Hanburger selected as Carolina’s Legend for ACC championship game

Professional Football Hall of Famer Chris Hanburger has been named Carolina’s 2011 Dr Pepper ACC Football Championship Game Legend. The Legends (one from each school) will be honored at this year’s Dr Pepper ACC Football Championship Game weekend.

They will be honored at the ACC Night of Legends event on Friday, Dec. 2, and during ceremonies at Bank of America Stadium for the 7th Annual Dr Pepper ACC Football Championship, which has an 8 p.m. kickoff on Dec. 3 and will be nationally televised
by ESPN in both HD and 3-D.

Hanburger (1962-64), was a standout linebacker and center for the North Carolina teams of coach Jim Hickey in the early-to-mid 1960s. Named a first-team All-ACC selection as a center in both 1963 and 1964, he helped lead the 1963 Tar Heel team to a 9-2 record, a share of the ACC championship and a 35-0 win over Air Force in the Gator Bowl.

Drafted on the 18th round of the 1965 NFL Draft by the Washington Redskins, Hanburger went on to play 14 seasons in Washington, where he earned nine Pro Bowl selections and was regarded as one of the best outside linebackers of his era. Inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in August at Canton, Ohio, he played in 187 NFL games and was voted to the All-NFL team four times.

A mainstay of the dominant Washington Redskin teams of the 1970s, he made 19 career interceptions, returning them for 347 yards and two touchdowns. He led Washington to the 1972 NFC Championship and Super Bowl VII. That year, he was named the NFC Defensive Player of the Year. Originally a native of Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, he now lives in Darlington, S.C.

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