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Athletics

Trading cards show Carolina’s Olympic connections

Fifteen cards feature the faces and feats of famous Tar Heels and some hidden priceless gems.

Story and text by Scott Jared and Brennan Doherty, University Communications. Card design by Sharon Chung, UNC Creative, Wednesday, July 24th, 2024
Graphic reading
(Sharon Chung/UNC Creative)

A chemist cyclist. A soccer icon. An actor and Purple Heart recipient. A Greek literature professor.

These and other Carolina Olympians illustrate the University’s association with the modern Olympics that dates to the 1896 revival of the Games. To celebrate that long connection, University Communications designed trading cards featuring 15 Tar Heel Olympians.

You will see some familiar faces and may discover hidden gems in Carolina’s Olympic history. Some were pioneers, some won gold medals and some represented the USA after outstanding collegiate careers. Others took different paths to Olympic glory.

While it’s not an exhaustive look at Carolina Olympians, it’s one sure to prepare you for this year’s festivities in Paris.

Enjoy the trading card GIFs below, and click on each one to see a static image of each card’s front and back.

Phil Ford

Front of card: A photo of Phil Ford in Olympic uniform. Basketball. Back of card: Phil Ford. UNC years: 1975-1978. Hometown: Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Graduated as leading scorer in school history (2,290 points) and as career assists leader (753). Earned first-team All-America honors three times and was 1978 National Player of the Year. Played eight seasons in N.B.A. As point guard on the 1976 U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team in Montreal, Canada, Ford led gold-medal winners coached by Dean Smith with 54 assists in six games. “Sports Illustrated” called Ford “the indispensable, one-of-a-kind player on the team.”

Floyd Simmons

Front of card: Floyd Simmons. Track and Field. Back of card: Floyd “Chunk” Simmons. U.N.C. years: 1946-1947. Hometown: Charlotte, North Carolina. World War II Purple Heart recipient. Competed in 1946 national collegiate championships in low and high hurdles. Voted “most handsome boy” in 1946 UNC coed poll. Acted in movies, including “South Pacific.” An outstanding all-around athlete, he was Carolina’s first medal-winner. He won bronze medals in the decathlon at London (1948) and Helsinki (1952). Simmons also played on the Tar Heel football team two seasons before moving to California to train.

Danute Bankaitis-DavisFront of card: Photo of Danute Bankaitis-Davis in Olympic uniform. Road Cycling. Back of card: Danute “Bunki” Bankaitis-Davis. U.N.C. years: 1981-1986. Hometown: Boulder, Colorado. Began bike racing with the UNC Cycling Club, Co-founded Source MDx®, a molecular diagnostics company, Inducted into U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame in 2021. A scholarship at UNC is named in her honor. She earned a doctoral degree in synthetic organic chemistry from Carolina, raced in Seoul (1988) and was a first alternate for Barcelona (1992). In 1992, she captained the U.S. world championship team time-trial squad and won time-trial national title.

Sharon Couch-Jewell

Front of card: Sharon Couch-Jewell in Olympic uniform. Track and Field. Back of card: Sharon Couch-Jewell. Hometown: Rice, Virginia. Years at Carolina 1987-1991. Five-time All-American, Won eight individual ACC titles and led UNC to seven successive ACC championships, Named outstanding performer at three ACC championship meets. In 1992, became first Black woman to win the Patterson Medal as Carolina's outstanding senior athlete. Finished sixth in the long jump at Barcelona (1992), competed in the 100-meter hurdles at Sydney (2000) and was a member of five U.S. teams at world championships while competing for 11 years as a professional long jumper and sprint hurdler. 

B.J. Surhoff

Front of card: B.J. Surhoff. Baseball. Surhoff, a catcher for the Diamond Heels, was on the U.S. silver-medal squad in Los Angeles (1984). He had two home runs and 13 RBIs. In 1983 he won international medals with a silver at the Intercontinental Cup and a bronze at the Pan American Games. Milwaukee Brewers chose him first overall in 1985 MLB draft. Played catcher, left field and first base. His career (1987-2005), he also played for the Atlanta Braves and made a 1999 All-Star Game appearance. His career included a .282 batting average, 188 home runs and 1,153 RBIs. UNC years: 1983-85. First Tar Heel to earn back-to-back first-team All-America honors (1984-85). 1985 “Sporting News” Player of the Year. First UNC player ever to hit .400. Elected to College Baseball Hall of Fame in 2010

Shalane Flanagan

Front of card: Photo of Shalane Flanagan in Olympic uniform. Track and Field. Back of card: Shalane Flanagan. Hometown: Marblehead, Massachusetts. UNC years: 2000-2004. Claimed NCAA crowns twice (outdoor 5,000 meters), once (indoor 3,000 meters), five times (cross country) and once (distance medley relay team member). Fourteen-time All-American and fifteen-time ACC champion. Won Honda Sports Award as nation’s top female collegiate cross-country runner (2003, 2004). A four-time Olympian, she ran the 5,000 meters at Athens (2004), won silver medal at 10,000-meters in Beijing (2008), finished ninth in marathon at London (2012) and placed sixth in marathon at Rio de Janeiro (2016). Won 2017 New York City Marathon.

Amy Tran Swensen

Front of card: Photo of Amy Tran Swensen defending goal. Field Hockey. Back of card: Hometown: Grantville, Pennsylvania. UNC years: 1999-2002. Four-year starter. Called one of UNC’s “all-time greats” by legendary coach Karen Shelton. First-team All-American and All-ACC in 2000. Second-team All-American and All-ACC in 2001. Swensen played goalkeeper on the U.S. team at Beijing (2008) and London (2012), helping the squad to eighth- and 12th-place finishes, respectively. Swensen is a two-time Pan American Games silver medalist. Named the top goalkeeper at the 2006 World Cup. During her U.S. career, played in 163 games.

