From a national championship to poetry program, Bob Young inspires students

UNC alumnus Bob Young is nothing short of a victor — a man who propelled Carolina basketball to a national championship in 1957 —but whose legacy extends far beyond the court.

In 2016, Young pioneered the Tar Heel Verses, a poetry program that appears monthly in The Daily Tar Heel and publishes the work of UNC student poets. However, Young’s impact on the Carolina community began decades before the emergence of this project. 

Young grew up in Queens, N.Y., where he was unexpectedly recruited by UNC basketball’s head coach Frank McGuire.

“Just to be there was nothing more than a miracle, because I'm a first-generation kid whose parents were born in Ireland, and growing up, the only aspirations I had, which many of us had at that time, was to be either a policeman or a fireman,” Young said. 

In 1957, Young and his teammates led UNC basketball to an undefeated season, clinching the national championship by defeating both Michigan State and the Kansas Jayhawks — two teams that were highly favored over the Tar Heels — in two thrilling games that ended in triple overtime.

"It was truly magical," Young said. 

Beyond the court, Young was an English major. His interest in language stemmed from his New York roots, where he was surrounded by many immigrants — including his parents — all who came to America with varying language origins. At UNC, Young studied classics, poetry and English. 

Many years later, when Young’s wife passed, he began to wonder how to honor her life. Inspired by his time working at The New Yorker, the idea came to him to begin a poetry program for students at UNC. 

Working alongside Laura Toler, a UNC alumnae who worked for 15 years in News Services at UNC, they negotiated with The Daily Tar Heel, the English department and the creative writing program to start Tar Heel Verses. Toler also dubbed the name “Tar Heel Verses.”

“Bob is a visionary. He came up with this idea of having the students published,” Toler said. 

For years, professor Michael Chitwood ran the Tar Heel Verses up until his retirement. Today, Tyree Daye runs the program. He is an assistant professor of poetry at UNC. 

Daye and his colleagues look out for poems from promising students throughout the semester. When they come across unique poetry, they then ask the students to publish their work in The Daily Tar Heel through Tar Heel Verses. The only criteria for these poems is their ability to use everyday language in an unexpected way, Daye said.

One of the greater goals of the Tar Heel Verses is to promote creative writing to students who may not come across poetry in their day to day lives.

“If you noticed, there’s students across all majors that we try to show their work,” Daye said.

Tar Heel Verses successfully transcends boundaries by giving all students the ability to express themselves creatively — regardless of their major or background. 

“[The creative writing program] needs to be upkept because the art of poetry is what it means to be a human being. It's our connections between love, death and desire and what makes us human,” Daye said.

Tar Heel Verses would not be possible without Young’s dedication to Carolina’s writing program and his love of student poetry.

“Bob is a really great human being who is dedicated to the art of students, through the art of poetry. In particular, the art of the purpose of shining a light on particular UNC student poets,” Daye said. 

Still, Young’s Carolina impact does not end there. Young has also bequeathed a professorship to the Department of English and Comparative Literature within the College of Arts and Sciences. His professorship pays tribute to his love of poetry, hoping to strengthen the creative writing program at UNC for current and future students. 

“Bob still has this love of poetry, and that's something I'm trying to instill in my students now,” Daye said. 

Young hopes to publish an anthology of all of the Tar Heel Verses poetry one day for the University and The Daily Tar Heel to benefit from. 

Young’s passion for poetry greatly impacts a generation of writers at UNC. His dedication inspires, and his legacy at Carolina is one that touches Tar Heels on the court, in the classroom and beyond.

@dthlifestyle | lifestyle@dailytarheel.com