Woody Durham

Woody Lombardi Durham (August 8, 1941 – March 7, 2018) was an American play-by-play radio announcer for the North Carolina Tar Heels football and men's basketball programs from 1971 to 2011.

Born in Mebane, North Carolina, Durham grew up in Albemarle, North Carolina. He grew up a Tar Heel fan; as a child, Durham attended Tar Heel football games with his family after World War II.

Durham was close with Bob Harris, who would eventually become the Voice of the Duke Blue Devils. The two played on the same Little League Baseball team. In 1957, Durham was a guard for Albemarle High School's football team; Harris was the team's manager. Durham and Harris also sang together for Albemarle High School's chorus as well as in a double quartet.

In 1961, while Durham was an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he was initiated into the Alpha Rho chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.

Durham graduated with a bachelor's degree in radio, television and motion pictures in 1963.

Durham began his career at WZKY, a small AM radio station in his hometown of Albemarle, at age 16. As a student announcer, Durham played rock-and-roll records, broadcast church sermons, and did color commentary for high school basketball.

Durham was the sports director of WUNC-TV while he was an undergraduate. He also called baseball games around this time.

After graduating, Durham briefly worked at WBTW-TV before becoming the sports director of WFMY-TV, where he worked from October 1963 until August 1977. While there, Durham also worked on the station's Atlantic Coast Conference package, what would be the predecessor to Raycom Sports. He also did color commentary for Wake Forest Demon Deacons football, starting in 1964. When Wake Forest decided to fire their football coach in favor of hiring a new coach, Durham moved on to call Guilford College football for two years. Durham's work with WFMY-TV led him to want to call play-by-play for ACC football and men's basketball.