50 Fun Facts About UNC

In which town is the University of North Carolina's flagship campus?

It is one corner of the Research Triangle, with NC State in Raleigh and Duke in Durham.

In what year was the university chartered?

It began enrolling students in 1795 and is one of three schools claiming to be the oldest public university in the US.

What are UNC's athletic teams called?

The name refers to North Carolina's 18th-century prominence as a producer of tar and pitch.

What kind of animal is Rameses, the live mascot?

The tradition began in 1924, inspired by football player Jack 'The Battering Ram' Merritt.

Why does the costumed Rameses mascot wear a sailor's hat?

UNC was one of 131 schools in the wartime V-12 Navy College Training Program.

Which two colours are UNC's school colours?

The football team adopted them from the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies in the 1880s.

Which small neoclassical rotunda is the symbol of the university?

It is modelled on the Temple of Love at Versailles and stands where the original well supplied the school's water.

Which is the oldest building on campus, built from 1793 to 1795?

Its cornerstone was laid on October 12, 1793.

Which US president, a UNC alumnus, is the campus's second quad named after?

The quad was built in the 1920s south of the original campus.

Which street, lined with shops and bars, do fans rush after big Tar Heel wins?

The first known rush came after the 1957 title; fans painted the street blue after the 1982 championship.

The planetarium on the UNC campus is named after which benefactor?

John Motley Morehead III also funded the bell tower and the Morehead-Cain Scholarship.

UNC is a charter member of which league, founded on June 14, 1953?

The Tar Heels compete in 28 sports and have 51 NCAA team titles, eighth all-time.

Which two universities form the other corners of the Research Triangle with UNC?

Since 2001 the Robertson Scholars program has given students full privileges at both UNC and Duke.

Which merit scholarship at UNC has produced 29 Rhodes Scholars?

It has been offered for decades and its benefactor also paid for the campus bell tower.

What is the title of UNC's alma mater?

'I'm a Tar Heel Born' began in the late 1920s as a tag on the end of it.

What is the name of UNC's student newspaper?

It once christened a low campus wall 'Dan Moore's Wall' after a governor during the 1960s speaker-ban fight.

Which Confederate monument was toppled by protesters on campus in August 2018?

It had stood since 1913, erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

Which sport had brought UNC the most NCAA team titles, 22 of them, by the end of 2024?

Field hockey had eleven and men's basketball six at that point.

Which coach led the Tar Heels' most decorated program from 1979 to 2024, winning 22 national titles?

He also collected 38 ACC championships and more than 1,000 wins.

Which soccer legend was twice named national athlete of the year while at UNC?

She went on to two World Cups and two Olympic golds with the US.

Which ex-star with four national titles as a player became UNC field hockey coach in 2023?

She was the first athlete to win the ACC's player of the year award five times.

How many NCAA men's basketball championships had UNC won by the end of the 2024-25 season?

1957, 1982, 1993, 2005, 2009 and 2017, plus a retroactive 1924 Helms title.

Which coach led the Tar Heels to their perfect 32-0 season and first NCAA title in 1957?

The final against Kansas went to triple overtime, the only such final in championship history.

Whom did UNC beat 54-53 in triple overtime for the 1957 title?

Carolina had also needed three overtimes to beat Michigan State the night before.

Which UNC coach won 879 games over 36 years and two national titles?

His total was the Division I record when he retired in October 1997.

Who hit the game-winning shot with 17 seconds left to beat Georgetown for the 1982 title?

He was a freshman; James Worthy, with 28 points, was Final Four Most Outstanding Player.

Whom did UNC beat for the 1993 national championship?

Donald Williams scored 25 as Final Four MOP in Dean Smith's second title.

Which coach came home from the Jayhawks in 2003 and won three national titles at UNC?

He had been Dean Smith's assistant from 1978 to 1988; the titles came in 2005, 2009 and 2017.

Whom did the Tar Heels beat 75-70 for the 2005 national title?

It was Roy Williams's first title as a head coach; he then lost his top seven scorers.

Which player broke Phil Ford's UNC career scoring record in December 2008?

The team went on to win the 2009 title over Michigan State.

Which team beat UNC on a buzzer-beater in the 2016 national final, despite Marcus Paige's tying three?

Carolina came back the next year and won it all.

Whom did UNC beat 71-65 for the 2017 championship?

Joel Berry II was Final Four MOP, and the title moved Roy Williams past mentor Dean Smith.

Which player's 0.3-second jumper beat Kentucky in the 2017 Elite Eight?

It sent Carolina to a record 20th Final Four.

Who succeeded the retiring head coach in April 2021?

A former Tar Heel player, he reached the Final Four in his first season.

Which arena did the Tar Heels open in January 1986 with a 95-92 win over Duke?

It replaced Carmichael Auditorium, opened in 1965 with a win over William and Mary.

Who was UNC's first African American scholarship basketball player, recruited in the 1960s?

His buzzer-beater over Davidson in 1969 sent Carolina to a third straight Final Four.

In what year did UNC first play Duke (then Trinity College) in basketball?

Carolina won 36-25; the two programs have eleven national titles between them.

Which university is UNC's opponent in the 'South's Oldest Rivalry'?

Virginia was UNC's first opponent, and the rivalry dominated the early 20th century.

How many Final Fours had UNC reached by the end of the 2024-25 season, an NCAA record?

They had also played in 12 title games and reached a championship game in nine straight decades.

Which four Tar Heels made ESPN's list of the top 74 NBA players ever?

That ties UCLA for the most from one school.

Which 2014 investigation alleged 18 years of 'paper classes' involving over 3,100 students and athletes?

The NCAA eventually found only failures to cooperate by a department chair and secretary.

Which school, coached by a former UNC assistant, beat Carolina 79-73 in the 1991 national semifinal?

The former assistant was Roy Williams, who returned to Chapel Hill as head coach a dozen years later.

Which building, designed by Alexander Jackson Davis, became a National Historic Landmark in 1973?

It was originally a library and was remodelled as a theatre in 1925.

During which period was the university closed, the only such gap in its history?

It stayed open through the Civil War thanks to draft exemptions but Chapel Hill lost so many people that enrollment collapsed afterwards.

In what year did UNC first admit Black undergraduates, under federal court order?

Leroy Frasier, John Lewis Brandon and Ralph Frasier came from Hillside High School in Durham; the law and medical schools had integrated in 1951.

Which 1963 state law banned communist speakers from campuses and sparked years of protest at UNC?

Chancellor Aycock and president William Friday criticised it immediately.

Which opponent did UNC beat aboard the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson to open the 2011-12 season?

Top-ranked Carolina won 67-55 in San Diego and went on to win the ACC regular-season title outright at 14-2.

What was UNC's notoriously cold home arena from 1924 to 1938 nicknamed?

Icicles formed in the corners, so electricians put high-wattage bulbs under the benches; the Heels still went 130-20 there.

Why was UNC's first basketball coach, Nat Cartmell, fired after the 1913-14 season?

The program had begun on January 27, 1911, with a 42-21 win over Virginia Christian at Bynum Gymnasium.

What was the record of UNC's 1923-24 team, later retroactively named national champions by the Helms Foundation?

That season also saw the first game of the Kentucky-North Carolina rivalry, a 41-20 UNC win on February 29, 1924.