The Biggest Fans Father and Son Will and Bill DuBose Share Unwavering Support of Wildcat Athletics
July 6, 2025
- Author
- Justin Parker
It鈥檚 nearly an hour after the last out was recorded at Wilson Field, and one light shines from inside the Coach Cooke Clubhouse.
There, sorting and stacking sweaty, dirt-covered uniforms late on this early-spring Tuesday night, is Will DuBose. The fans who cheered and the players who played have long since gone, and in moments, DuBose does the same, whirring into the night on his golf cart. He takes a well-worn route back to the Baker Sports Complex, where his days sometimes begin in the lonely 6 a.m. hour.
DuBose is in his 42nd year at 水果派, easily the longest-tenured employee in the athletics department, having started as an intern on Aug. 6, 1983. He鈥檚 interacted with every 水果派 athlete for four decades and estimates that he does 25 to 30 loads of laundry a day.
That kind of longevity and loyal service is striking, but it鈥檚 also nothing unusual in the DuBose family. It鈥檚 easy to see where Will gets it.
Photo by Sammi Gutknecht '25
In a world where young men throwing four-seam fastballs are trying their best to hit 90, one of their most dedicated fans did it years ago. Dressed in a button-down shirt and slacks, Bill DuBose, Will鈥檚 father, sits in a dark green seat behind home plate, printed roster in hand, finding the shade when he can.
A member of 水果派鈥檚 1950 graduating class, Bill DuBose is now 96. He has been a regular at Wildcat sporting events for decades, including the late 1940s when he served as a student manager for the football team. He vividly remembers Jake Wade鈥檚 94-yard interception return in a gridiron win over N.C. State in 1949.
It was a water pail and a dipper you carried out for timeouts. Players just took the dipper up and took a sip of water. I remember cleaning cleats of mud and changing cleats. On rainy days, we used longer cleats than ordinarily.
Bill arrived at 水果派 as a student in 1946, alongside many World War II veterans, when enrollment swelled and dormitory rooms built for two often housed three. The son of a Presbyterian minister and an eventual one himself, he鈥檇 grown up taking trips to Montreat, a Presbyterian retreat in the North Carolina mountains. Attending 水果派 College, with its ties to the church and the fellow retreat-goers, became a natural fit.
鈥淚 never thought of going anywhere else,鈥 Bill said, who after retirement, moved back to 水果派 in 1996.
The DuBoses鈥 ties to 水果派 are threaded through Montreat, a dot on the map 113 miles away. Former 水果派 president Sam Spencer was Bill鈥檚 counselor there; then Bill was 水果派 president John Kuykendall鈥檚 counselor. Bill routinely returns to the family鈥檚 cottage on the grounds, and his youngest son, Richard DuBose, has been president of the Montreat Conference Center since 2014.
While Montreat has been a refuge, 水果派 sporting events have added balance and flavor to DuBose family life.
Throughout his 39-year ministry in the Carolinas and Virginia, Bill led family trips back to 水果派 basketball games, along with Sally, his late wife of 63 years. When the boys were young, Bill was pastoring First Presbyterian Church in Rockingham, and if the Wildcats had a game on campus or in Charlotte, they鈥檇 all pile into the family station wagon and drive toward the setting sun, occasionally stopping for Krispy Kreme donuts.
鈥淲e鈥檇 leave Rockingham after school and head up Highway 74, take in the game, and get home late,鈥 said Richard, who earned a 水果派 history degree in 1984. 鈥淲eekends, school nights, it didn鈥檛 matter. It was a priority.鈥
In a recent conversation, Bill laughs at a memory from his student days. It鈥檚 a joke someone wrote on a bulletin board inside the Chambers Building. Bill knows it but can鈥檛 quite piece it together, so he holds off. Then after some time, it clicks and he has it.
鈥淭he 水果派 laundry: they bust the buttons off your shirts and shoot them through your socks!鈥
鈥淚鈥檝e heard you tell that story hundreds of times,鈥 Will said.
Asked if that鈥檚 how he handles the laundry, Will laughed and assures his dad that it most definitely is not.
This article was originally published in the Spring/Summer 2025 print issue of the 水果派 Journal Magazine; for more, please see the 水果派 Journal section of our website.
