Fans share the rituals they practice to help the Tar Heels win

When it comes to games against Duke, UNC men’s basketball fans don’t play around. Many fans combat their superstitions surrounding the games with elaborate traditions to cheer the Tar Heels to victory.

Mark Clodfelter, a UNC graduate, maintains a precise protocol he observes every game.

He always wears the same UNC baseball cap he wore during the 2004-05 NCAA championship season and wears a UNC sweatshirt or fleece with a UNC T-shirt underneath. The color of the T-shirt depends on the location of the game, he said.

“If we’re playing away, I wear a Carolina Blue T-shirt, given that the team will be wearing predominantly Carolina Blue on the opponent’s court,” Clodfelter said in an email. “Yet if we’re playing at home, I wear a white or gray Carolina tee because the Heels will be wearing predominantly white in the Dean Dome.”

On the night of the Feb. 17 loss to Duke, his ritual changed, resulting in what he called “disastrous results.”

“The (blue) tee I chose happened to be the ‘student section’ tee from the 2012 season — the season that Carolina was heavily favored against Dook in the Dean Dome and led by a large margin throughout most of the game, only to lose by one at the very end on a last-second Dook 3-pointer,” he said in an email.

Clodfelter realized his mistake once ESPN started showing highlights of past UNC-Duke games. He said he shuddered in horror at the eerie similarities between the 2012 game and the Feb. 17 game.

“I take full blame for the loss,” he said.

Junior Matthew McDermott said he doesn’t have time for traditions, but he does have a loose routine for games.

“What I do is I wait in line a lot,” he said. “And I mean, I wait for hours. I think this year I averaged about four hours per game before it started, and then the Duke game I waited for about nine, but Duke, you always have to wait for a long time.”

McDermott said traditions that students observe during games include jumping on the risers to “Jump Around,” chanting when Duke has possession of the ball and putting their hands in the air when the Tar Heels shoot free throws.

He has witnessed the behavior of others at games and said alumni often have the most interesting traditions.

“There’s a few alumni who come over (to the student section) every single time at the start of the game, and you see the guy’s bag — he has like a hundred wristbands on it from every game he’s been to,” he said. “When you go to enough games, you just know it’s that guy who loves to chant with us, and we all love him for it.”

Steven Buzinski, a lecturer in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, said superstitious rituals help people feel like they can exert control over outside environments.

“We have this amazing capability to twist and form our perception of what is happening with what we want to believe, so reality becomes consistent with our beliefs,” he said.

As humans, we tend to reflect positively on games we’ve watched where we’ve performed a sort of superstition and had it lead to success, he said. At the same time, people forget the times where superstitions haven’t led to success, in a process Buzinski called cognitive inhibition. This process tricks people’s minds into thinking they have control over the games, leading them to continue with their superstitions.

“They typically bring us happiness,” he said. “The researchers show that it’s typically a harmless thing to do, so I say engage in it.”

Buzinski isn’t above traditions himself and said he wears a John Henson No. 31 jersey to the Duke game, the same number he wore when he played basketball for Lebanon Valley College and the Washington Generals.

Adam Lucas, a columnist for GoHeels.com, said he doesn’t have any traditions specific to the Duke game, but he has participated in them in the past.

“When I was growing up, I was much more superstitious than I am now,” he said in an email. “My dad and I would have to sit in the correct seats, only watch the games in certain places, etc. I’m pretty sure we beat Cincinnati in 1993 on the way to the Final Four because he and I split up into different rooms, and that’s about the time the Tar Heels started coming back. You’re welcome, 1993 Tar Heels.”

Lucas said those who observe traditions aren’t alone, and they’re common throughout the basketball community.

“Fans constantly email us talking about all the various things they have to do,” he said. “I think it’s all part of how you experience the game with other people.”

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