‘If they make it, we’re going to be there’

For years, Don Weathers and his wife, Pat, have driven more than 300 miles to be in the Smith Center each time the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s men’s basketball team has taken the court.

When the NCAA tournament rolls around, the distance may be farther from their home in Newton, North Carolina, but after they have already driven close to 6,000 miles a year to see their team in Chapel Hill, you can bet they’ll find their way to the Final Four.

And they have. Fourteen times.

“We’ve always gone,” Pat said. “It gets in your blood.”

The Weathers aren’t alone, either. As the Tar Heels prepare to take on Oregon in the Final Four on Saturday, Phoenix has become full of die-hard Carolina fans.

A family tradition

Crumpled up in Don’s pocket is a small piece of paper listing the cities that hosted the Final Fours he and Pat have been to throughout the years.

A few of those cities have stars next to them. Those were the extra special years — when Carolina cut down the nets at the national championship.

“That’s the ultimate,” said Don, who graduated from Carolina in 1963.

Ever since 1968, when Carolina played UCLA in the finals, the Weathers have been to nearly every Final Four the Tar Heels have competed in.  The couple marks their calendars at the start of each season to make sure they don’t make any other plans for the Final Four.

That rule even applied to their daughter’s wedding.

“She called in November and asked me if we could find out when the Final Four is going to be,” said Pat, a 1965 Carolina graduate. “She planned her wedding for the weekend after the Final Four.”

After 14 years, the Final Four trips still stir the same excitement as their first one in 1968, Don said. It’s a tradition the Weathers have no plans to stop.

“It’s a family tradition with the Tar Heels,” Don said. “It’s the Tar Heel family. If they make it to the Final Four, we’re going to be there. I may be aged out — I’m 77 — but I’ll still be there.”

Thirteen trips and counting

Greg and Martha Crampton’s rule is simple: if Carolina is in the Final Four, they’re going.

It’s a tradition that started as a spur of the moment trip to the 1981 Final Four in Philadelphia.

“I decided to go at the last minute,” said Greg, who graduated from the UNC School of Law in 1972. “I go home. We have a new baby — three months old — and I tell Martha ‘I’m going to Philadelphia.’ And Martha’s mother is there and she said ‘Well, you need to go to.’ Martha packed in an hour.”

After that, they were hooked. Greg has been to every Carolina Final Four ever since.

“That was really the beginning of it,” said Martha, a 1970 Carolina graduate. “After that I said I wouldn’t miss them. After a couple of times, Greg said, ‘I’ve made a decision. If Carolina goes to the Final Four, we are going.’ We have just had a long basketball tradition.

“I will come as long as I can walk or stand and cheer for the Heels.”

Throughout the years, the couple has witnessed four national championship titles.

With 13 Final Four trips already under their belts, Greg knows not to take the experience for granted.

“Think of what a treat it is to be a Carolina fan and be able to come to all the Final Fours that they go since 1981 and you have a lot of teams that have never in that time period even go to one Final Four,” he said.

‘I had to be here’

Growing up in Chapel Hill, Josh Mayo has loved Carolina basketball his entire life.

“From Day 1, Carolina basketball has always been important,” he said. “It’s been something that teachers would roll in the cart for the ACC tournament or it was the way you’d connect with people on the playground. It was just something that has been present in my life.”

As a Carolina student, Mayo is a staple at Tar Heel basketball games, cheering loudly from the front row. The Final Four will be no different. He will cheer loudly from the University of Phoenix’s student section.

With graduation day just a month away, Mayo wanted to fit in as much Carolina basketball as possible. He flew to Phoenix the night before the Final Four, staying up all night to finish a paper once he arrived in Arizona.

“I had to be here,” he said. “I really wanted to be able to see it in person and see it through. It would have been nice to sit back and watch it on TV and relax a little bit, but I felt like I had to come out here and get the last little bit of Carolina basketball experience that I could. It really is something that is hard to describe — it’s something that’s meant so much to me.”