What Does Unc’S Mascot Represent?

A tar heel is a name used to describe North Carolina residents in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The term was adopted by others, leading to North Carolina becoming known as the “Tar Heel State”. In the 1880s, UNC teams began competing in sports, and their nickname became the Tar Heel.

UNC’s mascot, Rameses, has been the official mascot since 1924. Technically, he’s a Dorset Horn sheep, but UNC students call him a ram. The story behind the mascot is that it was decided during a rough year for the football team that UNC needed an animal mascot similar to N.C. State’s wolf or Georgia’s bulldog.

The costume version of Rameses, which wears a Tar Heels jersey, came into existence in the late 80s. Two versions of Rameses appear at UNC. UNC may have the Tar Heel nickname, but its mascot is a ram.

Another unique mascot at UNC is Norm the Niner, the athletics mascot of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Norm is a student dressed in appropriate Charlotte 49ers athletics attire and refers to workers who accumulated tar on their heels while working barefoot distilling turpentine.