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The voice of  the Tar Heels, Woody Durham, died Wednesday UNC Athletics

Woody Durham, the iconic and Hall of Fame voice of North Carolina basketball from 1981-2011, died on Wednesday at the age of 76. The school announced that Durham, who was diagnosed with Primary Progressive Aphasia in 2015, passed peacefully at home as a result of complications from the neurocognitive disorder. 

Across a career of more than 1,800 football and men's basketball games as the Voice of the Tar Heels, Durham called 13 men's basketball Final Fours, six national championship games and the entirety of NCAA title-winning seasons in 1982, 1993, 2005 and 2009. Many of the greatest moments in North Carolina basketball history are best relived with Durham's play-by-play radio call.

"It's ironic that Woody would pass away at the start of the postseason in college basketball because this was such a joyous time for him," Roy Williams said on Wednesday. "He created so many lasting memories for Carolina fans during this time of year. It's equally ironic that he dealt with a disorder for the final years of his life that robbed him of his ability to communicate as effectively as he did in perfecting his craft."

Durham's battle with primary progressive aphasia left the "Voice of the Tar Heels" using gestures, nods and few words to communicate less than five years after his retirement -- Andrew Carter, of the News & Observer, penned an incredibly thoughtful piece on Durham's fight and legacy in 2017. Woody and the Durham family took up fundraising efforts for primary progressive aphasia research, getting help from UNC and selling T-shirts with his signature phrase from decades of radio calls, "Go where you go, and do what you do."  


 
"Woody loved the Tar Heels and players, coaches and fans of all ages loved him right back," Williams said. "We should all 'go where we go and do what we do' and say a prayer for Woody and his family. There will never be another quite like him."

The connectedness of Durham not only spans generations of fans, but generations of media. Prior to the explosion of college sports on cable television, fans still relied on their local radio broadcast to follow the action live. For UNC fans of a certain vintage, this was necessary more often than not. But even the front-running Tar Heels of the late-1990's featured a couple of games each season that could only be heard live, through Woody's call. 

Growing up on Tobacco Road in the 1990's, the necessity of radio mostly missed me but the necessity of Woody did not. It was not uncommon or questioned if parents decided to turn down the volume on a nationally-televised North Carolina game and turn up the radio feed of Durham's broadcast. Those national broadcasts didn't have the home-grown details of in-state products that Durham, a life-long North Carolinian and 1963 UNC graduate, was able to offer. His passion on the call was matched by a professionalism to know not only every detail of the Tar Heels but the opponent as well. College basketball rivalries are fierce and bitter in this part of the state, but respect for Durham has always seemed to cross partisan lines. 

"Turn down the volume and turn up Woody" had its own impact on me as a young college basketball fan in the center of his hoops-crazed state. I'd turn down the volume and offer my own play-by-play to an audience of myself, trying my best to mimic a legend without taking into consideration his hours of game preparation or decades of experience. 

While Durham's iconic and Hall of Fame voice was lost, his legacy in broadcasting continues today through his two sons. Wes Durham is a regular fixture on the ACC Network television broadcasts and the radio voice of the Atlanta Falcons. Taylor Durham is the play-by-play announce for Elon University. 

"Our family is grateful for the incredible support my dad and our family received throughout his illness," Wes Durham said. "From the medical teams to the general public, it's been amazing. We hold to and will always cherish the wonderful memories he left for our family and Carolina fans throughout the world."

According to Andrew Carter, Wes Durham will remain in Brooklyn as part of the ACC Network's broadcast of the ACC Tournament, at the request of his father.