| North Carolina Tar Heels | |
| University | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
|---|---|
| Conference(s) | Atlantic Coast Conference |
| NCAA | Division I |
| Athletics director | Bubba Cunningham |
| Location | Chapel Hill, North Carolina |
| Varsity teams | 27 |
| Football stadium | Kenan Memorial Stadium |
| Basketball arena | Dean E. Smith Student Activities Center |
| Baseball stadium | Bryson Field at Boshamer Stadium |
| Other arenas | William D. Carmichael, Jr. Auditorium |
| Mascot | Rameses |
| Nickname | Tar Heels |
| Fight song | I'm a Tar Heel Born Here Comes Carolina |
| Colors | Carolina blue[1] and White
|
| Homepage | tarheelblue.com |
The North Carolina Tar Heels are the athletic teams for 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. Being the flagship institution of the University of North Carolina system, the campus at Chapel Hill is referred to as the University of North Carolina for the purposes of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The Tar Heels are commonly referred to as Carolina, North Carolina, UNC, or simply The Heels.
The mascot of the Tar Heels is Rameses, a Bighorn 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 cheer leading team.
North Carolina has won 38 team national championships in six different sports, eighth all-time, and 51 individual national championships.
UNC's long-time arch-rivals are Duke, located in nearby Durham, and NC State, located in nearby Raleigh. UNC and Duke square off annually in an all-sport competition known as the Carlyle Cup.
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The baseball team has had recent success, reaching the championship series of the College World Series in 2006 and 2007 losing both times to Oregon State. They also appeared in the College World Series in 1960, 1966, 1978, 1989, 2008, 2009, and 2011.
North Carolina has enjoyed long success as one of the top basketball programs in the country. Overall, the Tar Heels have won five NCAA National Championships and were retroactively awarded one by the Helms Foundation.
Under coach Frank McGuire, the team won its first NCAA championship in 1957. After McGuire left, legendary coach Dean Smith established the team as a powerhouse in college basketball. In 31 years at North 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. 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 and 2009 under coach Roy Williams, and were runners-up in the men's 2010 National Invitation Tournament.
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, North Carolina's athletic programs won the Sears Directors Cup which is awarded for cumulative performance in NCAA competition. At least three Carolina wrestlers have won NCAA titles, C.D. Mock, current head coach of the Tar Heels, Rob Koll, now the head wrestling coach at Cornell, and T.J. Jaworsky.
North Carolina has won 40 national championships, 38 of which are from the NCAA. UNC women's soccer accounts for 21 of the 38 NCAA national championships, the largest number of championships by any team in any sport in NCAA history.[2] The 38 NCAA Championships ranks eighth all time, behind only UCLA, Stanford, Southern California, Oklahoma State, Arkansas, LSU, and Texas.
(*) Pre-NCAA tournament championship (**) There was only one AIAW soccer tournament, thus making North Carolina the only women's soccer team to win an AIAW championship
North Carolina's most heated rivalries are with its Tobacco Road counterparts Duke, North Carolina State, and Wake Forest. In recent years, the North Carolina-Duke basketball series has attracted the most attention. HBO even made a documentary in 2009 called "Battle for Tobacco Road: Duke vs. Carolina".[3] The Tar Heels also have a rivalry with Virginia in college football, known as the South's Oldest Rivalry. UNC and UVA are the two oldest schools in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The best known UNC fight song is I'm a Tar Heel Born. It originated in the late 1920s as an add-on (or "tag") to the school's alma mater, "Hark The Sound". 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.[4]
I'm a Tar Heel born, I'm a Tar Heel bred.
And when I die, I'm a Tar Heel dead.
So it's rah-rah, Car'lina-'lina!
Rah-rah, Car'lina-'lina!
Rah-rah, Car'lina-'lina!
Rah, rah, rah!
Rah, rah, rah! is rarely sung, except by older fans. From the 1970s through the early 1990s, it was usually replaced by "Go to hell State!"; N.C. State was UNC's major athletic rival in sports other than basketball for most of the 20th century. Since the early 1990s, it has usually been replaced with Go to hell, Duke!
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.
For many years 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".
Here comes Car'lina-lina, here comes Car'lina-lina! We hail from NCU.
We've got the spirit in it, we've got the team to win it. We wear the colors white and blue.
So it's fight, fight, fight for Carolina, as Davie did in days of old.
As we gather 'round the Well, cheer that Tar Heel team like hell for the glory of NCU!
Davie refers to William Richardson Davie, Carolina's founder. The Well refers to The Old Well, a campus landmark. NCU is an antiquated abbreviation for "North Carolina University."
Notable graduates from the athletic programs include Michael Jordan from men's basketball, Mia Hamm from soccer, Charlie Justice from American football, Davis Love III from golf, B.J. Surhoff from baseball and Marion Jones from women's basketball and track & field.
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