At work on Friday, a co-worker and i somehow got around to musing about the origins of the UNC Tarheels. Why is their mascot a ram? Why did a ram make sense to represent a tarheel? What is a tarheel anyway?
I asked Lance about it and we mused about it, but neither of us knew.
I asked my brother Nathan, who used to volunteer as a tour guide when he was a student at UNC. He told me it dated back to the Civil War, when the Carolina boys held their ground the best. Apparently some general said they “dug in their hills as though there was tar on them.” OK… so UNC takes its mascot from a story in which they were on a losing side of a war, which was being fought over the right to own slaves. I guess those Carolina boys really wanted to keep their slaves.
I asked my friend Malcolm, who attended UNC in his youth. His story was that it came from the first UNC student, who walked all the way here from the coast, and did so much walking he had tar stuck to his heels. OK…
I asked Wikipedia, who told me the etymology was unknown, but historians believe it came from the fact that tar/pitch was a major export in early NC history. Wikipedia also listed the different legends that had grown around it. Including the one Nathan told me, which appears to have the most references.