CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina football player Tylee Craft died Saturday morning from a rare form of lung cancer, coach Mack Brown said.
Brown made the announcement in his postgame news conference following the Tar Heels’ loss to Georgia Tech. Craft was 23.
“This young man fought so hard for his two and a half years,” Brown said. “The doctors told us he outlived what he should’ve. And he did it with the spirit, he did it with a smile on his face, he didn’t miss a meeting, he didn’t miss practice, he coached these other incredible young people.”
UNC had honored Craft — who was diagnosed with a rare form of lung cancer in March 2022 — during Saturday’s football game, which also happened to be the team’s annual Cancer Awareness Game. Friends and family members wearing shirts bearing Craft’s name and number were recognized during an on-field ceremony.
Wide receiver J.J. Jones wore Craft’s jersey with his No. 13 and last name against the Yellow Jackets.
Brown told reporters he didn’t learn of Craft’s death until after the game but sensed something had happened after sharing an emotional hug with Craft’s mother at the end of the first quarter.
“I think the family feels the love and they’ll continue to feel the love,” Brown said. “What we’ve got to do is be strong, and pray for strength for us as leaders, to help these guys on the field and off the field. … So more than ever before I have got to step up and be stronger for them and make sure that I can help them manage the stuff and move forward in their lives.”
UNC football also announced Craft’s death in a statement posted on social media, followed later by a tribute video to Craft’s memory. Additionally, the UNC men’s basketball team wore shirts bearing Craft’s name and number for its intrasquad scrimmage at the Smith Center following the football game, and had a pre-scrimmage moment of silence in Craft’s honor.
Craft, from Sumter, South Carolina, played in seven games at receiver and on special teams as a true freshman in 2020, and four games in 2021 before his diagnosis. Still, he had remained present and close to the program.
“Tylee meant so much to so many and affected us in ways we’ll always be thankful for," the football program's statement said. “He was 1-of-1 and, while he won’t be with us in body, he’ll be watching over us with his endearing smile and endless positivity.”
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FILE - North Carolina wide receiver Tylee Craft (13) walks the bench during the second half of an NCAA college football game against Minnesota, Sept. 16, 2023, in Chapel Hill, N.C. (AP Photo/Reinhold Matay, File)
A judge barred the Trump administration on Thursday from immediately moving to shut down a small federal agency that supports investment in African countries on Thursday.
U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon in Washington issued the order hours after the filing of a lawsuit by the president and CEO of the U.S. African Development Foundation.
Ward Brehm said in a complaint that he directed his staff on Wednesday to deny building entry to staffers from billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and Pete Marocco, the deputy administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development.
DOGE and Trump do not have the authority to shut down the agency, which was created by Congress, Brehm said in the complaint.
The order from Leon, who was appointed by Republican President George W. Bush, bars Brehm from being removed or DOGE from adding members to the board over the next few days.
Brehm also said that days after President Donald Trump targeted the agency in a Feb. 19 executive order that aims to shrink the size of the federal government, staffers from DOGE tried to access the organization's computer systems.
“When USADF learned that DOGE was there to kill the agency, USADF staff refused DOGE access to cancel all grants and contracts,” said the complaint, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington.
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement, “Entitled, rogue bureaucrats have no authority to defy executive orders by the President of the United States or physically bar his representatives from entering the agencies they run.”
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Trump administration mandated DOGE and Musk, the world’s richest man whose businesses have federal contracts, to root out waste, fraud and abuse and to help reduce the nation’s debt load.
Brehm said in his complaint that DOGE and Marocco, a Trump political appointee helping shutter USAID, also recently targeted the Inter-American Foundation, a federal agency that invests in Latin American and the Caribbean.
On Tuesday, DOGE said on X that all but one employee at IAF had been let go and its grants cancelled, including funding for alpaca farming in Peru, for vegetable gardens in El Salvador and for beekeeping in Brazil.
Trump is also targeting the U.S. Institute of Peace, a Washington-based think tank, and the Presidio Trust, which oversees a national park site next to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Both entities, which were created by Congress, continue to operate and say they are compiling information requests from the White House.
The National Endowment for Democracy, a private nonprofit that helps combat authoritarianism around the world, sued the Trump administration on Tuesday, saying in a complaint that it had been denied access to its funding, “something that has never occurred before in the Endowment’s forty-two-year existence.”
In 2023, it reported issuing $238 million in grants, including through the International Republican Institute, where Secretary of State Marco Rubio formerly served as a board member.
Associated Press writer Lindsay Whitehurst contributed to this story.
Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and non-profits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.
Elon Musk departs the Capitol following a meeting with Senate Republicans, in Washington, Wednesday, March 5, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
