University of North Carolina Athletics
Carolina Athletics Traditions
• Carolina's National Athletes of The Year
• First-Team Academic All-Americas
CAROLINA ATHLETICS
A Historical Summary (as of August 2026)
• Carolina is a charter member of the Atlantic Coast Conference, competing in the league each year beginning in 1953-54. Before that, UNC competed in the Southern Conference.
• Carolina sponsors 28 varsity programs, including 15 women's and 13 men's sports.
• Steve Newmark is in his first season as the director of athletics. He succeeded Bubba Cunningham on July 1, 2026. Cunningham served as the director of athletics from 2011-26. Newmark is the eighth AD in UNC history, following Robert A. Fetzer (1923-52), Chuck Erickson (1953-67), Homer Rice (1969-75), Bill Cobey (1976-80), John Swofford (1980-97), Dick Baddour (1997-2011) and Cunningham.
• The women's program began in 1971-72 for basketball, fencing field hockey, gymnastics, swimming and diving, tennis and volleyball under the direction of the Department of Physical Education. In 1974, the women’s teams became part of the Athletic Department. Varsity letters for women were first issued in 1974-75.
• In the fall of 1974, tennis player Camey Timberlake became the first female scholarship student-athlete in the state.
• The first Black student-athlete was men’s soccer player Edwin Okoroma in 1963. Naismith Hall of Famer Charlie Scott was the first Black scholarship athlete, joining Dean Smith’s men’s basketball program in 1966.
• The first Black female scholarship student-athletes were women’s basketball players Kathy Crawford, Henrietta Walls and Deanna Thomas in 1979.
• Hubert West was Carolina’s first Black head coach. He led the track and field program for two seasons beginning in 1981.
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
• The Tar Heels have won 52 NCAA team championships in eight different sports, including 22 women's soccer, 11 field hockey, six men's basketball, five men's lacrosse, four women's lacrosse, two men's soccer, one women's basketball and one women’s tennis.
• Most recently, women’s soccer and women’s lacrosse won NCAA championships in 2024-25. It was the 13th time Carolina won multiple NCAA championships in the same academic year (1981-82, 1989-90, 1990-91, 1992-93, 1993-94, 1996-97, 1997-98, 2008-09, 2009-10, 2012-13, 2015-16, 2022-23 and 2024-25).
• In 2025-26, Carolina baseball and women’s lacrosse both finished second in the NCAA Championships and five other teams finished in the top 10 in their respective NCAA Championships.
Carolina’s NCAA Championships (52)
Women’s Soccer, 22 (1982-83-84-86-87-88-89-90-91-92-93-94-96-97-99-2000-03-06-08-09-12-24)
Field Hockey, 11 (1989-95-96-97-2007-09-18-19-20-22-23)
Men’s Basketball, 6 (1957-82-93-2005-09-17)
Men’s Lacrosse, 5 (1981-82-86-91-2016)
Women’s Lacrosse, 4 (2013-16-22-25)
Men’s Soccer, 2 (2001-11)
Women’s Basketball, 1 (1994)
Women’s Tennis, 1 (2023)
Carolina’s NCAA 52 Championships by Head Coach
Anson Dorrance, Women’s Soccer, 21 (1982-83-84-86-87-88-89-90-91-92-93-94-96-97-99-2000-03-06-08-09-12)
Karen Shelton, Field Hockey, 10 (1989-95-96-97-2007-09-18-19-20-22)
* Jenny Levy, Women’s Lacrosse, 4 (2013-16-22-25)
Willie Scroggs, Men’s Lacrosse, 3 (1981-82-86)
Roy Williams, Men’s Basketball, 3 (2005-09-17)
Dean Smith, Men’s Basketball, 2 (1982-93)
Frank McGuire, Men’s Basketball, 1 (1957)
Dave Klarmann, Men’s Lacrosse, 1 (1991)
Sylvia Hatchell, Women’s Basketball, 1 (1994)
Elmar Bolowich, Men’s Soccer, 1 (2001)
* Carlos Somoano, Men’s Soccer, 1 (2011)
* Joe Breschi, Men’s Lacrosse, 1 (2016)
* Brian Kalbas, Women’s Tennis, 1 (2023)
* Erin Matson, Field Hockey, 1 (2023)
* Damon Nahas, Women’s Soccer, 1 (2024)
* indicates active UNC head coach
• Former women’s soccer head coach Anson Dorrance is the all-time leader in NCAA Division I championships in any sport with 21. Al Scates (UCLA men’s volleyball) and John McDonnell (Arkansas men’s indoor track and field) are second with 19 apiece. Dorrance is tied for second in NCAA titles in all divisions (Jim Steen of Division III Kenyon won 29 men’s swimming and diving from 1980-2010 and 21 women’s titles from 1984-2009).
• In addition to 52 NCAA titles, UNC has won 11 other national championships for a total of 63 national team titles. The Helms Foundation declared the 1923-24 men's basketball team national champions, women's soccer won the AIAW national title in 1981, women's tennis won ITA indoor national tournaments in 2013, 2015, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, and men’s tennis won ITA indoor national titles in 2016 and 2021.
