'I want it to be cool': UNC previews renovations to Kenan Football Center

The North Carolina football program took to Twitter on Monday, April 13, to release a short clip that previewed the modernizing renovations to the team’s Kenan Football Center and Hall of Honor.

The brief video provided fans with quick glimpses into multiple upgrades to the first and second floors of the facility, including the renovated rotunda lobby, digital displays recognizing Tar Heels in the NFL, position-specific film and meeting rooms and a digital collection of 100 years worth of rosters and team photos.

North Carolina partnered with Forty Nine Degrees, a graphics and branding company that helps college sports teams across the country lure in potential recruits, to help bring the facility’s design into the 21st century and honor the program’s past.

In addition to UNC, the company has also designed and collaborated on sports facility renovations at LSU, Clemson, Ohio State, Alabama and Georgia, among others.

UNC followed up last week’s reveal with another video on Sunday that gave viewers a glimpse inside the building’s new Jumpman Experience Room, a collaboration between UNC and Jordan brand.

“That’s pretty cool,” Forty Nine Degrees Vice President Brad Hart said. “It’s a room that I think is going to catch a lot of eyes. There’s a lot of details in it with the shoes.”

The room features a wall of nearly three dozen variations of Air Jordans and an illuminated seating area next to UNC and Jordan logos that appears to be a spot for future recruits to take pictures during their visits to Chapel Hill.

The football team tweeted a response from former North Carolina men’s basketball star Michael Jordan once he was able to see the finished product.

“The new Jumpman experience that was designed for the Tar Heels football team is a reminder of the rich tradition of the program that will serve to inspire players as they build the team into a championship contender,” Jordan said in the tweet.

Although it only took about three months to design, produce and install the renovations — which wrapped up in the final days of March, just before many of the COVID-19 preventive measures took effect — the project has really been in the works for over a year now, ever since head coach Mack Brown made his return to Chapel Hill near the end of 2018.

Rick Steinbacher, a senior associate athletics director in charge of capital projects and facilities, worked with Brown and others at UNC since the coach’s return to help identify a step-by-step process for what North Carolina’s vision for the future branding of the team was.

Initially, after Brown rejoined the Tar Heels, the team’s player lounge was touched up, and the following summer, the weight room and locker room were both renovated. The Kenan Football Center’s upgrades were just the latest step in Brown’s process of bolstering the school’s recruitment efforts.

“Coach Brown was very clear: ‘I want it to be cool. I want it to be modern. I want a high school student to come in and think it’s warm, welcoming and inviting,’” Steinbacher said.

And Hart knows from his experiences how much of a jolt a new facility like this can bring to a program.

“It definitely has an impact, and we hear that from schools we work with all the time: ‘Man, we showed our recruits, and they were blown away,’” Hart said.

Although Steinbacher didn’t want to speculate on the cost of the renovations —  he, like many others across the country, is working from home and didn’t have the exact numbers with him — he was able to confirm that the project was funded by the Rams Club through donations in support of the football program.

As UNC continues to put together one of its strongest football recruiting classes ever for 2021, the upgrades to the Kenan Football Center will certainly serve as the latest round of ammunition in Brown’s arsenal to impress potential Tar Heels.

@McMastersJ

@DTHSports | sports@dailytarheel.com