People across North Carolina loved Woody Durham. Here's how they're remembering him.
Longtime UNC Tar Heels radio play-by-play announcer Woody Durham died Tuesday evening in his Chapel Hill home. For 40 years, Durham was the voice of Carolina sports.
Durham's voice reached many across North Carolina during his career with the Tar Heel Sports Network.
"In the 1970s it was the largest of its kind in the country, a conduit between UNC fans and the football and basketball teams," Andrew Carter reported for The News & Observer's 'Woody Durham's quiet fight' 2017 series. "When listeners tuned in, the voice they heard belonged to Woody. "
In 2016, Durham was diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia, a neurocognitive disorder that affected his speech and eventually his sense of perception and balance.
"It's ironic that Woody would pass away at the start of the postseason in college basketball because this was such a joyous time for him," UNC men's basketball coach Roy Williams said Wednesday. "It's equally ironic that he dealt with a disorder for the final years of his life that robbed him of his ability to communicate as effectively as he did in perfecting his craft."
"Woody loved the Tar Heels and players, coaches and fans of all ages loved him right back. We should all 'go where we go and do what we do' and say a prayer for Woody and his family. There will never be another quite like him."
This is how people are remembering him:
This story was originally published March 7, 2018 at 10:45 AM with the headline "People across North Carolina loved Woody Durham. Here's how they're remembering him.."