Only a few minutes after he got off the golf course near his home in Landis, Barnes could not hide his delight in North Carolina's 6-1 loss to Fresno State on Sunday night in a College World Series elimination game in Omaha, Neb. Carolina's loss sent the Tar Heels back home without the title for the third straight season.

"Oh, shoot, I loved it. I'm not going to lie about that," Barnes said during a telephone interview.

One of the best running backs in Wake Forest's football history, Barnes also was the third baseman on the 1955 Deacons team that won the College World Series by defeating Western Michigan in Omaha. Not only that, he made the final putout from his third base position in the deciding game.

A team from the ACC hasn't won the college baseball national championship since those '55 Deacs. It'll be fine with Barnes if that streak goes on for years to come.

"It's for dang sure I'm not going to pull for Carolina, I don't care what," Barnes said. "They're a good team. They're very good. But so far, we're still standing, and I like the fact that Wake Forest still has that distinction."

Barnes, who graduated from Wake and went on to play for nine years (1957-66) in the NFL with the Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Redskins and Minnesota Vikings, comes from another era -- an era most current ACC fans don't understand and are too young to recall.

"It wasn't personal -- well, maybe it was a little bit personal once in awhile -- but you just didn't root for your archrivals," Barnes said. "Back then, we were all archrivals -- Carolina, [N.C.] State, Duke. Those were the other teams we were judged against. Why in the world would we pull for them? They didn't like us. We didn't like them. None of us liked each other. That was just the way it used to work. It wasn't hatred or anything like that, but it was the way we all felt about each other. There wasn't a lot of this all-for-one-and-one-for-all stuff."

And for some strange reason, the spirit of the '55 Deacs seems to have taken on a life of its own. Barnes admits as much. Like almost everyone else, he assumed an ACC team would leave the '08 CWS tournament with the national title. If not Carolina, then certainly Miami or Florida State.

"I didn't watch every game, but I just figured Miami or Carolina would find a way," Barnes said. "Everybody thought Miami was great and Carolina was great and that Florida State was pretty close. But baseball's probably the funniest game of all. You don't have to be flat but one or two games to be on a losing streak and in a bad mood."

With Carolina getting back so many stars, including first baseman Dustin Ackley and pitcher Alex White, Barnes believes there's a strong chance that UNC could be back in Omaha for the 2009 CWS. But would that be enough for him go to jump aboard the Tar Heels' bandwagon?

"Heck, no," Barnes said. "When that ACC streak ends, I want another Wake team to do it. I'll be glad to settle for that, but nothing less."