North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham said Wednesday he had communicated with all of his coaches and none had prevented any of their athletes from meeting with civil-rights historian Taylor Branch, a visiting professor at UNC and activist for NCAA reform.

At an on-campus forum Tuesday night, Branch said athletes had been instructed not to talk to him by their coaches. During the Q&A portion of the event, a man identifying himself as a UNC graduate challenged Cunningham, who attended the event but did not intend to participate, to allow his athletes to speak to Branch.

"I was concerned a great deal when I heard it and I had no way to respond on the spot," Cunningham said. "Last night, I talked to Roy (Williams) and Larry Fedora, just checking on football and basketball to make sure it didn't happen. Both of them assured me it did not. Today I emailed all of our coaches. I took the quote out of the article and said, 'This is what was said. Give me some feedback. Give me some positive affirmation that we haven't done this.' Every single coach responded."

CHAPEL HILL — Three North Carolina-related things to think about on this gray morning from Chapel Hill: 

CHAPEL HILL — The University of North Carolina’s hiring of Larry Fedora as its head football coach is officially official. The university’s board of trustees formally approved the hiring during a meeting this morning. Fedora will be introduced during a 1 p.m. press conference on campus.

Here’s a quick look at details for Fedora’s contract:

CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina and Ohio State have agreed to a two-game series in football, UNC announced on Tuesday. The Tar Heels and Buckeyes will play one another in 2015, in Columbus, Ohio, and in 2017, in Chapel Hill.

UNC has also finalized its 2012 schedule with the addition of Idaho, which is scheduled to visit Kenan Stadium on Sept. 29. The 2012 home schedule also includes games against Virginia Tech, N.C. State, Georgia Tech, Maryland, Elon (Sept. 1) and East Carolina (Sept. 22).

New UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham -- given name Lawrence Richard Cunningham -- explains why he uses his childhood nickname as his formal, official name:

"My first name is Lawrence or Larry, same first name as my dad, Bubba kept us apart, I was a short, fat little kid, my sisters couldn’t say brother, and it kept us apart. So I went to college and I had an opportunity to maybe go by my middle name. Well, my middle name is Richard, so I would have been Richie Cunningham. And I said that’s not going to do it either. So I ended up taking the lesser of my evils and stayed with Bubba."

Watch Larry talk about his name here.