Other National Championships (11)
Women’s Tennis, 7 – ITA Indoor (2013-15-18-20-21-22-23)
Men’s Tennis, 2 – ITA Indoor (2016-21)
Women’s Soccer, 1 – AIAW (1981)
Men’s Basketball, 1 – Helms Foundation (1924)
Other National Championships by Head Coach
* Brian Kalbas, Women’s Tennis, 7 – ITA Indoor (2013-15-18-20-21-22-23)
* Sam Paul, Men’s Tennis, 2 – ITA Indoor (2016-21)
Anson Dorrance, Women’s Soccer , 1– AIAW (1981)
Norman Shepard, Men’s Basketball, 1 – Helms Foundation (1924)
• Carolina has the seventh-most titles in NCAA history with 52 (13 men and 39 women).
• Carolina has more NCAA championships (52) than any other university as a member of the ACC. Virginia is second with 37, and Duke is third with 17. Other current ACC institutions that have won NCAA titles as members of the ACC include Wake Forest 11, Notre Dame 10, Florida State 9, NC State 6, Boston College 5, Clemson 5, Stanford 4, Syracuse 3, and Georgia Tech 1. Maryland, which is no longer a member of the ACC, won 27 NCAA titles while competing in the ACC.
• Carolina is second in NCAA history with 39 women's team championships. Only Stanford (58) has won more.
• In 2023, field hockey won Carolina’s 50th NCAA title under first-year head coach Erin Matson, who won NCAA titles as a Tar Heel player in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022. Matson became the youngest coach in ACC history to win a national championship in any sport.
• Carolina’s 2022 field hockey NCAA championship, in Karen Shelton’s 42nd and final season as head coach, set all-time field hockey records for the most championships by a team and head coach (10). Shelton led UNC to field hockey national championships in five consecutive decades (80s, 90s, 2000s, 2010s and 2020s).
• Carolina women’s soccer won nine consecutive national championships from 1986-1994, the second-longest championship streak by a Division I women’s program in NCAA history (LSU outdoor track and field won 11 in a row from 1987-97). UNC’s nine straight titles equal the third-most consecutive by any Division I program (Arkansas men’s indoor track won 12 straight from 1984-95).
• Carolina women's soccer has won more NCAA championships (22) than any other women's team in collegiate sports history. Stanford women's tennis is second with 20. LSU outdoor track and field and Maryland lacrosse are tied for third with 14. Among ACC schools and teams, Carolina field hockey is second only to the UNC women’s soccer team with 11 NCAA women’s championships.
• Carolina women’s soccer’s 22 NCAA championships are tied for the fourth-most Division I titles by any program. Oklahoma State wrestling leads with 34, followed by Southern California men’s outdoor track and field (27), Iowa wrestling (24), UNC women’s soccer (22) and Arkansas men’s indoor track and field (22).
• The Tar Heels have won six NCAA titles in men’s basketball, tied for the third most in college basketball history behind UCLA (11) and Kentucky (8). Carolina has played in the most Final Fours (21) and won the most NCAA Tournament games (134) in college basketball history. UNC is second in NCAA Tournament appearances (54) and games (186).
• Carolina men’s basketball is the only team to play in the Final Four in each of the last nine decades (1940s-50s-60s-70s-80s-90s-2000s-2010s-2020s).
• Carolina’s five NCAA championships are the fifth most in men’s lacrosse history. The four women’s lacrosse championships are the third most all-time in the sport.
• Carolina has won 89 individual, relay or doubles national championships in 14 sports, including two in 2025-26. Fencer Youseff Shamel won the men’s epee and Reese Brantmeier won singles in women’s tennis.
• Sue Walsh, one of the elite backstrokers in U.S. swimming history, won 11 national championships (10 in the backstroke and one medley relay) from 1981-84. Eight of Walsh’s national titles were NCAA championships (the other three were hosted by the AIAW).
• T.J. Jaworsky, the 1994-95 National Wrestler of the Year and the Most Outstanding Wrestler in the 1995 NCAA Championships, is the only male athlete at Carolina to win three individual championships. He won titles at 134 pounds in 1993, 1994 (in the Smith Center) and 1995.
• Four-time national champions include Shalane Flanagan (two in women’s cross country and two in track and field), Laura Gerraughty (women’s track and field, shot put) and Aranza Vázquez Montaño (women’s diving).
• Three-time national champions include Jaworsky, women’s track and field’s Brie Felnagle and Alice Schmidt and women’s tennis’ Elizabeth Scotty.
• Two-time national champions include gymnast Courtney Bumpers, men’s swimming’s Charlie Krepp, women’s swimming’s Barb Harris and Ann Marshall, men’s track and field’s Eric Bishop (high jump), Justin Ryncavage (javelin), distance star Tony Waldrop, sprinters Milton Campbell, Ken Harnden and Tony McCall, women’s track and field’s Georgia Kloss and Monique Hennagan and wrestling’s Austin O’Connor.
ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS
• Carolina has won 301 Atlantic Coast Conference championships, 139 more than any other current ACC school. Virginia is second among current ACC schools with 157. Maryland won 200 before leaving the ACC for the Big Ten in 2014.
