Kenan Memorial Stadium - Chapel Hill/Carrboro, NC

About

Kenan Memorial Stadium, located in the heart of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s campus, is home to the North Carolina Tar Heels football team. The stadium is regarded as one of the most picturesque venues in America, surrounded by the Carolina pines that grow in Chapel Hill.

The Tar Heels are currently led by Hall of Fame coach Mack Brown, who previously coached the team from 1988 to 1997. Brown was hired in 2018 to replaced Larry Fedora after a 2-9 season.

Photo by Wikimedia Commons

History

Kenan Stadium has been the home of the University of North Carolina football team since 1927, when the team played the stadium's first game against Davidson College.

Renovations to the stadium started in 1995, that resulted in the addition of The Kenan Football Center and the preferred seating area. The Kenan Football Center, unveiled in 1997, now houses the team's operational needs, including a locker room and weight room which were renovated in 2019.

The Tar Heels' have won a program-best 11 games in four different seasons in Kenan Stadium, most recently in 2015 under head coach Larry Fedora. Mack Brown is the winningest coach in Kenan's history, with 76 wins between 1988 and the present. UNC's first win over a Top-5 program came in 2004 in Kenan Stadium against No. 4 Miami, when Connor Barth kicked a 42-yard field goal on the final play to topple the then-undefeated Hurricanes.

Quick Facts

UNC’s first athletic field for football was built in 1914 and was called “Emerson Field.”
The most points ever scored by the Tar Heels in Kenan Stadium was in 2013, when the team beat Old Dominion 80-20.
In 2018, following a report by The Daily Tar Heel on William R. Kenan Sr.’s ties to the 1898 Wilmington Massacre, UNC-CH removed a plaque at the front of the stadium honoring Kenan Sr.
Besides football, the stadium also hosts UNC’s spring Commencement.

Photo by William Yeung from Flickr

Specifications

Capacity: Kenan Stadium can hold approximately 51,000 fans.
Cost: The original stadium, built in 1927, cost $303,000.
Field: The field was switched from grass to artificial turf prior to the 2019 season.