University of North Carolina Athletics
Photo by: Maggie Hobson
Lucas: The Best
September 23, 2026 | Football, Men's Basketball, Softball, Women's Basketball, Women's Gymnastics, Volleyball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
The Montross Day of Service brought the athletic department together to honor a legendary Tar Heel in a way he would have appreciated.
By Adam Lucas
It was fitting that a day devoted to commemorating the spirit of one of Carolina's best seemed to bring out the best in everyone involved with Carolina athletics.
The Rams Club began the Montross Day of Service in 2024 as a way to honor the love of community service exhibited by Eric Montross, who died after a battle with cancer in December of 2023. It's held every year on his birthday, Sept. 23, and has steadily grown each year.
In 2026, with the eager participation of numerous head coaches and a push from athletic director Steve Newmark, the event boomed. The number of Tar Heel teams involved tripled from 2025. It felt like everywhere you looked on campus, you saw another team making a community impact with one of the over one dozen organizations that took part.
Even more gratifyingly, the event has gained a foothold in the Carolina community. Bumping into fencing head coach Matt Jednak on Tuesday evening, he simply asked, "So where are you going to be tomorrow?" He didn't have to specify that Wednesday was the Day of Service; it was just an accepted part of the Carolina athletics calendar.
On a rainy day in Chapel Hill, the football program opened the Kenan Football Center to everyone and improved the logistics of the day. The location served as a base for numerous organizations and gave student-athletes from multiple sports who were juggling practice and classes an easy spot to connect with those groups when they had a spare hour.
That was the hub for an event that sprawled across the athletic department and touched all corners of Chapel Hill. The women's basketball team went well beyond the basics to organize a Make-a-Wish celebration for a young patient named Nora, who will soon be headed to Disneyland with a custom pair of Tar Heel Mickey Mouse ears. A variety of student-athletes and coaches worked with local schools. The entire softball team volunteered at a local rec practice. The Mental Health and Performance Psychology staff, a favorite of Eric's, worked outdoors in the rain to clear trails for the Beautiful Together Animal Sanctuary. Men's tennis coach Sam Paul rearranged his team's schedule to make sure they could assist with food deliveries for TABLE. Men's golf coach Andrew DiBitetto worked around the iffy weather to make sure his players could participate.
"Being part of the community is the definition of what a Tar Heel is," said volleyball head coach Mike Schall, whose team visited the Children's Hospital and also had several players stop by the Kenan Football Center. "It's thinking about things that are bigger than ourselves. It's about people. Eric had such compassion for people and helping others that he truly helped define what a Tar Heel is."
The baseball team also made a Children's Hospital visit, and given Eric's love of working with patients there, it was only natural for the men's basketball team to also make the hospital a priority.
The visit was a stark reminder of the platform Tar Heels occupy. Upon learning the basketball team would be visiting, one young patient requested to delay his medication so he would be certain to be awake when they were in the building. No one really wanted to talk basketball. They just wanted to be kids hanging out with some very tall and very cool visitors.
Terrence Brown introduced himself to everyone in every room. Evan Smith wore his Montross Day of Service shirt with a big double-zero on the back. Jarin Stevenson was a popular patient target because he could easily lift them up to touch the ceiling.
Six-year-old Julius, who is battling B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, quickly became a team favorite. "You're making me happy because you're so happy," Brown told him.
The new Tar Heel point guard couldn't possibly have known that he was echoing exactly what Eric himself always told people about his Children's Hospital visits. "He always said," former Montross teammate and current Carolina assistant coach Pat Sullivan said, "that he got as much or more out of it than the kids did."
Julius made up for what he lacked in medical training with impressive confidence. Every patient knows the daily rigor of sticking the electrodes to their skin that are part of daily hospital life. Now that he had new friends, Julius wanted to demonstrate those electrodes to Stevenson…by affixing them to the always agreeable but slightly nervous 6-foot-10 Tar Heel.
