![ACC logo in North Carolina colors](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/ACC_logo_in_North_Carolina_colors.svg)
The North Carolina Tar Heels are the
intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...
. The name
Tar Heel
Tar Heel is a nickname applied to the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is also the nickname of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina athletic teams, students, alumni, and fans.
The origins of the Tar Heel ...
is a nickname used to refer to individuals from the state of
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...
, the ''Tar Heel State''. The campus at
Chapel Hill Chapel Hill or Chapelhill may refer to:
Places Antarctica
* Chapel Hill (Antarctica) Australia
*Chapel Hill, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane
*Chapel Hill, South Australia, in the Mount Barker council area
Canada
* Chapel Hill, Ottawa, a neighbo ...
is referred to as the ''University of North Carolina'' for the purposes of the
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
. 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 mascot of the Tar Heels is
Rameses, a
Dorset Ram. It is represented as either a live
Dorset sheep In the context of sheep, Dorset may refer to:
* the Dorset Down, a British sheep breed
* the Dorset Horn, a British sheep breed
* the Polish Modified Dorset, a Polish sheep breed developed at the University of Life Sciences in Poznań
* the Poll ...
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 47 NCAA Division I team national championships in seven different sports,
eighth all-time, and 52 individual national championships.
Sports sponsored
Baseball
![UNCbaseball](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/UNCbaseball.JPG)
* Head Coach:
Scott Forbes
Scott may refer to:
Places Canada
* Scott, Quebec, municipality in the Nouvelle-Beauce regional municipality in Quebec
* Scott, Saskatchewan, a town in the Rural Municipality of Tramping Lake No. 380
* Rural Municipality of Scott No. 98, Saska ...
* Stadium:
Bryson Field at Boshamer Stadium
Cary C. Boshamer Stadium is a baseball stadium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. It is the home of the North Carolina Tar Heels baseball team.
History
The previous home of the Tar Heels was a multi-use venue called Emerson Field, which sat some ...
* ACC Championships: 9 (1982, 1983, 1984, 1990, 2007, 2013, 2018, 2019, 2022)
* College World Series appearances: 11 (1960, 1966, 1978, 1988, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2018)
The baseball team has had recent success, reaching the championship series of the
College World Series
The College World Series (CWS), officially the NCAA Men's College World Series (MCWS), is an annual baseball tournament held in June in Omaha, Nebraska. The MCWS is the culmination of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Divisi ...
in
2006
File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...
and
2007
File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...
losing both times to
Oregon State
Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering col ...
. They also appeared in the College World Series in
1960
It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism.
Events
January
* Ja ...
,
1966
Events January
* January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko.
* January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...
,
1978
Events January
* January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213.
* January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd go ...
,
1989
File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...
,
2008
File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
,
2009
File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...
,
2011
File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...
,
2013
File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...
and
2018
File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...
.
Men's basketball
![Hansbrough Scoring Record](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/Hansbrough_Scoring_Record.jpg)
* Head Coach:
Hubert Davis
Hubert Ira Davis Jr. (born May 17, 1970) is an American college basketball coach and former professional player who is the head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels men's team. Before his coaching career, Davis played for North Carolina from 19 ...
* Arena:
Dean E. Smith Center
*
Southern Conference Championships: 13 (Tournament: 1922, 1924 (undefeated), 1925, 1926, 1935, 1936, 1940, 1945; Regular Season: 1935, 1938, 1941, 1944, 1946)
* ACC Championships: 48 (Tournament: 1957 (undefeated), 1967, 1968, 1969, 1972, 1975, 1977, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1989, 1991, 1994, 1997, 1998, 2007, 2008, 2016; Regular Season: 1956, 1957 (undefeated), 1959, 1960, 1961, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1993, 1995, 2001, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2016, 2017)
* NCAA National Championships: 6 (1957 (undefeated), 1982, 1993, 2005, 2009, 2017)
* Final Four Appearances: 21 (1946, 1957, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1972, 1977, 1981, 1982, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2016, 2017, 2022)
* Best Final Ranking: No. 1 (Associated Press: 1957, 1982, 1984, 1994, 1998, 2008, 2009; Coaches: 1957, 1982, 1984, 1993, 2005, 2009, 2017)
* National Players of the Year: 8 (Jack Cobb 1923–26, George Glamack 1938–41, Lennie Rosenbluth 1954–57, Phil Ford 1974–78, James Worthy 1979–82, Michael Jordan 1981–1984, Antawn Jamison 1995–98, Tyler Hansbrough 2005–09).
