Andrew Carter

Divine revelations: Pope Leo XIV’s attendance at 2005 World Series leaves champion White Sox with an immaculate legacy As the Chicago White Sox honor Pope Leo XIV with an outdoor Mass on Saturday, his 2005 World Series seat has become a pilgrimage site for the faithful.

Seat 2 in Row 19 of Section 140.

That's Father Bob’s seat at Rate Field.

As the White Sox honor Pope Leo XIV with an outdoor Mass on Saturday, his 2005 World Series seat has become a pilgrimage site for the faithful.

📝 @andrew-carter.bsky.social

Divine revelations: Pope Leo XIV’s attendance at 2005 World Series leaves champion White Sox with an immaculate legacy As the Chicago White Sox honor Pope Leo XIV with an outdoor Mass on Saturday, his 2005 World Series seat has become a pilgrimage site for the faithful.

Twenty years ago, the future pope attended Game 1 of the World Series in Chicago. A television camera caught him, by chance or by fate, for about three seconds in the ninth inning.

A story about what lingers from that moment, and night, two decades later: www.chicagotribune.com/2025/06/11/c...

Divine revelations: Pope Leo XIV’s attendance at 2005 World Series leaves champion White Sox with an immaculate legacy As the Chicago White Sox honor Pope Leo XIV with an outdoor Mass on Saturday, his 2005 World Series seat has become a pilgrimage site for the faithful.

Twenty years ago, the future pope attended Game 1 of the World Series in Chicago. A television camera caught him, by chance or by fate, for about three seconds in the ninth inning.

A story about what lingers from that moment, and night, two decades later: www.chicagotribune.com/2025/06/11/c...

‘An American Soldier:’ The improbable homecoming of WWII Army Pvt. James Loyd to Chicago area Pvt. James C. Loyd disappeared during a nighttime firefight days after the Allied Forces landed near Anzio, Italy, in 1944. He’s finally come home.

More than 72,000 American military members remain unaccounted for from World War II. This is the story of one who was recently found, and laid to rest.

On the Chicago-area homecoming of Pvt. James Loyd, an American soldier: www.chicagotribune.com/2025/05/25/c...

‘An American Soldier:’ The improbable homecoming of WWII Army Pvt. James Loyd to Chicago area Pvt. James C. Loyd disappeared during a nighttime firefight days after the Allied Forces landed near Anzio, Italy, in 1944. He’s finally come home.

More than 72,000 American military members remain unaccounted for from World War II. This is the story of one who was recently found, and laid to rest.

On the Chicago-area homecoming of Pvt. James Loyd, an American soldier: www.chicagotribune.com/2025/05/25/c...

Honored this week to begin a new chapter at the Chicago Tribune, where I’ll be a Senior Reporter on the GA/enterprise team. In other words:

I’ll be looking for great stories all over Chicago and Illinois. Excited to get to work in America’s best and most compelling city.

Too many people to thank here, but I owe a great deal to editors, fellow scribes, our wonderful photojournalists and everyone who keeps The NandO going amid endless challenges.

I’m grateful to anyone who ever shared a story with me and to you, for reading.

Thank you.

I’m leaving after accepting an opportunity in Chicago. I hear at least one North Carolinian has done well there. As excited as I am for the work ahead in America’s best city, it’s bittersweet.

North Carolina is home. I love this state and its people. I’ll miss it all.

I spent 8th grade career day at The NandO, in the old newsroom off McDowell Street, and I was hooked. To spend more than 13 years at my hometown paper, writing about ACC basketball and everything else, has been the honor of a lifetime.

After 4,864 days of bylines, datelines and deadlines (some of which I actually met), last night’s Duke-Carolina game was my final assignment at The News & Observer.

It has, very literally, been a dream come true to be a part of it. I’m grateful beyond words.

With Florida State, Clemson dropping lawsuits there is peace in the ACC – sort of. Here’s what to know Florida State, Clemson and the ACC have reached a settlement to their lawsuits and made peace. Will it last? Don’t bet on it.

Clemson, Florida State and the ACC have dropped their lawsuits against each other. And so there is peace, for now. For the long term?

Eh. Probably not so much.

Winners and losers and what-to-know, while pondering the Neville Chamberlainedness of it all: www.newsobserver.com/sports/colle...

How UNC basketball’s Cade Tyson has maintained faith amid criticism, noise of tough season UNC’s Cade Tyson has been an easy target amid his struggles this season. Slowly, though, his faith is starting to be vindicated.

Cade Tyson has seen the mean tweets and heard the noise. And he understands the angst better than anyone.

“I feel like I haven’t accomplished much here," he said Monday in Tallahassee.

Slowly, though, there are signs. On his faith during a tough season:
www.newsobserver.com/sports/colle...

ACC basketball was once king — so how has the once-proud conference reached such a low? The ACC’s basketball history and tradition are second to none. So how did it ever get this bad?

Wrote about the sorry state of ACC men’s basketball. Is the explanation as simple as an exodus of great coaches? Probably.

Even so, there are some deeper issues here. The conference should never be *this* bad. On some of the causes and effects:

www.newsobserver.com/sports/colle...

ACC expanded West for football TV money. Basketball teams, among others, pay the price Football TV money has driven all the realignment in major college athletics over the past several years. In the ACC, it has created basketball travel more demanding than that in the NBA.

Red-eyes with stops to refuel. Consults with "sleep guys," including a NASA expert. A travel schedule more grueling than that in the NBA.

Football TV money drove the ACC’s Westward expansion. The league’s basketball teams, among others, are paying the price: www.newsobserver.com/sports/colle...

How Cooper Flagg epitomizes the gap between Duke and UNC — and not just on the court UNC and Duke have taken diverging approaches to recruiting in an evolving college basketball landscape, a difference that led Cooper Flagg to Durham, and the Blue Devils to a blowout win over the Tar ...

