UNC football's Tylee Craft Nutrition Center honors late wide receiver

It’s because of Tylee Craft that North Carolina football players are allowed to eat cereal in Kenan Stadium. 

During the wide receiver’s long battle with cancer, he worked closely with the nutrition staff to keep his weight up.

Craft would constantly request Cinnamon Toast Crunch. When his appetite and weight lulled, the staff finally agreed, ordering the cereal in bulk and labeling it, “Tylee’s cereal.” 

Players began to ask if they could share the snack. Eventually, the nutrition staff gave in. Now, players can grab a to-go cup of Cinnamon Toast Crunch or Fruity Pebbles. 

Craft passed away on October 12, 2024 after his years long battle with lung cancer, during which he remained with the team as a student assistant coach. On Oct. 12, former football head coach Mack Brown announced that the nutrition center in Kenan Stadium would be named the Tylee Craft Nutrition Center. 

“He had a big smile on his face when we told him we were going to do that,” Brown said after the game against Georgia Tech in October.

Former assistant director of football nutrition Issy Chung joked that the name meant he would always be there to tease the nutrition staff. She said he always had a sassy response: 

“Okay, and?” 

Chung and Director of Nutrition Amber Rinestine-Ressa grew close with Craft after they both returned to the program in the summer of 2023. The trio would eat meals together every day in Kenan, bickering as the nutritionists made sure Craft ate right. 

When Craft moved to the hospital full time, Chung and Rinestine-Ressa brought food from the nutrition center every day to feed Craft and the hundreds of family members and players that came to visit him. 

In addition to the nutrition staff, former wide receiver J.J. Jones and others within the position group led the charge to immortalize Craft. 

Jones played against Craft in high school in South Carolina, and he arrived at North Carolina in 2021, a year after Craft. Playing the same position, Craft became a role model and a good friend to Jones. 

The nutrition center is only a few years old, a place where players can grab food and nutrition supplements. Situated in between the locker room and the tunnel to the field, it’s hard to miss. But, unlike most rooms in Kenan Stadium, it wasn’t named after anyone. 

So, when those close to Craft began to discuss how to commemorate him, an idea emerged. 

“We were just talking one night late at the hospital, we were like, ‘what if we named the nutrition center after Tylee’?” Chung said. “We can have his picture up and he can forever be remembered.” 

They rushed to get approval for the name before Craft died. It only took them 48 hours. 

As the players and staff who knew Craft move on from the program, Chung said that the nutrition center is one way to maintain and remember the community of family members, players and staff that formed around Craft when he was in the hospital. 

For Jones, it is comforting to know that Craft will forever be tied to the nutrition center and to UNC football. 

“I know there might be new guys who really don’t know who he is," he said. "But by the end of the year you’re going to walk by [the nutrition center] so much you’re going to end up looking at that plaque and figuring out who is as a person, who he was.”

@BeckettBrant