Carolina has enjoyed long success as one of the top basketball programs in the country. Overall, the Tar Heels have won six
NCAA National Championships and were retroactively awarded one for the
1923–24 season by the
Helms Foundation
The Helms Athletic Foundation, founded in 1936, was a Los Angeles-based organization dedicated to the promotion of athletics and sportsmanship. Paul H. Helms was the organization's founder and benefactor, funding the foundation via his ownership ...
and the
Premo-Porretta Power Poll
The Premo-Porretta Power Poll is a retroactive end-of-year ranking for American college basketball teams competing in the 1895–96 through the 1947–48 seasons.
The Premo-Porretta Polls are intended to serve collectively as a source of informa ...
.
Under coach
Frank McGuire
Frank Joseph McGuire (November 8, 1913 – October 11, 1994) was an American basketball coach. At the collegiate level, he was head coach for three major programs: St. John's Red Storm men's basketball, St. John's, North Carolina Tar Heels men's ...
, the team won its 1st NCAA championship in 1957. After McGuire left, legendary coach
Dean Smith
Dean Edwards Smith (February 28, 1931 – February 7, 2015) was an American men's college basketball head coach. Called a "coaching legend" by the Basketball Hall of Fame, he coached for 36 years at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hi ...
established the team as a powerhouse in college basketball. In 31 years at Carolina, Smith set the record for the most wins of any men's college basketball head coach, a record broken in 2007 by
Bob Knight
Robert Montgomery Knight (born October 25, 1940) is an American former basketball coach. Nicknamed "the General", Knight won 902 NCAA Division I men's college basketball games, a record at the time of his retirement, and currently fourth all-ti ...
. Under Smith, the Tar Heels won two national championships and had numerous talented players come through the program. Smith is also credited with coming up with the four corners offense. More recently, the Tar Heels won the national championship in 2005, 2009, and 2017 under coach Roy Williams. Williams passed his mentor Smith's all-time wins mark in 2020, and reached 903 wins during his time as a head coach, including his previous stint at Kansas.
Williams retired in April 2021, and was replaced by assistant coach Hubert Davis. Davis, a former player for the Tar Heels under Smith, also had a lengthy career as an NBA player, and spent several seasons as an analyst for
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
. He becomes the first
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
head coach for UNC men's basketball.
JV Basketball
North Carolina is one of the few remaining Division I schools to sponsor a junior varsity basketball team. The JV Tar Heels play games against community colleges and preparatory schools. Current varsity head coach Hubert Davis was the coach of the JV team for several seasons, and Roy Williams also held a stint as the JV head coach when he was an assistant under Dean Smith.
Women's basketball
* Head coach:
Courtney Banghart
Courtney Rosholt Banghart (born May 11, 1978) is an American basketball coach who is currently the head women's basketball coach at North Carolina. Prior to North Carolina, she served as head coach at Princeton from 2007 to 2019.
Playing career
B ...
* Arena:
Carmichael Arena
William Donald Carmichael, Jr. Arena is a multi-purpose arena in on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. It is home to four Tar Heels athletic teams: women's basketball, vo ...
* ACC Championships: 13 (Tournament: 1984, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008; Regular Season: 1997, 2005, 2006, 2008)
* National Championships: 1 (1994)
Field hockey
![UNC field hockey with Bush](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/UNC_field_hockey_with_Bush.jpg)
* Head Coach:
Karen Shelton
Karen Christina Shelton (born November 14, 1957 in Honolulu, Hawaii) is an American former field hockey player and coach. Shelton served as head coach of the University of North Carolina's field hockey program from 1981 until her retirement in 2 ...
