Woody Durham, the voice of Tar Heels football and basketball since 1971, is resigning at the end of June saying that the quality of his announcing had begun to decline of late.

“I felt it kind of getting away from me a little bit,” said Durham, 69. “And so that’s why I thought it’s probably a good time to step aside.”

Durham, whose son Wes is the Georgia Tech play-by-play announcer, almost retired following the 2009-2010 basketball season but decided to come back another year and work harder to live up to the level of excellence he expected. “But again, my presentations were not always what I wanted … so I knew it was time, and I wanted it to be my decision.”

Eric Montross, the UNC basketball color analyst, said Durham was excellent because of his preparation. “He has the uncanny ability to know everything about a player,” he said. “He’ll know what they ate in the morning for breakfast to what they’re going to do after the game, to their birthday and their high school coach and what the high school coach had for breakfast.

“It was never-ending, the attention to detail. He lived Carolina athletics. He sought out ways to continually make things better.”

Eight years after graduating from Carolina, Durham took over the play-by-play announcing after Bill Currie, “The Mouth of the South,” left the position.

“One and one no longer make two,” said Mick Mixon, who worked as Woody color analyst for 15 years. “Water no longer freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Woody Durham is no longer the voice of the Tar Heels.”

Durham called 13 Final Fours and 23 bowl games. Go where you go and do what you do, Woody.

Listen to Woody Durham’s call of the end of the 1982 National Championship game.