On Thursday, John Swofford announced that he will retire as ACC commissioner after the 2020-21 athletic season. He’s held the position since 1997, and in the 17 years prior to that, he was athletic director at UNC.
In his time as commissioner, the league has expanded, created a television network, and generally become a model of stability as a conference. However long before all that and before his athletic director tenure at UNC, he also represented the university on the playing field.
A three-sport start at Wilkes Central High School, Swofford enrolled at UNC in 1968 as a part of coach Bill Dooley’s first recruiting class.