* Stadium: Shelton Stadium
* ACC Championships: 25 (1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2004, 2007, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022)
* National Championships: 10 (1989, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2007, 2009, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022)
Football
![2006 Virginia Tech at UNC Glennon under center](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/2006_Virginia_Tech_at_UNC_Glennon_under_center.jpg)
* Head Coach:
Mack Brown
William Mack Brown (born August 27, 1951) is an American college football coach. He is currently in his second stint as the head football coach for the University of North Carolina, where he first coached from 1988 until departing in 1997, whe ...
* Stadium:
Kenan Memorial Stadium
Kenan Memorial Stadium is a stadium located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and is the home field of the North Carolina Tar Heels. It is primarily used for football. The stadium opened in 1927 and holds 50,500 people. It is located near the center ...
* Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association Championships: 1 (1895)
* Southern Conference Championships: 4 (1922, 1934, 1946, 1949)
* ACC Championships: 5 (1963, 1971, 1972, 1977, 1980)
* ACC Coastal Division Championships: 2 (2012, 2015)
* Postseason Bowl Appearances: 36 (1947 Sugar, 1949 Sugar, 1950 Cotton, 1963 Gator, 1970 Peach, 1971 Gator, 1972 Sun, 1974 Sun, 1976 Peach, 1977 Liberty, 1979 Gator, 1980 Bluebonnet, 1981 Gator, 1982 Sun, 1983 Peach, 1986 Aloha, 1993 Peach, 1993 Gator, 1994 Sun, 1995 Carquest, 1997 Gator, 1998 Gator, 1998 Las Vegas, 2001 Peach, 2004 Continental Tire, 2008 Meineke Car Care, 2009 Meineke Car Care, 2010 Music City, 2011 Independence, 2013 Belk, 2014 Quick Lane, 2015 Russell Athletic, 2016 Sun, 2019 Military, 2021 Orange Bowl – January, 2021 Duke's Mayo Bowl)
* Best Final Ranking: No. 3 (1948 Associated Press)
Men's lacrosse
![UNC Lacrosse](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/UNC_Lacrosse.jpg)
* Head coach: Joe Breschi
* Home fields:
Dorrance Field
Dorrance Field is the on-campus soccer and lacrosse stadium at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
The stadium was constructed on the site of the old Fetzer Field. Construction on the new field began in May 2017 and ...
* ACC tournament championships: 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 2013, 2017
* ACC regular season championships: 1981, 1982, 1985, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1996, 2016, 2021
*
NCAA tournament appearances: 1976, 1977, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2021
* NCAA tournament Final Four appearances: 14 (1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 2016, 2021)
* NCAA tournament championships: 5 (1981, 1982, 1986, 1991, 2016)
Women's lacrosse
*Head Coach: Jenny Levy
*Home fields:
Dorrance Field
Dorrance Field is the on-campus soccer and lacrosse stadium at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
The stadium was constructed on the site of the old Fetzer Field. Construction on the new field began in May 2017 and ...
*ACC tournament championships: 2002, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022
*
NCAA Tournament appearances: 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022
* NCAA Tournament Final Four appearances: 13 (1997, 1998, 2002, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022)
* NCAA Championships: 3 (2013, 2016, 2022)
Men's soccer
* Head Coach:
Carlos Somoano
* Stadium:
Dorrance Field
Dorrance Field is the on-campus soccer and lacrosse stadium at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
The stadium was constructed on the site of the old Fetzer Field. Construction on the new field began in May 2017 and ...
* ACC Tournament Championships: 1987, 2000, 2011
* College Cup Appearances: 1987, 2001, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2016, 2017, 2021 (spring)
* NCAA National Championships: 2 (2001, 2011)
Women's soccer
![Robyn Gayle - UNC Tar Heels](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/Robyn_Gayle_-_UNC_Tar_Heels.jpg)
* Head Coach:
Anson Dorrance
Albert Anson Dorrance IV (born April 9, 1951) is an American soccer coach. He is currently the head coach of the women's soccer program at the University of North Carolina. He has one of the most successful coaching records in the history of ath ...
* Stadium:
Dorrance Field
Dorrance Field is the on-campus soccer and lacrosse stadium at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
The stadium was constructed on the site of the old Fetzer Field. Construction on the new field began in May 2017 and ...
