Former UNC star Danny Talbott dies after nine-year battle with cancer
Danny Talbott, one of the most revered athletes in UNC history, died Sunday morning at his home in Rocky Mount. He was 75.
He is survived by his wife and son.
Talbott’s cause of death was from cancer complications his wife, Myrlene Talbott, said in a phone interview with The News & Observer on Sunday afternoon. Talbott battled with multiple myeloma for nine years.
When he was diagnosed with the disease in 2010, he turned to his wife and told her, “It’s in God’s hands,” she recalled.
“He was very dependent on what we say is ‘faith, family and friends,’ to get us through,” his wife said.
Talbott, who is in the NC Sports Hall of Fame, was a three-sport athlete at UNC. He played baseball and football there from 1963 to 1967, and basketball for a couple of months on the freshman team under Dean Smith.
The former quarterback won ACC Player of the Year in football in 1965. In 1966, he won ACC Athlete of the Year. His No. 10 jersey is framed at Kenan Stadium.
“Danny was one of the greatest Tar Heels to come through Chapel Hill, having starred in both football and baseball, as well as playing basketball on the freshman team,” UNC football coach Mack Brown said in a statement he posted on Twitter. “He was respected and loved by many and will be missed.”
He also helped lead UNC’s baseball team to its second College World Series appearance in program history in 1966.
After graduating from UNC, he played one season for the Baltimore Orioles in MLB, and played in the NFL for three seasons with Washington.
In Washington, Talbott played under Hall of Fame head coach Vince Lombardi.
But of all the accolades he was recognized for in his 75 years of life, his greatest honor occurred in October 2018, when the UNC Cancer Center at Nash in Rock Mount named one of their buildings after him, his wife said.
It’s called the Danny Talbott Cancer Care Center.
“To name a whole building after him was very humbling, and he was very grateful,” she said.
Talbott grew up in Rocky Mount. He went to Rock Mount Senior High, where he won state championships in basketball, football and baseball.
In Rocky Mount, Talbott was known as a local celebrity. There were no places he could go where people did not recognize him.
“He loved Rocky Mount and they loved him,” his wife said. “When other kids played sports or his friends’ children were playing, we would go. Football games, baseball games. He was a mentor.
“He was just a kind wonderful soul that everybody adores.”
Talbott was inducted in the NC Sports Hall of Fame in 2003. According to an article on goheels.com, a quarter of the room was filled with fans from Rocky Mount who were there to support him.
“Those people have done so much for me over the years,” Talbott told goheels.com in 2003. “It was their enthusiasm for athletics that really got me started in sports.”
Humble about his past
Those who knew Talbott best described him as humble.
After retiring from professional sports, Talbott worked in pharmaceuticals for Johnson & Johnson for 33 years.
Mark Droke, his supervisor for seven years at Johnson & Johnson, said in all the years he worked with Talbott, he never knew Talbott was star athlete. Talbott never talked about it.
But the secret was revealed when the friends went to a UNC football game together one day, and everyone kept speaking to him.
He also noticed his jersey was hung up inside the stadium.
“He never once told me he played sports,” Droke said. “He’s the most humble man I’ve ever met.”
His best friend, Joel Batchelor, said the same.
“I could ask him a lot of questions about college and pros,” said Batchelor, who met Talbott in 1978. “He didn’t want to talk about things he did, because it wasn’t about him. It never was.”
Despite Talbott’s career in pharmaceuticals, he still found time to play sports. He started playing tennis when he was 30.
And at 45, he was the No. 3 tennis player in the state for his age group. Talbott and his tennis partner were also the No. 1 doubles players in the state.
But he had to quit playing tennis when he was diagnosed with cancer nine years ago. The cancer affected his bones, and if he fell, his bones were more susceptible to breaking.
So he turned to golf, and up until the final two years of his life, he enjoyed the game.
This story was originally published January 19, 2020 at 5:01 PM with the headline "Former UNC star Danny Talbott dies after nine-year battle with cancer."
