thousand Words
By Jock Lauterer
One good photograph leads to another. After publishing the Bluebook cover picture of three players from the 1975-76 UNC men’s basketball team, we received this photo and email from Linda Long: “Your recent 1975 photo of UNC basketball players reminded me of this one. …We cheered for the guys.†Linda identifies the UNC Varsity Cheerleaders from 1973 as: (front) Janet Killian; (second row, left to right) Mary Rudd and Linda Waters Long; and (back row) Becky Branch Swift, Becky Fuller Campbell and Kathy Samuelson. In a nice twist of fate, two of these cheerleaders turned out to be local teachers: Linda Long teaches at Githens Middle School in Durham while Becky Campbell, the former swim coach at East Chapel Hill High School, now teaches at Phillips Middle School. This photo was taken in Woollen Gym, most likely by longtime Durham Herald-Sun photographer Charles Cooper, who also took the cover shot from the 1975 Bluebook. And you can’t help but notice in this photo that four of the six cheerleaders are blonde. When I mentioned that to Linda, she laughed and recalled a basketball camp from the mid-’70s when “a little girl raised her hand and asked, ‘Do you have to be blonde to be a Carolina cheerleader?’â€
A THOUSAND WORDS
Do you have an important old photo that you value? Email your photo to jock@email.unc.edu and include the story behind the picture. Because every picture tells a story. And its worth? A thousand words.
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I have the same picture in my scrapbook. The picture was taken in Carmichael in late 1971. The cheerleaders are from the 1971-72 team. The first year African Americans were elected to the squad. Mary Rudd and David Belton.
Robert Giles’ post is factually incorrect. The first African American cheerleader was James Womack, AB ’67 of Selma, NC. Jimmy served from 1965 to 1967.
Well, I also have been a local teacher for over thirty years. What wonderful memories this picture brings to my mind! Go, Heels!