ACC Championships (men’s and women’s)
North Carolina, 301
Maryland (former member), 200
Virginia, 162
NC State, 153
Duke, 152
Clemson, 147
Carolina’s ACC Championships by Team
Field Hockey, 28
Men's Tennis, 25
Women's Soccer, 23
Men's Basketball, 18
Men's Swimming and Diving, 17
Wrestling, 17
Women's Swimming and Diving, 16
Women's Indoor Track and Field, 15
Men’s Lacrosse, 14
Women's Outdoor Track and Field, 14
Baseball, 13
Women’s Tennis, 13
Volleyball, 13
Men's Golf, 12
Men’s Cross Country, 10
Women’s Basketball, 9
Men’s Fencing, 9
Women’s Lacrosse, 9
Football, 5
Men’s Outdoor Track and Field, 5
Women’s Cross Country, 4
Men’s Soccer, 4
Men’s Indoor Track and Field, 4
Women’s Golf, 2
Women’s Fencing, 1
Softball, 1
• The Tar Heels have won 153 ACC men’s team championships and 148 women’s championships.
• Field hockey’s 28 championships are the third-most by any ACC men’s or women’s team in all sports.
• Carolina has won the most ACC championships in seven sports: men’s fencing, field hockey, women’s soccer, men’s tennis, women’s indoor and outdoor track and field and volleyball.
• In 2003, Tar Heel alumni Michael Jordan (men's basketball, 1981-84) and Mia Hamm (women's soccer, 1989-93) were named the top male and female athletes, respectively, in the first 50 years of the Atlantic Coast Conference. In 2000, ESPN named Jordan the Greatest Athlete of the 20th Century, placing him ahead of Babe Ruth and Muhammad Ali.
LEARFIELD DIRECTORS’ CUP
• Carolina finished fourth in the 2025-26 Learfield Directors’ Cup standings, the Tar Heels’ second consecutive fourth-place finish.
It was Carolina’s seventh-consecutive top-10 finish, 10th in the last 11 seasons and 27th in the 32-year history of the competition. Only Stanford and Florida (with 32 apiece) have more.
• Carolina’s seven-year run of top-10 finishes is the longest in ACC history. UNC previously had a six-year and two five-year streaks of top-10 finishes. No other school (as members of the ACC) has ever produced longer than three top-10 finishes in a row.
• Carolina has 27 of the Atlantic Coast Conference’s 57 top-10 finishes in the history of the Directors’ Cup.
• The Tar Heels amassed 1,166.75 points in 2025-26, the second-most in the ACC. It was the 27th time in 32 years Carolina totaled the most or second-most points in the ACC.
• Texas, Stanford and UNC, which was the inaugural champion in 1993-94, remain the only schools to win the Directors’ Cup.
• The 2025-26 top 10 included Texas, Stanford, UCLA, Carolina, Virginia, Florida, Southern California, Georgia, Michigan and Ohio State.
• Twenty-five of Carolina’s 28 teams competed in NCAA post-season play in 2025-26 with four finishing in the top five, nine in the top 10 and 17 in the top 25. Baseball and women’s lacrosse both earned 90 Directors’ Cup points for second-place finishes. Field hockey was a national semifinalist (tied for third), men’s lacrosse and women’s tennis were quarterfinalists (tied for fifth), men’s fencing placed seventh and women’s basketball, men’s golf and women’s soccer each tied for ninth place in the NCAA Championships.
• Carolina’s all-time average finish in the Directors’ Cup is seventh place. Stanford is the all-time leader and four other current ACC institutions have averaged top-20 finishes (14th by Virginia and 17th Cal, Duke and Notre Dame).
UNC Directors’ Cup year-by-year finishes
Year, Place
2026, 4
2025, 4
2024, 7
2023, 8
2022, 6
2021, 4
2019, 10
2018, 13
2017, 5
2016, 7
2015, 5
2014, 14
2013, 8
2012, 8
2011, 6
2010, 7
2009, 2
2008, 14
2007, 3
2006, 4
2005, 9
2004, 7
2003, 8
2002, 4
2001, 15
2000, 5
1999, 17
1998, 2
1997, 2
1996, 6
1995, 2
1994,1
PATTERSON MEDALS
• Reese Brantmeier (women’s tennis), Jason DeCaro (baseball) and Ryleigh Heck (field hockey) won the 2026 Patterson Medals, Carolina’s most prestigious honor for athletics excellence and career achievement. Patterson Medals are awarded primarily for career athletic accomplishments. Dr. Joseph Patterson first presented the medal in 1924 to honor the memory of his brother, John Durand Patterson. Recipients must have competed in at least three seasons for the Tar Heels and finished their collegiate eligibility.
• Brantmeier, a senior from Whitewater, Wis., won the NCAA singles championship in 2025, was a member of Carolina’s 2023 NCAA champions, 2023 ITA indoor national champions and 2024 and 2025 ACC championship teams. She is the first Tar Heel women’s tennis player to win 10 ITA All-America honors, was the second NCAA singles champion in Carolina women’s tennis history and the fifth women’s tennis player to win a Patterson Medal. In addition to winning the NCAA singles title last fall, Brantmeier placed second in doubles in 2023 and won the ITA fall singles and doubles titles in 2023.
