Alumni reflect on how "Carolina in My Mind" stays with them years after graduation

There’s one song that sticks with UNC graduates long after they leave Chapel Hill, and it’s not "Hark the Sound." It starts with a softly played guitar melody, and ends with misty eyes, especially for any alumni from North Carolina. 

James Taylor’s “Carolina in My Mind” is the University’s unofficial anthem. It’s played at sporting events, at convocation and at every single UNC Clef Hangers performance. For students, it’s a tradition. For alumni, though, it’s even more. 

“While I was at UNC, I liked it,” class of 2018 graduate Troy Schmidt said about the song. “(James Taylor) has got a good voice … in my brain, it’s a song about home.” 

Schmidt used to be a student manager for the baseball team his first year at college. It was there that he heard the song played after every game, as people were leaving the stadium. Now, when the Raleigh native hears the song, he flashes back to his time in Chapel Hill. 

“I just get emotional, I’m kind of an emotional guy anyway,” Schmidt said. “I just get teary, thinking about college. Especially since I moved out of North Carolina, it makes me think of home and school.” 

It’s not just recent graduates either. 

Bryan Patterson graduated from UNC back in 1987. His memories of the song come from the first time he heard it, during his New Student Convocation in Carmichael Arena where the song was played. 

“Every freshman, every incoming student met at Carmichael and just kind of an introduction to the University, welcome, what to expect, things like that,” Patterson said. “My memories are of that song being played at the very beginning. My memories of that song are very special; I was just excited to be there.” 

It was that experience with the incoming class of 1987 that Patterson associates with UNC. That and the scenes in Chapel Hill: the sunlight, the Town and the slow days. Later in his life, Patterson would propose to his wife at a James Taylor concert. He can’t remember if he waited for the special song, but he figures he probably did. 

For some students, the experience and the song don't just come with listening to it at sporting events. Johnny Conheeney graduated last spring after three years of being a member of the Clef Hangers, Chapel Hill’s most in-demand live performers of “Carolina in My Mind.”

“Pretty quickly, pretty early on as a class, I realized that the song had a lot of significance,” Conheeney said. “We also sing it at graduation every year, as a send off, so there’s more significance behind it … we treat it like our special thing we get to bring during private events or even situations like graduation.” 

Conheeney, like Schmidt, has left North Carolina. He’s back in his home state of New Jersey. But like alumni before him, he says the song makes him remember his time at North Carolina, now that he has time to look back. 

“I think as a student and as a class, you’re so busy and you’re really occupied with a lot of things,” Conheeney said. “Once you take a second to sort of sit back and think about that stuff, it does, it definitely feels bigger.”