UNC TO HONOR SHARON COUCH-FIKES AND PHIL FORD WITH TRAILBLAZER AWARD
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – For the third year in a row, Carolina Athletics will honor pioneering former student-athletes with the Tar Heel Trailblazers award. This year’s honorees are Sharon Couch-Fikes and Phil Ford.
The award recognizes individuals who paved the way for success in all aspects of the student-athlete experience. The Trailblazers will be honored at halftime of the men’s basketball game on Feb. 20 vs. Miami and at a reception afterward.
Couch-Fikes, who competed for the Tar Heels in track and field from 1988-91, was the first African-American woman to win the prestigious Patterson Medal, the highest athletic award at UNC. She was also the first female track athlete at UNC to compete in the Olympic Games, finishing sixth in the long jump in Barcelona in 1992, and advancing to the semifinals of the 100-meter hurdles at the 2000 Sydney Olympiad.
A native of Rice, Va., Couch-Fikes was a five-team All-America, captured eight individual Atlantic Coast Conference track and field titles and was the outstanding performer at the league’s championship meet on three occasions. A 1991 graduate of UNC with a degree in speech communications, Couch-Fikes led UNC to seven straight league titles.
From 1991 to 2001, she competed professionally around the globe and was a member of five U.S. World Championship teams as a long jumper and attained world rankings of seventh (2000) and ninth (1999) in the 100-meter hurdles.
Couch-Fikes spent a great deal of her post-competitive years employed in various corporate positions and has held coaching positions at The Atlanta International School and the University of Tennessee.
Ford, whose jersey is retired and hangs in the rafters at the Smith Center, is considered by most observers one of the best men’s basketball players in Carolina and ACC history. A native of Rocky Mount, N.C., he was a three-time All-America and was named the ACC Male Athlete of the Year in 1977 and 1978. Ford was the National Player of the Year and ACC Player of the Year in 1978.
During his playing career, Carolina finished first in the ACC regular season three times, won two ACC Tournament titles and advanced to the NCAA championship game in 1977. He averaged 18.6 points and 6.1 assists during his career. An Olympic gold medalist in 1976, Ford also won the Patterson Medal in 1978 from UNC.
Ford played eight seasons in the NBA and was named the 1979 Rookie of the Year. He spent 12 years (1988-2000) as a Tar Heel assistant on staffs led by Dean Smith and Bill Guthridge, leading UNC to six Final Fours. He was inducted into the NABC College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012.
Ford was the first freshman player under Smith to start a game during the coach’s tenure at UNC. Ford finished with a brilliant freshman year, leading the Tar Heels to the 1975 ACC Tournament championship, becoming the first freshman in league history to win the Everett Case Award as the tournament’s most valuable player.
Ford had a short career in the NBA as an assistant coach for the New York Knicks and then held the same position for the Charlotte Bobcats under head coach Larry Brown until 2008 when Ford retired from coaching basketball.
Active in several charitable pursuits, he founded the Phil Ford Foundation, which fights childhood obesity.
Previous Tar Heel Trailblazer honorees include Courtney Bumpers, Robyn Hadley, Ricky Lanier and Charles Scott in 2014 and Charles Waddell and Karen Stevenson in 2015.
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – For the third year in a row, Carolina Athletics will honor pioneering former student-athletes with the Tar Heel Trailblazers award. This year’s honorees are Sharon Couch-Fikes and Phil Ford.
The award recognizes individuals who paved the way for success in all aspects of the student-athlete experience. The Trailblazers will be honored at halftime of the men’s basketball game on Feb. 20 vs. Miami and at a reception afterward.
Couch-Fikes, who competed for the Tar Heels in track and field from 1988-91, was the first African-American woman to win the prestigious Patterson Medal, the highest athletic award at UNC. She was also the first female track athlete at UNC to compete in the Olympic Games, finishing sixth in the long jump in Barcelona in 1992, and advancing to the semifinals of the 100-meter hurdles at the 2000 Sydney Olympiad.
A native of Rice, Va., Couch-Fikes was a five-team All-America, captured eight individual Atlantic Coast Conference track and field titles and was the outstanding performer at the league’s championship meet on three occasions. A 1991 graduate of UNC with a degree in speech communications, Couch-Fikes led UNC to seven straight league titles.
From 1991 to 2001, she competed professionally around the globe and was a member of five U.S. World Championship teams as a long jumper and attained world rankings of seventh (2000) and ninth (1999) in the 100-meter hurdles.
Couch-Fikes spent a great deal of her post-competitive years employed in various corporate positions and has held coaching positions at The Atlanta International School and the University of Tennessee.
Ford, whose jersey is retired and hangs in the rafters at the Smith Center, is considered by most observers one of the best men’s basketball players in Carolina and ACC history. A native of Rocky Mount, N.C., he was a three-time All-America and was named the ACC Male Athlete of the Year in 1977 and 1978. Ford was the National Player of the Year and ACC Player of the Year in 1978.
During his playing career, Carolina finished first in the ACC regular season three times, won two ACC Tournament titles and advanced to the NCAA championship game in 1977. He averaged 18.6 points and 6.1 assists during his career. An Olympic gold medalist in 1976, Ford also won the Patterson Medal in 1978 from UNC.
Ford played eight seasons in the NBA and was named the 1979 Rookie of the Year. He spent 12 years (1988-2000) as a Tar Heel assistant on staffs led by Dean Smith and Bill Guthridge, leading UNC to six Final Fours. He was inducted into the NABC College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012.
Ford was the first freshman player under Smith to start a game during the coach’s tenure at UNC. Ford finished with a brilliant freshman year, leading the Tar Heels to the 1975 ACC Tournament championship, becoming the first freshman in league history to win the Everett Case Award as the tournament’s most valuable player.
Ford had a short career in the NBA as an assistant coach for the New York Knicks and then held the same position for the Charlotte Bobcats under head coach Larry Brown until 2008 when Ford retired from coaching basketball.
Active in several charitable pursuits, he founded the Phil Ford Foundation, which fights childhood obesity.
Previous Tar Heel Trailblazer honorees include Courtney Bumpers, Robyn Hadley, Ricky Lanier and Charles Scott in 2014 and Charles Waddell and Karen Stevenson in 2015.
