Oct. 20, 2003

There is a corner in the Charlie Justice Hall of Honor devoted to the 1946-49 Tar Heel teams made famous by Justice and teammates like Art Weiner, Ken Powell and Irv Holdash. Within the display is a button you can push and hear the song All The Way Choo Choo, written in 1949 by Hank Beebe (music) and Orville Campbell (words).

It's not hard to understand that the lyrics were by no means an exaggeration after visiting with members of the Justice Era teams and assorted guests at their reunion Friday night in Chapel Hill.

* Joe Wright: "He ran on pure instinct. He didn't have to think to run. It was all natural ability. He was one of the greatest broken-field runners of all time. He was not extremely fast, but he didn't need a half step to change direction."

* Sid Varney: "You could never tell where he was going to run next. If you were a good player, he made you better. Lots of times a dumb lineman like me got two blocks on one play. He'd run by you once and then come back again."

* Kenan Rand: "The greatest run I ever saw from Charlie was our freshman year, 1946, at Tennessee. He ran the ball 74 yards but ran double that going back and forth. They said Tennessee players laid a hand on him 13 different times, but no one could get him on the ground."

* Ed Bilpuch: "The funniest thing was when one of our players blocked a guy as Charlie went past and kept after him and kept after him. The other guy said, 'Hey, the play's gone.' Our guy said. 'Just wait, Charlie'll be back.'"

* Hugh Morton: "He could run, he could pass, he could kick, he could play defense. Usually someone does one thing well. He did everything."

* John Bunting: "He was everything I want our program to be - class, character, toughness and tremendous, unbelievable competitiveness."