In 1921, the University of North Carolina became a founding member of the Southern Conference. Bunny Hearn became head coach of the Tar Heel baseball program in 1932, serving in that capacity for the next 15 years. The Tar Heels would win six Southern Conference baseball titles during the Hearn era, as well as two wartime Ration League titles in 1943 and 1945. In 1947, Hearn suffered a stroke and chose to relinquish his head coaching duties. Walter Rabb would thereafter take over as head coach of the Tar Heel baseball program, though Hearn remained as a coach at North Carolina for another ten years.
The athletic teams at the university are supported by The Marching Tar Heels, the university's marching band. The entire 275-member volunteer band is present at every home football game, and smaller pep bands play at all home basketball games. Each member of the band is also required to play in at least one of five pep bands that play at athletic events of the 26 other sports.[214]
UNC took the field last Monday at Boshamer Stadium for its first baseball scrimmage of the fall. The Tar Heels followed that up with scrimmages Friday and Saturday. After going 2-for-4 with two RBI in UNC's first scrimmage, freshman Vance Honeycutt continued to show why the San Francisco Giants picked him in the 20th round of July’s MLB Draft. (Boshamer Bulletin)
UNC took the field last Monday at Boshamer Stadium for its first baseball scrimmage of the fall. The Tar Heels followed that up with scrimmages Friday and Saturday. After going 2-for-4 with two RBI in UNC's first scrimmage, freshman Vance Honeycutt continued to show why the San Francisco Giants picked him in the 20th round of July’s MLB Draft. (Boshamer Bulletin)
UNC-Chapel Hill's 729-acre (3.0 km2) campus is dominated by two central quads: Polk Place and McCorkle Place.[69] Polk Place is named after North Carolina native and university alumnus President James K. Polk,[70] and McCorkle Place is named in honor of Samuel Eusebius McCorkle, the original author of the bill requesting the university's charter.[71] Adjacent to Polk Place is a sunken brick courtyard known as the Pit where students will gather, often engaging in lively debate with speakers such as the Pit Preacher. The Morehead–Patterson Bell Tower, located in the heart of campus, tolls the quarter-hour. In 1999, UNC-Chapel Hill was one of sixteen recipients of the American Society of Landscape Architects Medallion Awards and was identified as one of 50 college or university "works of art" by T.A. Gaines in his book The Campus as a Work of Art.[69][72]
The program's first recorded game took place in 1867, when the Tar Heels defeated a Raleigh all-star team, 34-17. Although baseball continued to be played at UNC, there exists a gap in record-keeping during Reconstruction, despite the noted existence of the UNC baseball team. The program's next recorded games were played in 1891. Thereafter, the University sponsored a varsity intercollegiate baseball program on a regular basis from that season onwards.
Carolina holds an in-state rivalry with fellow Tobacco Road school, North Carolina State University. Since the mid-1970s, however, the Tar Heels have shifted their attention to Duke following a severe decline in NC State's basketball program (and the resurgence of Duke's basketball program) that reached rock bottom during Roy Williams' tenure as evidenced by their 4–36 record against the Tar Heels. The Wolfpack faithful still consider the rivalry the most bitter in the state despite the fact that it's been decades since Tar Heel supporters have acknowledged NC State as a rival. Combined, the two schools hold eight NCAA Championships and 27 ACC Championships in basketball. Students from each school often exchange pranks before basketball and football games.[183][184]
In June 2018, the Department of Education found that the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill had violated Title IX in handling reports of sexual assault, five years after four students and an administrator filed complaints.[58][59] The university was also featured in The Hunting Ground, a 2015 documentary about sexual assault on college campuses. Annie E. Clark and Andrea Pino, two students featured in the film, helped to establish the survivor advocacy organization End Rape on Campus.
The Pittsburgh Pirates have named Jacob Stallings the team’s nominee for this year’s Roberto Clemente Award, given to the Major League Baseball player who "best represents the game through extraordinary character, community involvement, philanthropy, and positive contributions on and off the field." Stallings says he became emotional. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
UNC-Chapel Hill has a regional theater company in residence, the Playmakers Repertory Company,[215] and hosts regular dance, drama, and music performances on campus.[216] The school has an outdoor stone amphitheatre known as Forest Theatre used for weddings and drama productions.[217] Forest Theatre is dedicated to Professor Frederick Koch, the founder of the Carolina Playmakers and the father American folk drama.[218]
Student government at Carolina is composed of an executive branch headed by the student body president, a legislative branch composed of a student-elected student congress, and a judicial branch which includes the honor court and student supreme court.[221] The Judicial Reform Committee created the Instrument of Student Judicial Governance, which outlined the current Honor Code and its means for enforcement in 1974.[222] Currently, Carolina boasts one of the only student-run judicial systems in the nation. All academic and most conduct violations are handled by the student-run Honor System. Prior to that time, the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies along with other campus organizations supported student concerns.[223]
The ACC schedule-makers produced a helpful first league schedule for new UNC basketball coach Hubert Davis. Davis’ first Tar Heels team plays Florida State, Virginia, Syracuse, and Pittsburgh only at the Smith Center. Trips to Charlottesville, Va., and Tallahassee, Fla., which have been rough ones for UNC in recent years, aren’t part of the schedule. (Tar Heel Tribune)