* ACC Championships: 38 (1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 Tournament, 1987, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010 Regular Season)
* National Championships: 22 (1981 AIAW, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2012 NCAA)
* College Cup Appearances: 26 (1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 (spring))
Women's tennis
Jamie Loeb
Jamie Loeb (born March 8, 1995) is an American tennis player.
She has career-high WTA rankings of 132 in singles, achieved in February 2018, and 120 in doubles, achieved in July 2018. Loeb has won nine singles and nine doubles titles on the ITF ...
attended UNC for her freshman and sophomore years (2013–15), during which she became the first freshman in close to 30 years to win both the Riviera/
ITA Women's All-American Championship (making her the NCAA Women's Singles Tennis National Champion) and the
USTA
The United States Tennis Association (USTA) is the national governing body for tennis in the United States. A not-for-profit organization with more than 700,000 members, it invests 100% of its proceeds to promote and develop the growth of tennis, ...
/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championship.
["Meet Jamie Loeb, a 20-Year-Old From Ossining, NY, Who Will Make Her Pro Tennis Debut at The U.S. Open,"]
''Tablet Magazine''. She was also the first singles national champion in UNC women's tennis history.
["UNC's Jamie Loeb finishes spectacular season, claims individual title" , NCAA.com]
/ref> In both her freshman and her sophomore seasons she was named Atlantic Coast Conference
The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...
(ACC) Player of the Year.[">"Rising Jewish star Loeb ousted,"]
''The Jerusalem Post''.
The women's tennis program, under head coach Brian Kalbas, won ITA Indoor National Championships in 2013, 2015, 2018, 2020, 2021, and 2022, becoming one of the more successful programs in indoor tennis in the country.
Men's golf
The men's golf team has won 14 conference championships:
*Southern Conference
The Southern Conference (SoCon) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I. Southern Conference football teams compete in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly ...
(3): 1947, 1952, 1953
*Atlantic Coast Conference
The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...
(11): 1956, 1960, 1965, 1977, 1981, 1983–84, 1986, 1995–96, 2006 (co-champion)
Two Tar Heels have won the NCAA individual championship, Harvie Ward
Edward Harvie Ward, Jr. (December 8, 1925 – September 4, 2004) was an American golfer best known for his amateur career. He is best known for winning both the U.S. Amateur (twice) and the British Amateur.
Born in Tarboro, North Carolina, Ward ...
in 1949 and John Inman
Frederick John Inman (28 June 1935 – 8 March 2007) was an English actor and singer best known for his role as Mr. Humphries in ''Are You Being Served?'', a British sitcom between 1972 and 1985, and was the only actor from that series to featur ...
in 1984. Ward also won the British Amateur
The Amateur Championship (sometimes referred to as the British Amateur or British Amateur Championship outside the UK) is a golf tournament which has been held annually in the United Kingdom since 1885 except during the two World Wars, and in 19 ...
in 1952 and the U.S. Amateur
The United States Amateur Championship, commonly known as the U.S. Amateur, is the leading annual golf tournament in the United States for amateur golfers. It is organized by the United States Golf Association and is currently held each August ov ...
in 1955 and 1956. The team's best finish was second place in 1953 and 1991.
Tar Heel golfers who have had success at the professional level include Davis Love III
Davis Milton Love III (born April 13, 1964) is an American professional golfer who has won 21 events on the PGA Tour, including one major championship: the 1997 PGA Championship. He won the Players Championship in 1992 and 2003. He was in th ...
(20 PGA Tour wins including 1997 PGA Championship
The 1997 PGA Championship was the 79th PGA Championship, held August 14–17 at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, New York, a suburb northeast of New York City. Davis Love III won his only major championship, five strokes ahead of runner-up ...
) and Mark Wilson (five PGA Tour wins).