She compiled 85 singles wins and 98 doubles wins, was the ACC Player of the Year in 2025 and 2026, earned four All-ACC honors and was the ACC Championship MVP in 2025. Brantmeier excelled in the classroom, earning first-team Academic All-America honors, the NCAA Elite Scholar Athlete Award and was the College Sports Communicators Academic Team Member of the Year in both 2025 and 2026. In 2026, she was ITA National and Regional Senior Player of the Year and won the Arthur Ashe Leadership & Sportsmanship Award. She also was the 2024 ITA and 2025 ACC Scholar-Athlete of the Year. She is the fourth Tar Heel student-athlete to earn multiple first-team All-America and multiple first-team Academic All-America honors in a career.
DeCaro, a junior from North Port, N.Y., helped lead the Tar Heels to the Men’s College World Series in 2024 and 2026 and an ACC Tournament championship in 2025. The Pittsburgh Pirates selected him in the third round of the 2026 Major League Baseball Draft. Over three seasons, he went 26-7 with an earned run average of 3.46. He allowed a .236 batting average and is the first pitcher to strike out 200 or more batters under head coach Scott Forbes, punching out 247 in 270.1 innings.
DeCaro went 6-1, 9-3 and 11-3 in his three seasons and is tied for eighth all-time at UNC with 26 wins. He earned first-team All-America honors in 2026, was a three-time All-ACC honoree and was a Freshman All-America in 2024. His signature outing came at Boshamer Stadium, as the Tar Heels staved off elimination in the NCAA Super Regionals on the strength of DeCaro’s complete-game shutout in a 4-0 win over Southern California. He struck out eight, walked one and gave up only two hits. It was the first complete game shutout by a Tar Heel in the NCAA Tournament in 15 seasons. One week later, DeCaro became the second Tar Heel pitcher to start two College World Series openers. He tied his career high with nine strikeouts in leading Carolina to a 6-2 win over Ole Miss in Game 1 of the 2026 CWS. The nine strikeouts were the second-most by a Tar Heel in a CWS game.
DeCaro is the 19th baseball player to win the Patterson Medal and the first pitcher since Robert Woodard in 2007.
Heck, a senior forward from Ocean City, N.J., is one of the most decorated players in UNC field hockey history. Her No. 12 jersey will be retired after winning National Player-of-the-Year honors in 2023, when she led the Tar Heels to an NCAA title, scoring the game-winning goals in both the ACC and NCAA championship games. Heck and Erin Matson are the only Carolina field hockey players to win National Player of the Year, ACC Player of the Year, ACC Tournament MVP, earn four All-America and All-ACC honors and make four All-NCAA Tournament and All-ACC Tournament teams. She and Matson are also the only Tar Heels named All-NCAA Tournament and All-ACC Tournament four times. Heck scored the game-winner in a shootout in the 2023 NCAA final at Karen Shelton Stadium and scored the first Tar Heel goal in a 2-1 victory in the 2022 NCAA championship game.
Heck led Carolina to an 80-6 record, including 36-2 in ACC regular-season and Tournament play, four ACC Tournament titles, two national championships (2022 and 2023) and four Final Four appearances. She became the fifth Tar Heel to earn All-America and All-ACC honors in each of her four seasons and one of eight to make first-team All-America three times. She was the South Region Player of the Year three times, the ACC Freshman of the Year in 2022, ACC Offensive Player of the Year in 2023 and ACC Tournament MVP in 2023. Heck is fifth in UNC career scoring with 168 points and seventh in goals with 65. She scored 13 or more goals in each of her four seasons with a career-best 19 as a senior.
Heck is the eighth field hockey player to win the Patterson Medal and the first to play for Matson as head coach (Matson won the award in 2023).
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NATIONAL PLAYERS OF THE YEAR
• Two Tar Heels won National Player/Athlete-of-the-Year awards in 2025-26. Youseff Shamel was the United States Fencing Coaches Association’s Men’s Epee Fencer of the Year and the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association’s named Chloe Humphrey Player of the Year for the second year in a row.
• Including Shamel and Humphrey, 62 Tar Heels have won National Player/Athlete-of-the-Year awards in 15 sports a total of 75 times.
• Field hockey’s Erin Matson (2019, 2020 and 2022) and women’s soccer’s Cindy Parlow (1996, 1997, 1998) are the only three-time National Players of the Year.
• Men’s basketball’s George Glamack (1940, 1941) and Michael Jordan (1983, 1984), field hockey’s Cindy Werley (1996, 1997), women’s lacrosse’s Jamie Ortega (2020, 2022) and Humphrey (2025, 2026) and women’s soccer’s April Heinrichs (1984, 1986), Shannon Higgins (1988, 1989), Kristine Lilly (1990, 1991), Mia Hamm (1992, 1993) and Debbie Keller (1995, 1996) each won twice.
