The three years Steve Belichick coached at UNC could be described as unremarkable if not for the first steps his son, Bill, took on a football field in Chapel Hill -- a footnote worth remembering only for what came later. The toddler's wobbly strides set him on a path toward the game's pinnacle, the Super Bowl, which Bill Belichick and his undefeated New England Patriots will try to win today for the fourth time.

The son's march toward history has jogged more than a few memories among aging former players.

"As I recall, he used to drive his son Bill around in his car a lot, and he used to bring him to practices," said George Stavnitski of Hilton Head, S.C., a linebacker and center for UNC at a time -- the mid-1950s -- when the athletes still played both offense and defense.

Bill Belichick would "ride around in the Carolina Jeep with the dummies in there, with the managers and so forth, and we'd bring him into huddles and stuff," Stavnitski said in a telephone interview.

Steve Belichick, who died in 2005, arrived in Chapel Hill in 1953 and his departure in '55 reflected the nomadic nature of coaching that hasn't changed much since then.

Eleven months after his son was born in April 1952, Steve Belichick lost his job as an assistant at Vanderbilt as did the head coach, Bill Edwards, his friend and mentor, despite a 21-19-2 record in four seasons. Edwards, for whom Bill Belichick is named, was hired as an assistant to new UNC coach George Barclay, who had been a star player for the Tar Heels in the 1930s. There turned out to be an opening for Steve Belichick, too.

His widow, Jeannette, 86, recalls that the family of three moved into a house outside Chapel Hill that had been built three years earlier.

"We loved Chapel Hill," she said when reached by phone at the Annapolis, Md., home she and her late husband had shared since 1966. "We were interested in staying there because our son was only 3 years old, and he was very happy. ... We had other offers, but we had no intention of moving -- until we had to."

Steve Belichick was already establishing a reputation for an excellent football mind, a stern but fair approach to teaching, an occasional penchant for humor and an ahead-of-the-curve dedication to scouting that he later turned into a book. He would work with thousands of players in a career that spanned more than 40 years. But his greatest pupil, David Halberstam wrote in "The Education of a Coach," was his son, to whom he passed his attention to detail and passion for "breaking down" game film.

Steve Belichick would push his players hard during the week and take scouting trips on weekends, so Carolina players tended not to see him at games until later in the season, Stavnitzki said.

"I can see the similarities between Steve and his son," said Buddy Sasser, who became a college coach himself and eventually Big South Conference commissioner. "They're both good technicians. ... They focus on football only. There's nothing else."

Neither survived as long as they did in the business because of politics, "because of how they do in the interview, or their personality, or ... who they know," said Sasser, who added that no one taught him more about defensive back play than Steve Belichick.

While tough with his players, Belichick managed not to alienate them, Sasser and others recalled.

"He didn't treat you like a bunch of kids that didn't know what the (heck) was going on," said Ed Sutton, who played halfback and cornerback at UNC. "I mean, he was upfront with us and taught us the reasons why you play a certain defense and why you do this and whatnot."

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