It’s about taking care of people

“You can easily judge a person’s character by how they treat those who can do nothing for them.”

Inscribed on a plaque in James Spurling’s Kenan Football Center office, the phrase reminds him of when he met former UNC football player and Ram’s Club director Ernest Williamson.

In 1979, Spurling was working at a service station on Airport Road when Williamson walked in and asked to borrow an air tank for a flat tire on his tractor back home. Though the owner denied the request, Spurling helped Williamson when he got off work. That chance meeting and Spurling’s kindness and generosity led to a lifetime friendship with Williamson and many others at Carolina. Now, as director of Kenan Stadium, Spurling brings that same care and hospitality to everyone that walks through the stadium’s gates.

Read the complete Carolina story in the University Gazette…

Spurling is a 2015 winner of the C. Knox Massey Distinguished Service Award. The late C. Knox Massey of Durham created the awards in 1980 to recognize “unusual, meritorious or superior contributions” by University employees. The award is supported by the Massey-Weatherspoon Fund created by three generations of Massey and Weatherspoon families.

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