James Spurling, longtime Carolina Athletics staff member, dies

James Spurling, whose selfless nature, honesty, commitment to teamwork and dedication to all things Tar Heels wove him through the tapestry of Carolina for more than five decades, passed away suddenly Feb. 5. The long-time director of Kenan Stadium and the Kenan Football Center and Massey Award winner was 68.

A celebration of his life will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 15, at Carmichael Arena. Learn more about the event on GoHeels.

Spurling’s lifelong connection to UNC-Chapel Hill began with a simple act of kindness. As a teenager in the late 1970s, he worked construction for his father and got extra hours pumping gas and doing odd jobs at a service station on Airport Road in Chapel Hill. Ernie Williamson, a former Tar Heel football player and at the time the first executive director of The Rams Club, stopped in one day and said he had a flat tire on his tractor at home and asked if he could borrow an air tank.

The owner of the station had a brusque reply: “Maybe you should go ask where you buy your gas.”

Spurling was embarrassed that a customer had been treated rudely and, as an avid Carolina fan, was also a little awed that the man in front of him had played football not only for the Tar Heels but the Washington Redskins in the NFL. He struck up a conversation with Williamson and offered to visit Williamson’s home that evening and help him repair his tractor. That accomplished, Williamson offered to pay Spurling, but he refused.

“Son, you ever been to a Carolina football game?” Williamson asked.

“No, sir, but I’d love to,” Spurling answered. “My eyes got big as half dollars when he said he’d take me to a game.”

And so began a long-standing relationship between Spurling and Tar Heel athletics — the football program in particular — that lasted until early Thursday.

“What I will remember most about James was his easy smile, sincerity, connection with people, high standards and honesty,” says Carolina Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham. “His selfless nature, honesty, commitment to teamwork and dedication to all things Tar Heels wove him through the tapestry of Carolina for more than five decades.”

As word spread Thursday of Spurling’s death, former Tar Heel players, coaches and support staff members commiserated over their loss and what Spurling meant to the program.

“He was the glue behind the scenes for Carolina football since the ’90s,” says Dré Bly, a Tar Heel All-America cornerback in the late 1990s and later an assistant coach. “You called James for anything, and he always delivered. He knew everybody in the Chapel Hill area. Any issues we had from the smallest to biggest things, he always had a solution.”

Spurling as a young man worked a year as a police officer in Creedmoor and then took a full-time job at Eastgate BP, a gathering spot back in the day for locals to not only buy gas and get an oil change but to chew the fat and catch up on local news.

It was over more than two decades at Eastgate BP that Spurling’s amiable personality, servant heart and soft Granville County drawl endured him to legions of locals and those who popped into town from time to time.

“Eastgate BP was a ‘Who’s who’ of university and town leaders who’d come through every day,” says Jeff Saturday, a former NFL All-Pro center. “It was a home-away-from-home for a ton of folks. James always had a smile on his face and was there to listen. It was like the town barbershop. The news traveled first through Eastgate BP.”

Spurling sold the station in 2005 and was looking for something to do. John Bunting, the Carolina head coach at the time, told him there was a part-time receptionist job opening at Kenan Football Center. Spurling applied, was hired, and soon after, applied for the recently vacated position of Kenan Stadium facility director.

Dick Baddour, the athletic director at the time, remembers Spurling going through the standard interview process and the Athletic Department sending his application to the UNC Office of Human Resources with the recommendation he be hired.

“H.R. didn’t want to approve it because they didn’t think he had enough experience and training,” Baddour says. “They said while he had owned and operated a service station, and, by the way, the most popular one in town, he did not have the qualifications. So we had our H.R. person sit down with him and completely understand the skills and abilities needed to run a first-class service station. Turns out those traits were directly in line with our job. We wrote it up with a strong recommendation to hire, and they went along with us.

“I wrote a note on the recommendation to hire saying he will, without question, be one of the most outstanding hires in the department. That proved to be true. And he has pleased five head football coaches, which may be his grandest achievement.”

Make that six coaches now that Bill Belichick was hired in December 2024.

“I am deeply grieved at the news of James Spurling’s passing this morning,” Belichick said. “His work for the football program was invaluable, his dedication to the university was unequaled, and, above all, his character as a person was exemplary. He was irreplaceable, and we already miss him greatly. May this exceptional man rest in peace.”

Spurling’s title was “director of Kenan Stadium,” and in that role was responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the Kenan Football Center and stadium and managing construction and renovation projects. Every supplier and contractor went through Spurling. He unlocked the gates at dawn from a jangly key ring that numbered as many as 72 keys and constantly patrolled for wayward trash. It was a seven-day-a-week job at times. He helped Tar Heel fans spread loved ones’ ashes on the playing field.

Often he went beyond the call of duty. In Maurice Koury’s declining years, Spurling routinely picked him up in a golf cart from his parking spot before football games and drove him to the elevator entry into the north side premium seating facility that bore the names of John Pope and Koury himself.

“I’ve loved every minute I’ve been here,” Spurling said in 2016. “This is a special place. The people who generated the history of this program and the history of this stadium are still here in spirit. I think my friends like Ernie and Maurice are looking down and saying, ‘Man, that stadium is as pretty as it ever was.’ What I care about is having people come in here and say, ‘James, this place looks great.’ That’s the neatest thing.”

Spurling’s work was lauded with various awards such as the 2009 Ernie Williamson Award, given to an Athletic Department employee for outstanding service, and the 2015 C. Knox Massey Distinguished Service Award, one of the most coveted distinctions earned by faculty and staff on the Chapel Hill campus as a whole. Paul Rizzo, known by Spurling as “Pappa Rizzo,” and his wife Sydna endowed a full football scholarship in Spurling’s name.

But nothing matched the day in October 2021 when Spurling arrived at a surprise ceremony to name the West Concourse of Kenan Stadium in his honor.

“What you have done for this place will never go away, and now your legacy will live forever,” said Mack Brown, the Carolina head coach at the time who befriended Spurling at Eastgate BP when Brown first arrived in Chapel Hill in 1988. “We love you, we appreciate you. I’m glad that for many, many years people will know the story and the person, James Spurling.”

Read more about Spurling on the GoHeels website.