"You have to be brave," Julius told Jarin.
"They do hurt a little coming off," Julius' dad agreed.
"They do?" a wide-eyed Stevenson said.
Everyone made it through the visit without permanent damage. The best part of the day--which Eric would have loved, and he would have gone from location to location while remembering everyone's name and making new friends and reaching the tallest shelves--was that the namesake seemed to be everywhere. As the Tar Heels went from patient to patient, Dr. John Hipps smiled from across the room.
"I can still picture Eric ducking under all those low doorways," he said. "He would always have that big smile on his face."
In Hillsborough, at the UNC Hospitals Oncology Campus where Eric was treated, a group of Rams Club staff and Laura Montross delivered lunch and treats to staff and patients. A nurse stopped to tell them about a patient earlier in the day, a former Carolina sports psychology professor who'd taught both Montross and Sullivan in one of his classes. Told it was the Montross Day of Service, the former professor remembered a favorite story.
"In my class I had those two and Eric had a lady friend with him," the patient remembered. "She was always taking notes. I went up to Eric and Pat before the first exam and told them I hoped they would do well, but that she was the only one taking notes. Eric got a big smile and said, 'That's my girlfriend. She's really smart.'"
That girlfriend, of course, was Laura.
At Northside Elementary, gymnastics coach Danna Durante volunteered in the same office with librarian Kathryn Cole, who lovingly remembered when Eric would visit and read to students.
It was another reminder that almost three years after his death, his impact remains clear across the athletic department and the larger community. It's a legacy bigger than the jersey that hangs in the Smith Center rafters.
"When you think about being a Tar Heel, it's well beyond going to athletic events or going to class," Newmark said. "It's a way of life and it's how you operate and live your life. Eric was an unbelievable example that part of our mission is to serve others and to make sure that we not only improve ourselves but make our community better."
Every group, every coach, every volunteer seemed to have a story about how Eric had influenced them in some way. It was Eric Montross Day of Service for all the rest of us. But for Eric Montross, today would have been just another day of living the only way he knew how.
Because he was the best.
It was fitting that a day devoted to commemorating the spirit of one of Carolina's best seemed to bring out the best in everyone involved with Carolina athletics.
The Rams Club began the Montross Day of Service in 2024 as a way to honor the love of community service exhibited by Eric Montross, who died after a battle with cancer in December of 2023. It's held every year on his birthday, Sept. 23, and has steadily grown each year.
In 2026, with the eager participation of numerous head coaches and a push from athletic director Steve Newmark, the event boomed. The number of Tar Heel teams involved tripled from 2025. It felt like everywhere you looked on campus, you saw another team making a community impact with one of the over one dozen organizations that took part.
Even more gratifyingly, the event has gained a foothold in the Carolina community. Bumping into fencing head coach Matt Jednak on Tuesday evening, he simply asked, "So where are you going to be tomorrow?" He didn't have to specify that Wednesday was the Day of Service; it was just an accepted part of the Carolina athletics calendar.
On a rainy day in Chapel Hill, the football program opened the Kenan Football Center to everyone and improved the logistics of the day. The location served as a base for numerous organizations and gave student-athletes from multiple sports who were juggling practice and classes an easy spot to connect with those groups when they had a spare hour.
That was the hub for an event that sprawled across the athletic department and touched all corners of Chapel Hill. The women's basketball team went well beyond the basics to organize a Make-a-Wish celebration for a young patient named Nora, who will soon be headed to Disneyland with a custom pair of Tar Heel Mickey Mouse ears. A variety of student-athletes and coaches worked with local schools. The entire softball team volunteered at a local rec practice. The Mental Health and Performance Psychology staff, a favorite of Eric's, worked outdoors in the rain to clear trails for the Beautiful Together Animal Sanctuary. Men's tennis coach Sam Paul rearranged his team's schedule to make sure they could assist with food deliveries for TABLE. Men's golf coach Andrew DiBitetto worked around the iffy weather to make sure his players could participate.
