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Bill Belichick was officially introduced as North Carolina’s head coaching during a press conference on Thursday afternoon in Chapel Hill.
As part of his opening statement, Belichick talked about his father, Steve Belichick, who was an assistant coach at North Carolina when he was an infant. Belichick was born in 1952 and his father was UNC’s backfield coach from 1953-55.
As legend has it in the Belichick family, his first words were “Beat Duke.”
“When you’re little, you don’t remember everything,” Belichick said. “And obviously I was too young to remember a lot of things from Carolina. But as I grew up, you hear the same story over and over again. And so one story I always heard was, ‘Billy’s first words were Beat Duke.'”
Belichick also showed off a retro North Carolina football hoody that his father owned when he was in Chapel Hill:
Belichick shocked the world this week by accepting the North Carolina head coaching job. This will be his first experience as a college football coach, although he spent decades in the NFL. He won 6 Super Bowl titles as head coach of the New England Patriots, but parted ways with the franchise after last season.
Belichick will get a chance to make good on his first words when the Tar Heels host the Blue Devils in 2025.
Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.
