University of North Carolina Chapel Hill - Yackety Yack Yearbook (Chapel Hill, NC)

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1923 YACKETY YVCK Willie McKeithan Fetzer Robert Allison Fetzer FOLLOWING the Fall of iHl. notable because of Carolina ' s most disastrous football season in recent years, the University athletic authorities made a tremendously important announcement relative to the Institution ' s future athletic policies. The old, irregular haphazard method of employing coaches, an uncertain process with no set standards for selection, involving a change for practi- cally every season and sport and always proving troublesome and unsatisfactory, was to be abandoned once and for all. This, in itself, was good news to University folk everywhere. The erratic results of the few years prior, with now a season of spectacular success and now a season of dismal failure, had ])roduced a desire among the athletic followers of this Institution for any change, trusting it to be for the better. But the announcement was received with unanimous ajjplause, not so much because it marked a -ital change in the athletic policies of the University but because it was accompanied by the definite action of acquiring the services here of Coaches Bill and Bob Fetzer. A two-year contract had been signed by two of the South ' s best known and most celebrated coaches, men who had been remarkably and consistently successful in developing winning teams. Willie McKeithan Fetzer, named in this first contract as head coach of ath- letics at the University of North Carolina, was educated at Davidson College where he distinguished himself in football and baseball, starring in both these sports. Here he was also prominent in other undergraduate activities, and was a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity. In 1!)0;5, after two years at Davidson, he l egan his coaching career, taking charge of athletics at Fishburne Military School. For seven years he remained at Fishburne and turned out during this period .some of the finest preparatory teams ever to perform in Virginia. He moved over to Staun- ton Military Academy during the session of 1911-191 ' ' 2, but returned to Fishburne in 1913 and was there until he was employed as head football and baseball coach at Davidson in 1915. Coach Fetzer then did some of his most remarkable work, developing teams that became known throughout the land for their indomit.able fighting spirit; teams that won against foes from much larger colleges. His phenom- enal success with the Fighting Wildcats at Davidson made the name of Fetzer spread abroad as one of powerful significance in Southern college athletics, and in 1919 he accepted a most flattering offer to coach at North Carolina State College. He was there for one college term and a part of another, and more laurels were added to his notable record. Then, in January, 1921, he came to Carolina, with his brother as assistant, to raise our athletics out of the mire and give them the famous Fetzer fight and winning ability. Robert Allison Fetzer, three years younger than Coach Bill, has devoted his coaching experience chiefly to track and football. He, too, received his education at Davidson College where he studied for five years and secured his A. B. and M. S. degrees. Like his brother he was prominent among many undergraduate Five