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Women’s Basketball NCAA Champions 1994
The 1994 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Tournament featured 64 teams for the first time ever. The Final Four consisted of North Carolina, Purdue, Louisiana Tech, and Alabama, with North Carolina defeating Louisiana Tech 60–59 to win its first NCAA title on a 3-point shot by Charlotte Smith as time expired. The ball was inbounded with only 00:00.7 left on the clock, making it one of the most exciting finishes in tournament history.
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Final Four Champions in 2017
The 2017 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament involved 68 teams playing in a single-elimination tournament to determine the men’s National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college basketball national champion for the 2016–17 season. The 79th edition of the tournament began on March 14, 2017, and concluded with the championship game on April 3 at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. The championship game was the first to be contested in a Western state since 1995 when Seattle was the host of the Final Four for that year.
In the Final Four, North Carolina beat Oregon (making their first Final Four appearance since 1939) while Gonzaga defeated South Carolina (both making their first-ever Final Four appearance). North Carolina then defeated Gonzaga 71–65 to win the national championship.
Carolina’s main fight song is I’m a Tar Heel Born. Its lyrics appear in the 1907 edition of the university’s yearbook, the “Yackety Yack,” although how long it existed before that is not known. Some say that it was in the late 1920s that it began to be sung as an add-on (or “tag”) to the school’s alma mater, “Hark The Sound”, although the current version of the sheet music for “Hark the Sound” includes the “I’m a Tar Heel Born” tag as an integral part of the alma mater and credits the full song to William Starr Myers with a date of 1897. Today, the song is almost always played immediately after the singing of “Hark The Sound”, even during more formal occasions such as convocation and commencement. Just before home football and basketball games, the song is played by the Bell Tower near the center of campus, and is often played after major victories.
College Sports Established
1901
Location
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
College Name
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Collegiate History
1973 – Present / NCAA Division 1
1921 – 1973 / University Division of the NCAA
Conference History
1953 – Present / ACC Conference
1921 – 1953 / Southern Conference
1894, 1901 / Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association
Nickname
Tar Heels – The Tar Heels take their nickname from the state nickname.
Of course, nobody is entirely certain of its exact origination. One explanation is that the state’s exports of tar and pitch from the pine forests in the early years of its history led to the nickname.
Another is that a unit from the state in the Civil War stood its ground in battle, not giving an inch, as if it had tar on its heels.
And yet a third explanation is that during the Revolutionary War, the residents of the state poured tar in a river to slow the British advance.
NCAA Championships
Baseball 0
Men’s Basketball 6
2017, 2009, 2005, 1993, 1982, 1957
Women’s Basketball 1
1994
Football 0
Soccer 2
2011, 2001