Official Site of the Tar Heels · Oct 12, 2020
Extra Points: Neighborhood Watch
By Lee Pace
The Associated Press in 1936 began publishing a poll from a panel of sports editors nationwide ranking the nation's top 20 college football teams (it was expanded to 25 teams in 1989). Carolina first appeared in the list in 1937 and ventured as high as No. 7 in November 1939, with Coach Ray Wolf's team finishing the season 8-1-1 but falling from the list after a 13-3 loss to Duke.
Since then, the Tar Heels have probed the Top 10 in four separate eras:
* The Charlie Justice-era teams of the post-war 1940s surged as high as No. 1 in 1948 and spent most of two years in the Top 10;