Jerry Falwell's Tar Heels photo

When Chapel Hill filmmaker John Wilson was working on his new documentary “Senator No: Jesse Helms” that premiered Tuesday on UNC-TV, he scored an interview with Jerry Falwell, founder of the Moral Majority and Liberty University and pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va. He got that interview in part because Helms had seen and liked his earlier work, “Dr. Frank,” about the life of the late UNC President Frank Porter Graham, and agreed not only to be interviewed but also to cooperate. That opened doors with many conservatives, Wilson said.
After he videotaped Falwell in his office at Liberty University, Wilson said, Falwell gestured at a framed photo in his office and told Wilson, a 1985 graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill, to take a closer look.
It was a photograph from the March 18, 1994, NCAA men’s basketball tournament game between Wilson’s Tar Heels and Falwell’s Liberty Flames at Landover, Md. The Tar Heels trailed the Flames 45-46 with 10 minutes left in the game, and the photo in Falwell’s office shows the scoreboard with Liberty leading UNC.
Wilson recalls Falwell grinning and saying something like, “I bet you boys were looking up to the heavens and saying some prayers right about then.”
The No. 1-ranked Tar Heels went on to win 71-51 behind some key baskets by Rasheed Wallace and Eric Montross even though Jerry Stackhouse had six turnovers and only six points. No doubt the power of prayer helped.