Wrestling
Following Coach Sam Barnes who built the modern wrestling program at UNC (1953–1971), Head coach Bill Lam led the Tar Heel wrestling program for 30 years until his retirement in 2002, where his former wrestler and 1982 NCAA Champion, C.D. Mock, became his replacement. Under Lam, the Tar Heels were a consistent top 25 NCAA team. Lam led the Tar Heels to 15 ACC tournament titles in addition to being named ACC coach of the year 10 times. Following the Lam era, Mock was named ACC Coach of the Year in 2005 and 2006 in addition to claiming two ACC team titles. In 2015, Mock was fired as head wrestling coach for defending his son against a false sexual assault allegation. He was replaced by Olympic bronze medalist and Oklahoma State University
Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...
graduate Coleman Scott.
The Tar Heel wrestling program boasts many ACC champions, All-Americans, and has 4 individual NCAA champions, with 6 championships amongst them: C.D. Mock (1982), Rob Koll (1988), T.J. Jaworsky (1993, 1994, 1995), and Austin O'Connor (2021). Jaworsky is known as one of the greatest college wrestlers of all time as he is the first and only ACC wrestler to win three NCAA titles in addition to winning the inaugural Dan Hodge Trophy, given to college wrestling's most dominant wrestler. Koll is now the head coach at Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
where he has led the program
Program, programme, programmer, or programming may refer to:
Business and management
* Program management, the process of managing several related projects
* Time management
* Program, a part of planning
Arts and entertainment Audio
* Progra ...
to new heights with multiple top 10 NCAA finishes.
UNC wrestling All-Americans include: C.D. Mock, Dave Cook, Jan Michaels, Bob Monaghan, Mike Elinsky, Rob Koll, Bobby Shriner, Tad Wilson, Al Palacio, Lenny Bernstein, Doug Wyland, Enzo Catullo, Pete Welch, Shane Camera, Jody Staylor, Marc Taylor, Stan Banks, Justin Harty, Evan Sola, Chris Rodrigues, Evan Henderson, Ethan Ramos, and Joey Ward.
Other notable alumni include C.C. Fisher, a 1998 ACC champion and Most Outstanding Wrestler, who went on to become a successful wrestler on the international stage, where he was as high as second on the United States Olympic latter. Fisher also went on to become a successful coach for multiple Division I wrestling programs including Iowa State and Stanford. Also, the late Sen. Paul Wellstone
Paul David Wellstone (July 21, 1944 – October 25, 2002) was an American academic, author, and politician who represented Minnesota in the United States Senate from 1991 until he was killed in a plane crash near Eveleth, Minnesota, in 2002. A me ...
attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) on a wrestling scholarship. In college he was an undefeated ACC wrestling champion.
The Tar Heel wrestling program has won 17 total ACC championships: 1979, 1980, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2005 and 2006
UNC's best finish at the NCAA tournament was 5th in 1982. They also took 6th in 1995.
Carmichael Arena
William Donald Carmichael, Jr. Arena is a multi-purpose arena in on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. It is home to four Tar Heels athletic teams: women's basketball, vo ...
is currently the home to the Tar Heels Wrestling team, located centrally on campus.
Women's rowing
Head Coaches - Thomas Revelle, Emilie Gross
Founded 1997/98 season
Other sports
Other national championship victories include the women's team handball team in 2004, 2009, 2010, 2011; and the men's handball team in 2004, 2005, and 2006. The men's crew won the 2004 ECAC National Invitational Collegiate Regatta in the varsity eight category. In 1994, Carolina's athletic programs won the Sears Directors Cup
The NACDA Directors' Cup, known for sponsorship reasons as the NACDA Learfield Directors' Cup or simply as the Directors' Cup, is an award given annually by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics to the colleges and univers ...
which is awarded for cumulative performance in NCAA competition.
Rugby
Carolina also fields non varsity sports teams. North Carolina's rugby team competes in the Atlantic Coast Rugby League
The Atlantic Coast Rugby League was an annual college rugby competition played every spring among eight universities—seven from the Atlantic Coast Conference, plus Navy (from the Patriot League). The league was disestablished in 2016.
Member sc ...
against its traditional ACC rivals. North Carolina Men's Rugby finished second in its conference in 2010, led by conference co-player of the year Alex Lee. The North Carolina Men finished second at the Atlantic Coast Invitational in 2009 and again in 2010. North Carolina has also competed in the Collegiate Rugby Championship
The Collegiate Rugby Championship (CRC) is an annual college rugby sevens tournament. The CRC is the highest profile college rugby sevens competition in the United States, with the tournament broadcast live on NBC from 2010–2017, on ESPN News an ...
