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GREENSBORO — From the Carlyle Club at the Greensboro Coliseum to the Carlyle Cup competition between Duke and Carolina athletics teams to the Carlyle & Co. jewelry stores across the Southeast, the Carlyle name carries considerable cachet.

Yet, it could soon disappear.

The store’s assets have been sold in a bankruptcy auction and are being liquidated. Local stores could close by the end of the year.

The company’s contract to sponsor the Carlyle Club, a membership organization and meeting place at the arena, expired in January. Coliseum officials say they’ve been waiting for the outcome of the bankruptcy proceeding to determine how to go forward.

And the agreement to sponsor the Carlyle Cup ends with the current academic year.

“The future of the Carlyle Cup is up in the air right now,” said Art Chansky, associate general manager for Tar Heel Sports Properties, the media rights holder for the UNC-Chapel Hill athletics program.

Yet, employees and various business associates say the family that used to own Carlyle & Co. has tried — unsuccessfully so far — to revive the company.

Repeated efforts to reach brothers John and Russell Cohen were unsuccessful. Paul R. DeFilippo, a New York lawyer representing Russell Cohen, would not comment.

Carlyle’s decline began after the Cohens sold the company, which also included two other jewelry chains, to Finlay Enterprises, a New York jewelry firm, in 2005 for $29 million.

Under the purchase agreement, Finlay allowed the Cohens to continue to run the company. But as the recession hit, Finlay fell into financial trouble.

Last April, Finlay said it would close Carlyle’s Greensboro-based offices and service center, putting 90 people out of work.

On Aug. 5, Finlay announced that it had filed for bankruptcy and would sell its assets to the highest bidder. The auction was held Sept. 24 in New York.

Russell Cohen, with Hilco Merchant Resources, a Northbrook, Ill., company, made a bid to buy the assets of between 15 and 25 of Carlyle & Co. stores.

Hilco and Cohen lost the bid to Gordon Brothers Group, a Boston-based liquidation firm.

But Russell Cohen’s bid to revive his former company may not have ended.

Sources say he hopes to buy back the Carlyle & Co. name from Finlay at another auction Oct. 28.

“There’s a lot going on with them,” said Mike Sobb, assistant athletics director for corporate relations at Duke University, when asked about the future of the Carlyle Cup. “They have to figure out where they are going with Carlyle and we will figure it out from there.”

This marks the 10th academic year that teams from Duke and Carolina have competed in 23 sports for the right to hold the sterling and enamel Carlyle Cup.

But even if the Carlyle name disappears and another sponsor fails to materialize, the teams will continue to compete for a cup.

“What we have decided internally (is that) we are going to continue keeping score,” Chansky said. “Like everybody else, we are waiting to see what happens.”

Carolina leads in the overall Cup series with a record of 5-3-1.

Contact Donald W. Patterson at 373-7027 or don.patterson@news-record.com