• National Players of the Year by sport: women’s soccer (19 players in 26 seasons), men’s basketball (11 players in 13 seasons), field hockey (seven players in 10 seasons), baseball (four), women’s lacrosse (four players in six seasons), men’s lacrosse (three), women’s tennis (three), women’s basketball (two), and women’s diving (one), men’s fencing (one), men’s golf (three), football (one), men’s soccer (one), men’s track and field (one) and wrestling (one).
• In addition to 75 NPOY awards, Tar Heels have won 33 positional awards in football, men’s and women’s lacrosse, women’s soccer and baseball. In 2025-26, Chloe Humphrey was the attacker of the year in women’s lacrosse and Brady Wambach was the co-midfielder of the year in men’s lacrosse.
ACC PLAYERS OF THE YEAR
• Tar Heels have won 219 ACC Player/Performer-of-the-Year awards (100 men/119 women). Field hockey leads with 25 awards. Women’s soccer is next with 18 and men’s basketball (16), men’s lacrosse (15), women’s swimming and diving (13), women’s indoor track and field (13), baseball (12), women’s tennis (12) and women’s lacrosse (11) have won 10 or more.
• ACC honorees in 2025-26 included Reese Brantmeier (women’s tennis), Peter Bruk (men’s fencing foil), Youssef Shamel (men’s fencing epee) and Brady Wambach (men’s lacrosse co-defensive player of the year).
• Brantmeier won for the second year in a row. She is the fourth Tar Heel women’s tennis player to win multiple ACC Player-of-the-Year awards, joining three-time winner Cinda Gurney and two-time winners Jamie Loeb and Hayley Carter.
• In 2022, field hockey’s Erin Matson became the first five-time Player of the Year in ACC history. She was the ACC Offensive Player of the Year in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.
• Women’s track sprinter/hurdler LaTasha Colander won four awards. She was the ACC Indoor Performer of the Year in 1995, 1997 and 1998 and the Outdoor Performer of the Year in 1997.
• Eight others have won ACC Player/Performer of the Year three times. Tennis player David Caldwell (1994, 1995 and 1996) and cross country/track and field’s Parker Wolfe are the only male athletes to win three times.
• Women’s soccer’s Mia Hamm (1990, 1991, 1992), tennis’s Cinda Gurney (1991, 1992, 1993), softball’s Danielle Spaulding (2008, 2009, 2010), soccer’s Crystal Dunn (defense in 2010 and 2012, offense in 2013), field hockey’s Caitlin Van Sickle (defense in 2010, 2011, 2012) and women’s diver Aranza Vázquez Montaño (2022, 2023 and 2024) also won three times.
• Larry Miller (1967, 1968) is the only men’s basketball player to win multiple times. Football tailbacks Don McCauley (1969, 1970) and Mike Voight (1975, 1976) won twice.
NATIONAL COACHES OF THE YEAR
• Twenty (20) UNC head coaches have won National Coach-of-the-Year awards, including current head coaches Joe Breschi (men’s lacrosse), Brian Kalbas (women’s tennis), Jenny Levy (women’s lacrosse), Sam Paul (men’s tennis) and Carlos Somoano (men’s soccer).
• Former field hockey head coach Karen Shelton was a nine-time recipient, including four of her last five seasons.
• Anson Dorrance won six times as the women’s soccer team’s head coach and won the men’s NCOY award in 1987, when he led the Tar Heels to the Final Four.
• Jenny Levy (four times), Dean Smith (four times, men’s basketball), Roy Williams (four times, men’s basketball), Sylvia Hatchell (three times, women’s basketball), Levy (three times) and Ron Miller (twice, fencing) also won NCOY honors in multiple seasons.
• Each of the last six men’s basketball coaches has won a National Coach of the Year award while at Carolina, including Frank McGuire, Smith, Bill Guthridge, Matt Doherty, Williams and Hubert Davis.
HEAD COACHES
• Seven current UNC head coaches have won national championships at Carolina – Joe Breschi (one in men’s lacrosse), Brian Kalbas (one NCAA title and seven ITA Indoor Championships in women’s tennis), Jenny Levy (four in women’s lacrosse), Erin Matson (one in field hockey), Damon Nahas (one in women’s soccer), Sam Paul (two ITA Indoor Championships in men’s tennis) and Carlos Somoano (one in men’s soccer).
• Anson Dorrance retired before the 2024 season after 45 years as the only head coach in UNC women’s soccer history. That was the second-longest head coaching tenure in Carolina history, trailing only Ron Miller, who coached fencing for 52 years.
• The 2026-27 season is Sam Paul’s 34th with men’s tennis and Jenny Levy’s 32nd with women’s lacrosse. Brian Kalbas (women’s tennis) is in his 24th season.
• Six of Carolina’s current head coaches competed as student-athletes for the Tar Heels and 10 were assistant coaches in Chapel Hill at some point in their careers before being named UNC’s head coach.
• Rob Koll (wrestling) Erin Matson (field hockey) and Erin Neppel (rowing) competed at UNC.
• Matt Jednak (men’s and women’s fencing), Joe Breschi (men’s lacrosse) and Megan Smith Lyon (softball) were both student-athletes and assistant coaches at UNC before becoming the head coach at Carolina.
