Cooper bet NC BBQ on Tar Heels beating Kansas. He picked this eastern-style ‘cue.
As North Carolina’s flagship university plays for a national championship in men’s basketball Monday night, the governor is also putting its flagship food on the line in a friendly bet.
If the UNC Tar Heels beat the Kansas Jayhawks in the title game, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly will send North Carolina some steaks from her state, once the final destination for cattle on the frontier-era Chisholm Trail. But if North Carolina loses, Gov. Roy Cooper will owe Kansas some barbecue.
And, given that Cooper grew up in Nash County, it’s no surprise he chose eastern-style ‘cue over western-style.
Specifically, Cooper announced via Twitter, he wagered an order from Wilber’s Barbecue, a Goldsboro restaurant that’s been serving up eastern-style barbecue since 1962. The last time UNC was in the championship game, in 2017, Cooper went with another restaurant that’s also often mentioned as a contender for some of the best barbecue in the state: He picked Greenville’s Sam Jones BBQ then but never had to deliver, as the Tar Heels beat Gonzaga for the championship.
As for this year’s wager, state campaign finance records show the late founder of Wilber’s, Wilberdean Shirley, was a longtime supporter of Democratic politicians including Cooper.
That’s not the only political angle, either, as Cooper also used his time in New Orleans for the NCAA final to highlight two other Democrats who, like him, serve as governor in states that voted for Republican President Donald Trump in 2020. Kelly, of Kansas, is a fellow Democrat as is Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards.
Cooper, who is the president of the national Democratic Governors Association, had lunch with both of them Monday, where he and Kelly announced their wager.
But the politics on display on the sidelines of the tournament hasn’t been entirely partisan. News & Observer photographer Robert Willett captured Cooper and Republican N.C. House Speaker Tim Moore — both UNC-Chapel Hill graduates — celebrating joyfully together in the stands Saturday night, as their Tar Heels defeated arch-rival Duke in the Final Four.
This story was originally published April 4, 2022 at 4:03 PM.