, finishing 11th in 2011
File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...
in a tournament broadcast live on NBC.
The North Carolina Women's Rugby Team is a Division 1 team competing in the Blue Ridge Rugby Conference and has repeatedly competed at the National Level, including a run at the Final Four in 2016. Notable Alumni of UNC Women's Rugby include All-American Emily Pratt (Second team 2003, First team 2006), All-American Kira Cervenka (First team 2004-5), All-American and US 7s National player Katie Lorenz (Second team 2010, 2011–present), and All-American and professional US 7s National player Kimber Rozier (First team 2011, 2011–present). Current distinguished players include U20 National team winger Holly Zoeller (2010–11) and U23 South All-Stars Jessica Meidinger (2011) and Carrie Moss (2010-11). Alumni Kimber Rozier and Naya Taper play on the USA Nationals 15s Team, with Tapper having competed in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Ultimate
North Carolina’s Ultimate (sport)
Ultimate, originally known as ultimate Frisbee, is a non-contact team sport played with a frisbee flung by hand. Ultimate was developed in 1968 by AJ Gator in Maplewood, New Jersey. Although ultimate resembles many traditional sports in its ath ...
teams compete nationally in USA Ultimate
USA Ultimate is a Non-profit organization, not-for-profit organization that serves as the governing body of the sport of Ultimate (sport), ultimate (also known as ''ultimate Frisbee'') in the United States.
It was founded in 1979 as the Ultimate ...
’s College division. The men’s team, Darkside, won national championships in 2015, 2018, 2021, and 2022. The women's team, Pleiades, also won back-to-back national championships in 2021 and 2022. Individuals on both Darkside and Pleiades have won th
Callahan Award
a collegiate MVP award determined by a vote of their peers. Callahan winners include Leila Tunnell (2011), Jonathan Nethercutt (2015), Matt Goechoe-Hanas (2019), Anne Worth (2020), and Dawn Culton (2022).
Championships
NCAA team championships
North Carolina has won 48 NCAA team national championships.
*Men's (13)
**Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
(6): 1957, 1982, 1993, 2005, 2009, 2017
**Lacrosse
Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...
(5): 1981, 1982, 1986, 1991, 2016
**Soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
(2): 2001, 2011
*Women's (35)
**Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
(1): 1994
**Field Hockey
Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ci ...
(10): 1985, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2007, 2009, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022
**Lacrosse
Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...
(3): 2013, 2016, 2022
**Soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
(21): 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2012
*see also:
** ACC NCAA team championships
**
Other national team championships
Below are 23 national team titles that were not bestowed by the NCAA:
* Men's:
**Basketball (1): 1924*
**Team Handball (3): 2004, 2005, 2006
**Tennis (2): 2016***, 2021***
**Ultimate (4) : 2015****, 2018****, 2021****, 2022****
* Women's:
**Soccer (1): 1981**
**Team Handball (4): 2004, 2009, 2010, 2011
**Tennis (6): 2013***, 2015***, 2018***, 2020***, 2021***, 2022***
**Ultimate (2): 2021****, 2022****
:(*) Pre-NCAA tournament title (retrospectively selected by Helms Foundation
The Helms Athletic Foundation, founded in 1936, was a Los Angeles-based organization dedicated to the promotion of athletics and sportsmanship. Paul H. Helms was the organization's founder and benefactor, funding the foundation via his ownership ...
in 1943 and Premo-Porretta Power Poll
The Premo-Porretta Power Poll is a retroactive end-of-year ranking for American college basketball teams competing in the 1895–96 through the 1947–48 seasons.
The Premo-Porretta Polls are intended to serve collectively as a source of informa ...
in 1995.)
:(**) There was only one AIAW
The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) was founded in 1971 to govern collegiate women's athletics in the United States and to administer national championships (see AIAW Champions). It evolved out of the Commission on Interc ...
soccer tournament, thus making North Carolina the only women's soccer team to win an AIAW championship
:(***) ITA National Team Indoor Championships
:(****) USA Ultimate College Championships
*see also:
**
Rivalries
Carolina's most heated rivalries are with its Tobacco Road counterparts Duke
Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...