"Being part of the community is the definition of what a Tar Heel is," said volleyball head coach Mike Schall, whose team visited the Children's Hospital and also had several players stop by the Kenan Football Center. "It's thinking about things that are bigger than ourselves. It's about people. Eric had such compassion for people and helping others that he truly helped define what a Tar Heel is."
The baseball team also made a Children's Hospital visit, and given Eric's love of working with patients there, it was only natural for the men's basketball team to also make the hospital a priority.
The visit was a stark reminder of the platform Tar Heels occupy. Upon learning the basketball team would be visiting, one young patient requested to delay his medication so he would be certain to be awake when they were in the building. No one really wanted to talk basketball. They just wanted to be kids hanging out with some very tall and very cool visitors.
Terrence Brown introduced himself to everyone in every room. Evan Smith wore his Montross Day of Service shirt with a big double-zero on the back. Jarin Stevenson was a popular patient target because he could easily lift them up to touch the ceiling.
Six-year-old Julius, who is battling B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, quickly became a team favorite. "You're making me happy because you're so happy," Brown told him.
The new Tar Heel point guard couldn't possibly have known that he was echoing exactly what Eric himself always told people about his Children's Hospital visits. "He always said," former Montross teammate and current Carolina assistant coach Pat Sullivan said, "that he got as much or more out of it than the kids did."
Julius made up for what he lacked in medical training with impressive confidence. Every patient knows the daily rigor of sticking the electrodes to their skin that are part of daily hospital life. Now that he had new friends, Julius wanted to demonstrate those electrodes to Stevenson…by affixing them to the always agreeable but slightly nervous 6-foot-10 Tar Heel.
"You have to be brave," Julius told Jarin.
"They do hurt a little coming off," Julius' dad agreed.
"They do?" a wide-eyed Stevenson said.
Everyone made it through the visit without permanent damage. The best part of the day--which Eric would have loved, and he would have gone from location to location while remembering everyone's name and making new friends and reaching the tallest shelves--was that the namesake seemed to be everywhere. As the Tar Heels went from patient to patient, Dr. John Hipps smiled from across the room.
"I can still picture Eric ducking under all those low doorways," he said. "He would always have that big smile on his face."
In Hillsborough, at the UNC Hospitals Oncology Campus where Eric was treated, a group of Rams Club staff and Laura Montross delivered lunch and treats to staff and patients. A nurse stopped to tell them about a patient earlier in the day, a former Carolina sports psychology professor who'd taught both Montross and Sullivan in one of his classes. Told it was the Montross Day of Service, the former professor remembered a favorite story.
"In my class I had those two and Eric had a lady friend with him," the patient remembered. "She was always taking notes. I went up to Eric and Pat before the first exam and told them I hoped they would do well, but that she was the only one taking notes. Eric got a big smile and said, 'That's my girlfriend. She's really smart.'"
That girlfriend, of course, was Laura.
At Northside Elementary, gymnastics coach Danna Durante volunteered in the same office with librarian Kathryn Cole, who lovingly remembered when Eric would visit and read to students.
It was another reminder that almost three years after his death, his impact remains clear across the athletic department and the larger community. It's a legacy bigger than the jersey that hangs in the Smith Center rafters.
"When you think about being a Tar Heel, it's well beyond going to athletic events or going to class," Newmark said. "It's a way of life and it's how you operate and live your life. Eric was an unbelievable example that part of our mission is to serve others and to make sure that we not only improve ourselves but make our community better."
Every group, every coach, every volunteer seemed to have a story about how Eric had influenced them in some way. It was Eric Montross Day of Service for all the rest of us. But for Eric Montross, today would have been just another day of living the only way he knew how.
Because he was the best.
Players Mentioned
Wednesday, September 23
Monday, September 21
Monday, September 21
Sunday, September 20