History of the Tar Heels

The North Carolina Tar Heels are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The name Tar Heel is a nickname used to refer to individuals from the state of North Carolina, the Tar Heel State. The campus at Chapel Hill is referred to as the University of North Carolina for the purposes of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was chartered in 1789, and in 1795 it became the first state-supported university in the United States. Since the school fostered the oldest collegiate team in the Carolinas, the school took on the nickname Carolina, especially in athletics. The Tar Heels are also referred to as UNC or The Heels. The female athletic teams are sometimes referred to as Lady Tar Heels.

The mascot of the Tar Heels is Rameses, a Dorset Ram. It is represented as either a live Dorset sheep with its horns painted Carolina Blue, or as a costumed character performed by a volunteer from the student body, usually an undergraduate student associated with the cheerleading team.

Carolina has won 46 NCAA Division I team national championships in seven different sports, eighth all-time, and 52 individual national championships.

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