• Andrew DiBitetto (men’s golf), Scott Forbes (baseball), Aimee Neff (women’s golf), Carlos Somoano (men’s soccer), Sam Paul (men’s tennis), Mike Schall (volleyball) and Damon Nahas (women’s soccer) were assistant coaches at Carolina.
• Several current and former head coaches are among the winningest in their respective sports’ histories:
- Anson Dorrance and Karen Shelton are the winningest coaches in women’s soccer and field hockey history, respectively. Dorrance won 934 games, while Shelton retired after winning the 2022 national championship with 745 wins in 42 seasons.
- Roy Williams and Dean Smith rank No. 3 and No. 5 all-time in men’s basketball wins by Division I coaches. Williams is the only coach in NCAA history to win 400 games at two schools; Smith set the all-time wins record, a record (since broken) that was established 25 years earlier by Adolph Rupp.
- Dennis Craddock coached the men's and women's cross country and track and field teams to 45 ACC team titles, the most in ACC history for any coach in any sport.
- Frank Comfort led the men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs for 30 seasons (1977-2007) and won 26 ACC championships.
- Mike Fox led the baseball team to seven College World Series appearances, including four in a row from 2006-09, and is seventh all-time in wins.
- Women’s basketball’s Sylvia Hatchell is No. 5 in wins and won the 1994 national championship.
- Brian Kalbas, the women’s tennis coach, led the Tar Heels to the 2023 NCAA championship. Kalbas is a three-time ITA National Coach of the Year (2010 and 2022 with UNC) and six-time ACC Coach of the Year, has the highest winning percentage in ACC history and is one of only four Division I women’s tennis coaches to compile 700 career victories. Kalbas enters the 2026-27 season with 824 wins. He is the winningest active coach in the country and No. 2 all-time.
- Bill Lam coached wrestling for 30 seasons (1973-2003). Lam leads the ACC in all-time wins (378) and ACC championships (15). He coached five NCAA champions.
- Jenny Levy enters 2027 second in women’s lacrosse history with 462 wins. Levy, the only head coach in the program’s history, has led the Tar Heels to four NCAA championships and eight ACC Tournament titles in 31 seasons.
- Matson (field hockey) and Nahas (women’s soccer) are among four individuals who won national championships in their first season as a head coach, joining Dave Klarmann (men’s lacrosse) in 1991 and Carlos Somoano (men’s soccer) in 2011. Hubert Davis (men’s basketball) also led his team to the national championship game in his first season as a head coach in 2022.
- At 23 years old, Matson became the youngest head coach in ACC history to win an NCAA title (unofficially the second-youngest in college athletics history).
- Nahas became the second rookie head coach in women’s soccer history to win an NCAA title.
- Joe Sagula retired following the 2022 volleyball season with 662 wins at UNC, 198 more than any other coach in ACC history.
- Men’s lacrosse’s Willie Scroggs piloted the Tar Heels to three NCAA championships in 1981, 1982 and 1986. He was UNC’s first coach to win multiple NCAA titles. The 1981 championship was Carolina’s first in any sport since the 1957 men’s basketball team’s undefeated season.
- Sam Paul is the winningest active men’s tennis coach in the ACC. Paul has led UNC to 602 victories, the second-most in ACC history.
- Don Skakle coached the men’s tennis team to a record 18 ACC championships from 1959-80.
OLYMPIANS
• Including the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, 115 current or former Tar Heel student-athletes competed in the Olympic Games or Paralympics (a total of 161 times). That includes 28 track and field athletes, 25 women's soccer players, 16 field hockey players, 15 swimmers/divers and 14 men's basketball players. It also includes student-athletes such as men’s basketball player Al Wood and swimmer Sue Walsh, who were selected to the U.S. team in 1980 but were denied the opportunity to compete due to a U.S. boycott of the Moscow Games.
• Additionally, several UNC coaches and coached in the Olympics, including Dean Smith, Roy Williams, Larry Brown and Bill Guthridge (men’s basketball) and Sylvia Hatchell (women’s basketball). Smith led the USA to gold in Montreal in 1976 as head coach.
• Tar Heels have represented 18 different countries in the Olympics, including the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Haiti, India, Israel, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Turkey and Zambia.
• Three Tar Heels – distance runner Shalane Flanagan (USA), women’s soccer’s Tobin Heath (USA) and track and field thrower Vikas Gowda (India) – competed in four Summer Olympics.
• Crystal Dunn (women’s soccer) played in her third Olympics in the 2024 Games.
• Carolina’s first Olympian was Harry Williamson (track and field) in 1936.
• Floyd “Chunk” Simmons won the first Olympic medal by a Tar Heel when he won the bronze in the decathlon at the 1948 and 1952 Summer Games.
• Heather O’Reilly won three Olympic gold medals in women’s soccer. In 2017, she joined swimmer Sue Walsh as the second Tar Heel student-athlete inducted into the CoSIDA Academic All-America Hall of Fame.
