North Carolina Tar Heels

For the 1920s string band, see The Carolina Tar Heels.
North Carolina Tar Heels
University University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Conference Atlantic Coast Conference
NCAA Division I
Athletic 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. Arena
Mascot Rameses
Nickname Tar Heels
Fight song I'm a Tar Heel Born
Here Comes Carolina
Colors
     Carolina blue[1]       White
Website goheels.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. 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.[2] 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 North Carolina, UNC, or The Heels.[3]

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 cheer leading team.

Carolina has won 40 NCAA Division I team national championships in seven different sports, ninth all-time, and 51 individual national championships.

Baseball

North Carolina Tar Heels baseball

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, 2011 and 2013.

Men's basketball

2008 men's basketball players Wayne Ellington, Danny Green, Tyler Hansbrough, Ty Lawson, and Deon Thompson

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 for the 1923–24 season by the Helms Foundation and the Premo-Porretta Power Poll.[4]

Under coach Frank McGuire, the team won its 1st NCAA championship in 1957. After McGuire left, legendary coach Dean Smith 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. 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.

Women's basketball

Field hockey

2007 field hockey team with President George W. Bush

Football

2006 football team playing Virginia Tech

Men's lacrosse

Men's lacrosse in the 2009 ACC tournament final.

Women's lacrosse

Men's soccer

Women's soccer

Offensive Player of the Year Yael Averbuch
2006 women's soccer player Robyn Gayle

Men's golf

The men's golf team has won 14 conference championships:[5]

Two Tar Heels have won the NCAA individual championship, Harvie Ward in 1949 and John Inman in 1984. Ward also won the British Amateur in 1952 and the U.S. Amateur 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 (20 PGA Tour wins including 1997 PGA Championship) and Mark Wilson (five PGA Tour wins).

Wrestling

Bill Lam coached the program for 30 years until 1982 NCAA Champion C.D. Mock replaced him in 2002. Mock achieved two ACC Coach of the Year (2005, 2006) & two ACC Champions (2005, 2006) awards.[6] Though UNC is more known for basketball, the Tar Heel wrestling program has 5 individual NCAA champions: Mock, T.J. Jaworsky in 1993-1995 (the first ACC wrestler to win three titles), & 1988 NCAA Champion Rob Koll. UNC's best finish during the national championships is 5th in 1982.[7] In 2015, Mock was replaced by Coleman Scott.

With the departure of Maryland to the Big Ten Conference in 2014, UNC leads active ACC members in conference wrestling titles, with seventeen, the last coming in 2006.

Carmichael Arena is currently the home to the Tar Heels Wrestling team located centrally on campus.[8]

Other sports

2005 men's soccer team playing SMU

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 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.

Rugby

Carolina also fields non varsity sports teams. North Carolina's rugby team competes in the Atlantic Coast Rugby League against its traditional ACC rivals. North Carolina finished second in its conference in 2010, led by conference co-player of the year Alex Lee. North Carolina finished second at the Atlantic Coast Invitational in 2009 and again in 2010. North Carolina has also competed in the Collegiate Rugby Championship, finishing 11th in 2011 in a tournament broadcast live on NBC.[9]

National team championships

As of July 1, 2015, North Carolina has 40 NCAA team national championships.[10]

Below are 4 national team titles that were not bestowed by the NCAA:

(*) Pre-NCAA tournament championship (Helms Foundation and Premo-Porretta Power Poll, retroactively selected)
(**) There was only one AIAW soccer tournament, thus making North Carolina the only women's soccer team to win an AIAW championship
(***) ITA National Team Indoor Championships

Rivalries

Tip-off of a basketball game against Duke at the Dean Smith Center
See also: Tobacco Road

Carolina's most heated rivalries are with its Tobacco Road counterparts Duke, North Carolina State, 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".[11] 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.

North Carolina Cheer

I'm a Tar Heel Born

Carolina's main 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.[12]

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.

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".

Notable alumni

Notable graduates from the athletic programs include Michael Jordan from men's basketball, Mia Hamm from women's 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.

References

  1. ↑ "Primary Palette" (PDF). Carolina Athletics Brand Identity Guidelines. North Carolina Tar Heels. April 20, 2015. Retrieved December 27, 2015.
  2. ↑ http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/419083/University-of-North-Carolina
  3. ↑ http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/419083/University-of-North-Carolina
  4. ↑ ESPN, ed. (2009). ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia: The Complete History of the Men's Game. New York, NY: ESPN Books. p. 536. ISBN 978-0-345-51392-2.
  5. ↑ "Carolina Men's Golf 2012–13" (PDF). Retrieved June 20, 2013.
  6. ↑ "UNC Wrestling C.D. Mock Bio". University of North Carolina Athletics. Retrieved 2014.
  7. ↑ "Wrestling History in the NCAA" (PDF). NCAA Wrestling. Retrieved 2014.
  8. ↑ "UNC Tar Heels Facilities". University of North Carolina Athletics. Retrieved 2014.
  9. ↑ "Big turnout for Rugby Sevens tournament at PPL Park".
  10. ↑ http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/champs_records_book/Overall.pdf
  11. ↑ http://blogs.newsobserver.com/sportsmedia/hbos-duke-unc-documentary
  12. ↑ "UNC School Songs". tarheelblue.com. Retrieved March 9, 2008.

External links

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