Cooper Flagg put on a show Saturday night in Durham in his Duke-Carolina debut. He also underscored the broader difference between the two rivals in this new college basketball era.

One program has been aggressively progressive. The other has resisted change. www.newsobserver.com/sports/colle...

How Cooper Flagg epitomizes the gap between Duke and UNC — and not just on the court UNC and Duke have taken diverging approaches to recruiting in an evolving college basketball landscape, a difference that led Cooper Flagg to Durham, and the Blue Devils to a blowout win over the Tar ...

Cooper Flagg put on a show Saturday night in Durham in his Duke-Carolina debut. He also underscored the broader difference between the two rivals in this new college basketball era.

One program has been aggressively progressive. The other has resisted change. www.newsobserver.com/sports/colle...

After (another) late collapse, UNC nearing (another) crossroads under Hubert Davis For UNC, the late collapse Tuesday night at Pitt was “kind of like the same movie over and over again,” RJ Davis said. The Tar Heels are becoming familiar with an uncomfortable new reality.

His back literally against a wall late Tuesday night, near midnight, Hubert Davis spoke of a need to keep fighting.

“What choice do you have?”

After another late meltdown, it’s fair to question whether UNC can muster such resiliency.

From Pittsburgh:

www.newsobserver.com/sports/colle...

Settling in at the Smith Center for some bicoastal Atlantic Coast basketball action: Cal at UNC. Last time the Golden Bears were here: November 1997.

That game gave us perhaps the most iconic shot of a Vince Carter dunk, ever. Photograph made (of course) by Hugh Morton.

Agreed, and you get the sense that Scheyer is looking for (and even wanting!) those teaching moments however rare they are. The league will do them no favors in terms of prepping for March. Like training for a prize fight by snacking on junk food.

After rout against Miami, perfect ACC start, Duke’s biggest challenge might be boredom Duke’s early ACC dominance begs the question: When was the last time the gap was this wide between the ACC’s best team and the rest of the league?

Yes, it was only Miami and arguably the ACC's worst team. But after another rout, it's fair to say Duke's biggest obstacle in ACC play might just be boredom.

When was the last time the gap was this wide between the ACC's best and the rest? From Cameron Indoor: www.newsobserver.com/sports/colle...

UNC, NC State delivered a compelling ending — to a game that underscored ACC’s mediocrity North Carolina and N.C. State delivered a classic ending — in a game that otherwise didn’t deserve it.

Saturday’s Carolina-State game delivered, in the end, after 35 minutes as ugly as any in the 248-game history of the series. The good: Jalen Washington. Ian Jackson. State’s D (maybe?).

The not-so good: this underscored the ACC’s mediocrity: www.newsobserver.com/sports/colle...

How North Carolina and Bill Belichick started from opposite poles and ended up together Bill Belichick decided he wanted to coach in college. UNC decided it needed a pro coach. Their marriage of convenience was born of desperation.

UNC and Bill Belichick came from opposite directions to arrive at this marriage of football convenience.

“College kind of came to me this year,” Belichick said. “I didn’t necessarily go and seek it out.”

“We’re taking a risk,” Bubba Cunningham said.

www.newsobserver.com/sports/spt-c...

How Bill Belichick became UNC’s football coach: Inside the Tar Heels’ bold, risky move UNC has tried almost everything to become nationally relevant in football. Its hiring of Bill Belichick, and the enormous financial investment along with it, is its boldest move ever.

Dick Crum once said UNC wanted to be Oklahoma on Saturday and Harvard during the week.

But now it's no longer content to be "relegated to the kids table" in football.

On a decades-long dance ending in the decision to go all in, and hire Bill Belichick: www.newsobserver.com/sports/colle...

How Bill Belichick became UNC’s football coach: Inside the Tar Heels’ bold, risky move UNC has tried almost everything to become nationally relevant in football. Its hiring of Bill Belichick, and the enormous financial investment along with it, is its boldest move ever.

Dick Crum once said UNC wanted to be Oklahoma on Saturday and Harvard during the week.

But now it's no longer content to be "relegated to the kids table" in football.

On a decades-long dance ending in the decision to go all in, and hire Bill Belichick: www.newsobserver.com/sports/colle...

Bill Belichick, cutting the sleeves off an Alexander Julian plaid blazer.

Bill Belichick, being asked to shake the hand of a human dressed as a toaster pastry.

Bill Belichick, adding the entire UNC lacrosse team to the football roster.

Can you imagine?

www.newsobserver.com/sports/spt-c...

Back for more in Chapel Hill. No sign of Bill Belichick inside the Smith Center. Not much in the way of early energy, either, from the Tar Heels, who trail Georgia Tech 8-4 early.

UNC looking for something good to happen today. Been a bit.

Junior college football is about second (third? fourth?) chances. The opportunity is often the reward. There’s no trophy at the end.

For the first time, Louisburg College has a chance to win one Saturday.

www.newsobserver.com/sports/spt-c...

It’s true, as (highly, highly) unlikely it is that it really goes anywhere: Bill Belichick has had talks with UNC about its head coaching vacancy. www.newsobserver.com/sports/colle...

One of the most surreal scenes I can remember in Triangle college hoops: A chant of "Roll Tide" bellowing in the Smith Center.

On the ACC's woeful "challenge" showing against the SEC, which UNC's performance epitomized. How did things reach such a point? www.newsobserver.com/sports/colle...

Alabama 31, UNC 18; 7:59 1H.

Ugly first half thus far for the Heels. Really struggling defensively. Cannot keep up with Bama's guards, who are penetrating at well. Offensively, UNC with seven turnovers. Bama's shooting 50 percent.