Tar Heel Throwback: January 18th, 1986, Duke at Carolina (First game in the Smith Center)
Carolina Insider
The Varsity Podcast Network
4.9 • 908 Ratings
🗓️ 16 January 2026
⏱️ 124 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Carolina just won its 500th game in the Smith Center last weekend so we take a look back at the first game (and the first win) the building's history.
Neal Harrell joins to talk fundraising for the building (3:50)
Jeff Lebo joins to talk playing in the game (20:41)
And we give the game the Tar Heel Throwback treatment (including TV broadcast audio, THSN audio, Dean Smith postgame audio and Steve Hale postgame audio) as the No. 1 Tar Heels hosted the No. 3 Blue Devils (32:27)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From Pod World Headquarters, this is the Carolina Insider from Learfield. |
| 0:07.0 | We're back time for another edition of the Carolina Insider Jones and Adam here with you. |
| 0:14.0 | We have a special edition of the show today. |
| 0:17.0 | Tarils are out on the West Coast, so we thought we would focus in back at home. |
| 0:24.2 | There's only one day to do that, of course, Friday. |
| 0:28.7 | It's Friday, Friday, got to get down on Friday. |
| 0:33.9 | Everybody's looking forward to the weekend, weekend. |
| 0:38.0 | Party and party and party and fun, fun, fun, fun, looking forward to the weekend. |
| 0:47.1 | So we have a special edition of the show today where we're going to focus in on the first win in the Smith Center. |
| 0:57.1 | Carolina won its 500th game in the Smith Center on Saturday against Wake Forest. And so Adam, we thought it would be a great |
| 1:02.9 | time to take a look back at win number one back on January 18th, 1986 over Duke. |
| 1:11.8 | We're going to talk to Jeff Lebo here in just a second, who played in the game. |
| 1:15.6 | We're going to talk to Neil Harrell, who was in the Rams Club and was in the Rams Club for many years after this as well as a fundraiser and helped raise the 30 more, not just Neil himself, but helped raise the $38 million that was needed from |
| 1:29.2 | private funding to build the building we're going to look back we're going to rewatch a game give |
| 1:33.9 | a tar hill throwback treatment that includes some coach Smith audio some steve hail audio you're going to |
| 1:40.0 | hear both television broadcast and tar Sports Network broadcast of the game. |
| 1:45.2 | What a what a bonanza, Adam. |
| 1:47.2 | And the 40th anniversary of that game just a couple days away. |
| 1:50.0 | Yeah, that's right. |
| 1:50.7 | January 18th. |
| 1:52.1 | So an appropriate time. |
| 1:54.1 | As you were saying all that, I was thinking about how when we were talking about this |
... |
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