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA OLYMPIC MEDALISTS
Men’s Swimming
Thompson Mann: gold, 1964, 4x100 medley relay
Women’s Swimming
Wendy Weinberg: bronze, 1976, 800-meter freestyle
Mia Hamm: gold, 1996; silver, 2000; gold, 2004
Kristine Lilly: gold, 1996; silver, 2000; gold, 2004
Carla (Werden) Overbeck: gold, 1996; silver, 2000
Tisha Venturini: gold, 1996 Staci Wilson: gold, 1996
Cindy Parlow: gold, 1996; silver, 2000; gold, 2004
Tiffany Roberts: gold, 1996
Siri Mullinix: silver, 2000
Lorrie Fair: silver, 2000
Heather O’Reilly: gold, 2004; gold, 2008; gold, 2012
Cat Whitehill: gold, 2004
Lindsay Tarpley: gold, 2004; gold, 2008
Lori Chalupny: gold, 2008
Tobin Heath: gold, 2008; gold, 2012; bronze, 2020
Robyn Gayle: bronze, 2012
Crystal Dunn: bronze, 2020; gold, 2024
Emily Fox: gold, 2024
Men's Basketball
Larry Brown: 1964, gold
Charlie Scott: 1968, gold
Bobby Jones: 1972, silver
Phil Ford: 1976 gold
Mitch Kupchak: 1976, gold
Walter Davis: 1976, gold
Tommy LaGarde: 1976, gold
Michael Jordan: 1984, gold; 1992, gold
Sam Perkins: 1984, gold
J.R. Reid: 1988, bronze
Vince Carter: 2000, gold
Harrison Barnes: 2016, gold
Track and Field (Athletics)
Harry Williamson: 1936, bronze, 800 meters
Floyd "Chunk" Simmons: 1948, bronze, decathlon; 1952, bronze, decathlon
Allen Johnson: 1996, gold, 110-meter hurdles
LaTasha Colander-Richardson: 2000, gold, 4x400
Monique Hennagan: 2000, gold, 4x400; 2004, gold, 4x400
Shalane Flanagan: 2008, silver, 10,000 meters
Paratriathlon
Carson Clough: 2024 silver
ACADEMIC ALL-AMERICAS
• Heather O’Reilly (women’s soccer) and Sue Walsh (women’s swimming) are members of the Academic All-America Hall of Fame.
• Tar Heel student-athletes have earned 135 Academic All-America honors, including 62 first-team selections.
• In 2025-26, Reese Brantmeier (women’s tennis), Louis Dramm (men’s swimming and diving), Chloe Humphrey (women’s lacrosse), Colton Sands (men’s cross country/track and field) and Vera Sjöberg (women’s cross country/track and field) won first-team Academic All-America honors.
• Brantmeier and Sands became the eighth and ninth Tar Heels to earn multiple first-team Academic All-America honors, joining Gerraughty, Michael Bucy (men’s soccer), Hayley Carter (women’s tennis), Jonathan Campbell (men’s soccer), Kristi Eveland (women’s soccer), Christine Kubin (softball) and Tyler Zeller (men’s basketball) were two-time, first-team Academic All-Americas.
• Laura Gerraughty, a four-time NCAA track and field champion in throwing events, is UNC’s only three-time, first-team Academic All-America. The biology major won NCAA titles in 2003 (outdoor shot put), 2004 (indoor and outdoor shot put) and 2006 (outdoor shot put), was a 10-time All-America, won 13 Atlantic Coast Conference individual event championships and was a member of the 2004 United States Olympic Team.
• Men’s basketball (10), women’s soccer (9), men’s soccer (6) and women’s track and field (6) have produced the most first-team Academic All-Americas.
• Twenty-six (26) Tar Heels have earned first-team All-America honors both competitively and academically. The most recent to accomplish that were Reese Brantmeier (women’s tennis), Chloe Humphrey (women’s lacrosse), Colton Sands (men’s track and field) and Vera Sjöberg (women’s cross country) in 2026.
• Brantmeier joins Hayley Carter (women’s tennis), Eric Montross (men’s basketball) and Laura Gerraughty (women’s track and field) as just the third Tar Heel to earn first-team All-America honors competitively and academically in multiple seasons.
• Others to earn first-team All-America honors both competitively and academically include Vance Honeycutt (baseball), Billy Cunningham, Charlie Scott, Eric Montross and Tyler Zeller (men’s basketball), Vera Sjoberg (women’s cross country), Rachel Dawson (field hockey), Joey Seivold (men’s lacrosse), Katie Hoeg and Chloe Humphrey (women’s lacrosse), Jonathan Campbell (men’s soccer), Cindy Parlow, Heather O’Reilly, Yael Averbuch and Amber Brooks (women’s soccer), Christine Kubin (softball), Laura Gerraughty and Georgia Kloss (women’s track and field), Sue Walsh, Richelle Fox and Jessi Perruquet(women’s swimming) and Hayley Carter (women’s tennis).
• Five Tar Heels have earned Academic All-America of the Year in their respective sports – Yael Averbuch (women’s soccer) in 2008-09, Scott Goodwin (men’s soccer) in 2012-13, Heather O’Reilly (women’s soccer) in 2006-07, Tyler Zeller (men’s basketball) in 2011-12 and Reese Brantmeier (women’s tennis) in 2024-25 and 2025-26.
• Brantmeier became the first two-time Academic All-America of the Year.
