“Dear Sir:
The Charlotte Center of the University of North Carolina is endeavoring to set up and administer a well-rounded athletic program. During the fall, we plan to have a football team.”
This was the opening of a letter dated Sept. 25, 1946, from athletic director and football coach Arthur Deremer that was sent to colleges around the piedmont region looking for opponents to play against a small group of ex-soldiers at a small, first-year college center located in Uptown Charlotte.
And with that letter, college football began at UNC Charlotte.
As one of 12 college centers started for returning veterans of World War II, UNC Charlotte was originally known as Charlotte Center University of North Carolina (CC UNC), and was an extension of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
1946 was the new school’s first year of operation and resources were scarce for both the faculty and the students. With no building to call their own, college classes met at Central High School on Elizabeth Avenue on what is now the site of Central Piedmont Community College. Only a few classes were offered during the early years of the center, and the tuition for the fall quarter of 1946 was $60, plus a $5 registration fee and $5 lab fee. Pennies compared to the 2008 fall semester, which sees in-state residents paying $2,147.25.
The 278 students who enrolled in the college’s first fall quarter classes met in the evenings at the high school after the conclusion of the Central High school day. With their nocturnal learning habits, the students of CC UNC quickly earned the school’s first-ever nickname, the “Owls.”
Of the students in the fall ’46 class, 22 young men came out to the athletic fields behind the Armory to practice as the college’s first athletic program: a football team.
The squad consisted mainly of returning war veterans from the town of Charlotte and was coached by an ex-football player in Deremer.
Deremer had played several seasons for the Brooklyn Tigers of the National League before the second World War. He came to Charlotte following the war to play the center position for the Charlotte Clippers, who were part of the Dixie Football League. Deremer took the position of being CC UNC’s first athletic director and football coach as a side job, earning $50 a week for 10 weeks to coach college athletics.
Among the Owls’ original 22 players was offensive and defensive end Ted Teagle. Teagle, a war veteran who played high school football in nearby Rock Hill, S.C., was featured in a 1996 interview with UNC Charlotte Alumni News by Vivian Fogle talking about football. While there is no official record of CC UNC’s game, Teagle recalled that it was against either the 82nd or 101st Airborne Division based out of Fort Bragg, NC, though he could not remember exactly which division they played.
“They had pros … a running back who had been all-American,” he recalled. “Here we were just out of the service, freshmen in college, no equipment to practice with. We lost that game 20 to nothing, which was a moral victory.”
The loss to the Fort Bragg team was just the beginning for the Owls, as the young squad would go on to play five additional games during the ’46 season against Catawba College JV, Clemson “B,” Davidson JV, Pembroke State and Belmont Abbey.
According to Teagle, the Owls lost to Davidson JV, Clemson “B,” and Catawba College JV, but notched wins over Pembroke State and Belmont Abbey to finish 2-4 in their inaugural season.
Of the six games that the Owls played in during that first season, CC UNC hosted two home games against Catawba College JV and Clemson “B,” on October 15 and 19 respectively. The Owls used the newly built Memorial Stadium next to Central High School as a home field.
These two home games sold more than 2,000 tickets, generating over $1,000 in ticket sales for the school.
But the Owls were not without financial difficulties.
Contracts with Memorial Stadium indicated that the use of the stadium with rent, utilities and amenities were roughly $100 per game. While the rental agreement accounted for nearly 1/5th of the team’s gross income, the total is a far cry from the present day rental rate of Memorial Stadium, which costs over $6,000, plus 12 percent of gate receipts.
With the additional costs for travel, practice and miscellaneous expenses, the Owls’ season ended with a debt of $78.00. That debt was paid by CC UNC Director Charles Bernard, as there was no athletic budget for the young college.
In 1947, enrollment grew to 304 for the Fall Quarter and so did the roster of the CC UNC football team. However, interest in the team was beginning to decline among the community.
According to the college’s first newspaper, the CC UNC News, the Owls’ five game schedule in 1947 included home games against Davidson and Appalachian State Teachers College, and trips to Presbyterian College, Catawba College and Hamlet, NC to take on the Hamlet All-Stars.
Despite a new Owls coach in Clemson graduate Marion “Footsie” Woods, ticket sales severely declined as the CC UNC finished 1-4, losing both home games. Coach Woods’ team defeated the All-Stars of Hamlet 8-6 for their only victory in 1947.
Combined, the two CC UNC home games generated barely 1,000 ticket sales and resulted in approximately $100 net profit for the school after paying for the rental agreement and personnel costs of the two games.
The 1948 season would prove to be the final breaths for a football team that was already on life support. The school faced a decline in enrollment as most war veterans had exhausted their two years of schooling and had moved on. The CC UNC football roster reflected that decrease as the team roster shrunk to just 22 players.
Once again the Owls were under the tutelage of a new coach; this time it was South Carolina native Carol Blackwell. A graduate of the University of South Carolina, Blackwell, like Deremer, played professionally for the Charlotte Clippers, coaching the CC UNC Owls as a side job.
The Owls once again struggled to fill the seats of Memorial Stadium as only 274 fans attended an October 7 game, resulting in minimal profit for the college.
Low attendance and poor performances in games were all too obvious signs of a failing football program.
The final football game ever played at what would become UNC Charlotte took place on October 27, 1948, as the Owls took on Catawba College JV. Sensing the need to raise attendance, a local business donated a Philco Radio to be given to the student that sold the most game tickets. CC UNC also invited several local high school bands to perform during halftime in an attempt to elevate interest in the game.
While the efforts by several individuals were well meaning, football at Charlotte was inevitably finished for the time being.
An article in the Fall of 1949 from Charlotte College’s new school paper, The Collegiate Life, stated that the 1949 football season for the college had been cancelled due to lack of interest and players, as there were only 15 players interested.
A later interview with former College Director Bonnie Cone in 1994 by University Times writer David Stringer shed firsthand light on the situation.
When asked about the end of football at Charlotte College, Cone said, “I became the head of the school, and the students came to me and said that they did not want to play [football] anymore. We had just bought brand new uniforms and I asked them if they were sure. They said that they did not want to play anymore and that we should sell the uniforms.”
The brand new team uniforms and equipment was sold to a local Charlotte club football team for $450.00. The money was then given to the student council to help pay for some of the college’s upcoming events.
Charlotte would continue to pursue an athletic program as men’s basketball and baseball were becoming mainstays at Charlotte College. While the selling of the uniforms signaled the end of an era for football, the discussion of football would not stay dormant for long.
This is the first of a two-part story investigating the history of football at UNC Charlotte. In seven days, Chancellor Dubois will officially make his recommendation to the Board of Trustees regarding the addition of football to Charlotte Athletics. Part II will run in the September 16th issue of the University Times.
