Woody Durham keeps Kiwanis tradition alive

Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Telegram
http://www.rockymounttelegram.com/news/community/woody-durham-keeps-kiwanis-tradition-alive-92967.html

Woody Durham, known as “The Voice of the Tar Heels,” drew a large crowd of Rocky Mount Kiwanis club members and their guests Thursday to Benvenue Country Club.

Durham, the veteran and legendary play-by-play radio announcer for University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill football and basketball games, began his career at WZKY, a small AM radio station in his hometown of Albemarle at age 16 and has been the football and basketball sportscaster for the Tar Heels since 1971.

Durham has been an August keynote speaker for the Rocky Mount Kiwanis club for 33 consecutive years.

“I am delighted it has been 33 years coming to Kiwanis,” Durham said. “I had no idea when I started that it would last this many years.

“I don’t feel ready to start the football season until I come to Rocky Mount.”

Clemson, Virginia Tech, and Wake Forest are picked in a coaches’ poll to be the three top teams this year in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Durham said. The focus this season will be to mount a comeback for ACC teams’ performances, he said.

“The national media is convinced the ACC football conference will only be average this season,” Durham said. “There has been a slippage in reputation, but I believe the ACC is competitive and a good league.”

Clemson, Durham predicts, will play this year in its first bowl game since 1982 and will win the ACC’s Atlantic Division, while Virginia Tech will win the conference’s Coastal Division.

Tar Heel alumnus Baddour, in his 12th year as director of athletics and his 42nd at the University of North Carolina, introduced Durham.

“It’s fantastic that you’ve been doing this for 33 years, and it’s an honor to introduce you,” Baddour said. “Woody is just the best at what he does, and it’s an honor for him to be at the University of North Carolina.”

There are a lot of faces and monuments at the university, Baddour said, “but there’s only one voice, and that is the voice of the Tar Heels—and a very good friend—Woody Durham.”

Durham graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1963 with a bachelor’s degree in radio, television, and motion pictures. He is a member of the Alpha Rho chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the national fraternity for men in music.

In 1981, Durham was named vice president and executive sports director at Tar Heel Sports Marketing. Durham has been named North Carolina Sportscaster of the Year 12 times, most recently in 2006.

Durham has been honored with a bevy of professional and service awards over the years, including his 2004 induction into the N.C. Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame. In 2000, he received the William R. Davie Award, the highest honor given by UNC-CH Trustees.