Earlier this week, members of the North Carolina State football team visited teammate Tyree Craft, who was placed in hospice care while battling lung cancer.
The Tar Heels honored him before Saturday's game. During the game, Tar Heel receiver JJ Jones scored a touchdown while wearing a Kraft jersey.
After the game against Georgia Tech, the team learned that Kraft had passed away earlier in the day at the age of 23.
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North Carolina Tarheels head coach Mack Brown (left) looks at North Carolina wide receiver Tyree Craft during the first half of a game against the Georgia Tech Yellowjackets at Kenan Memorial Stadium on October 12, 2024. He hugs his mother, September Craft. chapel hill, north carolina (Lance King/Getty Images)
After the game, an emotional Mack Brown, wearing a “Tyree Strong'' shirt, said, “I just heard this morning that Tyree Craft lost.''
Brown said the team learned Kraft had “two days to two weeks.” So on Thursday, the players “all ran to see him, hugged him, talked to him and laughed with him.”
“This morning we didn't know if he was going to make it in time before the game and we have to figure out how to tell the group. What a difficult thing to tell a group about one of your best friends,” Brown added. “This is a very, very difficult time for them. We told them to work with their mental health workers, their friends and their parents.”
The North Carolina Tar Heels take the field before a game against the Georgia Tech Yellowjackets at Kenan Memorial Stadium on October 12, 2024 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. (Lance King/Getty Images)
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Kraft's mother also attended the pregame ceremony. Brown said she hugged him and “cried a lot after the first quarter, so I knew this wasn't good.”
“Tyree meant so much to so many people and influenced us in ways that we will always be grateful for. Although he will not be with us, he will be watching over us with a loving heart, a smile and endless positivity,'' UNC said in a statement.
Brown announced that the school's nutrition center would be named after Kraft, something officials told Kraft before Brown died. He also said he wants the receivers to rotate, starting with Jones on Saturday and wearing Kraft's jersey for the rest of the season.
North Carolina wide receiver Tyree Craft (13) walks on the sideline during the second half of a game against Minnesota on September 16, 2023 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. (AP Photo/Reinhold Matei)
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Craft played in a total of 11 games for UNC in the 2020 and 2021 seasons before receiving his diagnosis in March 2022.
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