, North Carolina State
North Carolina State University (NC State) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina system, it is the largest university in the Carolinas. The universit ...
, and Wake Forest. In recent years, the Carolina-Duke basketball series has attracted the most attention. HBO even made a documentary in 2009 called "Battle for Tobacco Road: Duke vs. Carolina". The Tar Heels also have a rivalry with Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
in college football, known as the South's Oldest Rivalry
The South's Oldest Rivalry is the name given to the North Carolina–Virginia football rivalry. It is an American college football rivalry game played annually by the Virginia Cavaliers football team of the University of Virginia and the North ...
. UNC and UVA are the two oldest schools in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
North Carolina Cheer
I'm a Tar Heel Born
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
"Hark The Sound" is the alma mater (song) of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina. It was written by William Starr Myers (class of 1897), a member of the UNC Glee Club at the time. It is sung at the end ...
", 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
A convocation (from the Latin ''wikt:convocare, convocare'' meaning "to call/come together", a translation of the Ancient Greek, Greek wikt:ἐκκλησία, ἐκκλησία ''ekklēsia'') is a group of people formally assembled for a speci ...
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.
As it appears in its 1907 printed form, the final words of the song are "Rah, rah, rah!" Starting in the 1960s, however, "Rah, rah, rah!" was "unofficially" replaced with "Go to hell, State!"; NC State
North Carolina State University (NC State) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina system, it is the largest university in the Carolinas. The university ...
was UNC's main athletic rival for much of the first half of the 20th century. From the late 1980s onward, the "unofficial" final lyrics have been "Go to hell, Duke!"; reflecting Duke
Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...
eclipsing State as Carolina's main rival.
Simply known as "Tag" by many Marching Tar Heel alumni, and titled as such on som
recorded albums
"I'm a Tar Heel Born" has been adopted by at least three other colleges for their use, including th
University of Rhode Island
th
University of Richmond
and Brown University
Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...
(se
.
Here Comes Carolina
Another popular song is ''Here Comes Carolina''.
As its title implies, it is most commonly played when a Tar Heel team enters the field of play. Traditionally, the band plays a version of the traditional orchestral warmup tune before launching into the song when the first player charges out of the tunnel. During the warmup tune, fans stand and clap along. The effect is similar to that of a train coming down the track.
From the early 1990s to around 2004 at basketball games, the band played the first seven notes of the song in different keys during player introductions, modulating a half step each time before launching into the song in the normal key after the final player was announced.
The last part of the song's melody come from an old revival song, "Jesus Loves the Little Children
A Christian child's prayer is Christian prayer recited primarily by children that is typically short, rhyming, or has a memorable tune. It is usually said before bedtime, to give thanks for a meal, or as a nursery rhyme. Many of these prayers ...
".
Notable alumni
Notable graduates from the athletic programs include Michael Jordan
Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963), also known by his initials MJ, is an American businessman and former professional basketball player. His biography on the official NBA website states: "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the g ...
from men's basketball, Mia Hamm
Mariel Margaret Hamm-Garciaparra (; born March 17, 1972) is an American retired professional soccer player, two-time Olympic gold medalist and two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion. Hailed as a soccer icon, she played as a forward for the U ...
from women's soccer, Charlie Justice from American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...
, Davis Love III
Davis Milton Love III (born April 13, 1964) is an American professional golfer who has won 21 events on the PGA Tour, including one major championship: the 1997 PGA Championship. He won the Players Championship in 1992 and 2003. He was in th ...
from golf, B.J. Surhoff
William James "B. J." Surhoff (born August 4, 1964) is an American former catcher, outfielder, first baseman, third baseman, and designated hitter in Major League Baseball (MLB). Over his 18-year MLB career, he played every position except pitcher ...
from baseball and Marion Jones
Marion Lois Jones (born October 12, 1975), also known as Marion Jones-Thompson, is an American former world champion track and field athlete and former professional basketball player. She won three gold medals and two bronze medals at the 200 ...
from women's basketball and track & field.
References
External links
*
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