Eben Alexander

Front of card: Eben Alexander. U.S. Ambassador to Greece and Professor. Back of card: Eben Alexander. Hometown: Knoxville, Tennessee, Years at Carolina 1886-1909, Supervised building of UNC’s first library in Hill Hall, UNC’s oldest academic prize bears his name. Alexander, a professor of Greek language and literature at Carolina, was appointed as U.S. Ambassador to Greece, Romania and Serbia by President Grover Cleveland in 1893. He was the first to contribute funds to the committee organizing the 1896 Olympics as a revival of games that had not happened in 1,500 years. Alexander helped recruit Americans to compete in Athens. He and his wife, Marion, welcomed those athletes and hosted social events for them. Greek government purportedly gave him a cane made of olive wood from Marathon, Greece, which UNC’s Classics department owns.

Allen Johnson

Front of card: Photo of Allen Johnson running. Track and Field. Back of card: Allen Johnson. UNC years: 1990-1993. Hometown: Washington, D.C. 1992 NCAA Indoor Champion for 55-meter hurdles. Won four ACC titles, including three (long jump) and one (110-meter hurdles). Set an ACC record in long jump and school records in indoor and outdoor long jump and 110-meter hurdles. Johnson, a three-time Olympian, won the 110-meter hurdles gold medal at Atlanta (1996). At Sydney (2000), he finished fourth in the event. In Athens (2004), he ran in preliminaries, but didn’t make the final. Earned gold medals in hurdles at seven IAAF World Championship meets. Inducted into National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 2015.

Crystal Dunn

Front of card: Photo of Crystal Dunn in Olympic uniform. Soccer. Crystal Dunn. Hometown: Rockville Centre, New York. UNC years: 2010-14. Helped Carolina win 2012 NCAA title, Won Hermann Trophy (nation’s top player) and ACC’s Mary Garber Award (top female athlete). NWSL career: First overall pick in 2014 draft; 2015 league MVP with Washington Spirit; two-time NWSL champion, including 2019 title with North Carolina Courage. Dunn, on U.S. National Team set for Paris (2024), first made team in 2013. She has played in 147 matches, including (Rio) 2016 and the bronze-medal Tokyo Games (2020). Known for her positional versatility, she’s scored 25 goals for the U.S.

Harry Williamson

Front of card: Harry Williamson. Track and Field. Back of card: Hometown: High Point, N.C. Williamson was the first Tar Heel and North Carolinian Olympian. At Berlin (1936), he finished sixth in the 800 meters. Afterwards, the U.S. team went to London for an exhibition meet. There Williamson helped the U.S. run a world-record 4 x 800-meter relay. UNC years: 1932-1936. Finished second in the NCAA mile in 1935. Broke the school’s three-mile record as a first-year. His “The Daily Tar Heel” editorial defended America’s decision to send athletes to Germany’s 1936 Games. Died at 86 in 2000.

Michael Jordan

Front of card: Photo of Michael Jordan in Olympic uniform. Basketball. Back of card: Michael Jordan. UNC years: 1981-1984. Hometown: Wilmington, N.C. Two-time first-team All-American. National player of the year as a junior. Won six NBA titles with Chicago Bulls. Led NBA in scoring 10 times and named MVP six times, both league records. Considered the best basketball player ever by many, he hit the game-winning shot in 1982 NCAA championship game, won two Olympic gold medals, first at Los Angeles (1984), where he led U.S. in scoring with 17.1 points per game and on gold-medal Dream Team in Barcelona (1992).

Mia Hamm

Front of card: Photo of Mia Hamm in Olympic uniform. Soccer. Back of card: Mia Hamm. Hometown: Selma, Alabama. UNC years: 1989-1994. First played for U.S. at 15. 95-1 record as a Tar Heel. Scored 158 goals in 276 matches for the U.S. Inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2007. As the face of women’s U.S. soccer, Hamm helped grow the game in1990s and 2000s. Her time on the U.S. national team spanned 1987 to 2004 and included two Olympic gold medals (Atlanta 1996, Athens 2004), a bronze (Sydney 2000) and two World Cup titles (1991, 1999). Her UNC teams won four national titles.

Ann Marshall

Front of card: Photo of Ann Marshall in Olympic uniform. Swimming. Back of card: Ann Marshall. UNC years: 1976-1979. Hometown: Fort Lauderdale, Florida.18-time first-team All-America selection. Named to A.C.C. 50th Anniversary Team in 2002. Won AIAW individual national titles in 200-yard backstroke and 200-yard freestyle. Inducted into North Carolina Swimming Hall of Fame. Carolina’s first female Olympian, Marshall competed at Munich (1972) before attending U.N.C. She finished fourth in the 200-meter freestyle and swam anchor for the 4 x 100-meter freestyle relay team in a preliminary race as a substitute for Shirley Babashoff, who swam on the gold-medal team. In 1974, Marshall swam on a 4 x 100-meter relay team that set a world record.

Vince Carter

Front of card: Photo of Vince Carter in Olympic uniform. Basketball. Back of card: Vince Carter. UNC years: 1996-99. Hometown: Daytona Beach, Florida. Won two ACC titles as a Tar Heel, only NBA player ever to play in four different decades, eight-time NBA All-Star, NBA’s 1999 rookie of the year. Carter led the U.S. in scoring at Sydney (2000) as the team captured its third straight gold medal. On what the French press dubbed “le dunk de la mort" (“The Dunk of Death”), he skied over France’s 7-foot-2 Frédéric Weis for one of the sport’s most famous dunks. Carter reached two Final Fours at Carolina and later enjoyed an NBA-record 22-season career.

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