RANKED NO. 1
• A dozen Carolina teams have earned No. 1 national rankings at some point in a season.
• Women’s soccer has been ranked No. 1 in 38 seasons, the most of any UNC program. Field hockey (32), men’s basketball (23), men’s lacrosse (13), women’s lacrosse (12), women’s tennis (10), men’s soccer (8), baseball (7), women’s basketball (2), men’s golf (2), men’s tennis (2) and football (1) have all been ranked No. 1 at some point in a season.
• Four teams were ranked No. 1 for at least one week in 2025-26. They included field hockey, men’s and women’s lacrosse and women’s soccer.
PROFESSIONAL DRAFT PICKS
• Beginning with Andy Bershak in the third round of the 1938 NFL Draft, more than 800 Tar Heels have been selected in professional drafts in their respective sports.
• Football (257), baseball (238) and men’s basketball (120) players have been selected the most times.
• Lennie Rosenbluth, who led the Tar Heels to the NCAA title, was the first Tar Heel selected in the first round of a professional draft. The Philadelphia Warriors chose Rosenbluth in the first round of the 1957 NBA Draft.
• Rosenbluth is one of 172 selections in the first round, supplemental first rounds or allocation drafts over eight different sports.
• In 2025-26, nine Tar Heels were chosen in the first round in their respective sports.
• Caleb Wilson was the fourth player chosen in the 2026 NBA Draft (Chicago). He was UNC’s 56th first-round pick, third-most all-time. Henri Veesaar was selected in the second round, the 120th player drafted as a Tar Heel, also the third-most in NBA history.
• James Worthy (1982, Los Angeles Lakers) and Brad Daugherty (1986, Cleveland) were the No. 1 overall picks in the NBA Draft. They are among the 20 Tar Heels selected in the top five, including Michael Jordan, who Chicago drafted at No. 3 in the 1984 Draft.
• The Los Angeles Chargers selected running back Omarion Hampton in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft. Hampton was the 26th UNC football player chosen in the first round of the NFL Draft. Linebacker Lawrence Taylor (1981), defensive end Julius Peppers (2002), two of the NFL’s all-time defensive stars, and quarterback Mitch Trubisky (2017) were each selected No. 2, the highest picks by a Tar Heel.
• In addition to 56 men’s basketball players and 26 football players, other first-round draft totals include women’s soccer (29), baseball (27), men’s soccer (24), women’s basketball (9), women’s lacrosse (8) and men’s lacrosse (5).
• Dave Lemonds (1968) and B.J. Surhoff (1985) were the first players selected in the Major League Baseball Draft, and Chris Carrieri was the first overall selection in the 2001 Major League Soccer Draft.
• Carolina women’s soccer has produced three overall No. 1 selections since 2010, in addition to 14 players who were chosen off the United States Women’s National Team in allocation drafts at the start of the WUSA in 2000 and the WPS in 2008. Tobin Heath was the overall No. 1 in the 2010 WPS Draft, Crystal Dunn was the top pick in the 2014 NWSL Draft and Emily Fox was the first selection in the 2021 NWSL Draft. In 2025, the NWSL abolished the women’s soccer draft. Instead, several players from Carolina’s 2024 national championship team signed with NWSL teams.
PROGRAM NOTES
• Carolina is the only program whose current men’s basketball and football head coaches have won NBA and NFL championships (Michael Malone with the Denver Nuggets in 2023 and Bill Belichik, a six-time Super Bowl champion with the New England Patriots).
• Carolina men's basketball has played in the NCAA Final Four more times (21) and won more NCAA Tournament games (134) than any other program in the nation. The Tar Heels are second in NCAA Tournament history in appearances (55), games (186) and winning percentage (.720) and third in NCAA championships (6).
• Carolina men's basketball has produced 13 National Players of the Year, including Phil Ford, Michael Jordan, James Worthy, Antawn Jamison, Sean May and Tyler Hansbrough. Fourteen former Tar Heel players and coaches have been elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, including Vince Carter and Walter Davis, members of the Class of 2024. UNC has more players in the Hall of Fame than any other college program, and Dean Smith coached more players who were inducted in the Naismith Hall of Fame than any other head coach.
• ESPN selected Michael Jordan as the Greatest Athlete of the 20th Century. Jordan edged out Babe Ruth and Muhammad Ali for the honor. Jordan hit the game-winning shot for the Tar Heels vs. Georgetown in the 1982 NCAA championship game and was National Player of the Year in 1983 and 1984. He went on to win six NBA championships, six NBA Finals MVPs and five regular-season MVP awards with the Chicago Bulls and has the highest scoring average in NBA history.
• Dean Smith retired in 1997 as the winningest basketball coach in Division I history (879 wins). Smith led Carolina to two NCAA championships, 11 Final Fours, 13 ACC Tournament titles, 30 20-win seasons, 17 ACC first-place finishes and 23 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and graduated more than 95 percent of his lettermen. He also led the United States to an Olympic gold medal in 1976.
• Roy Williams, also a member of the Naismith Hall of Fame, led his alma mater to three national championships, nine ACC regular-season titles and three ACC Tournament titles. He retired with 903 wins, the third-most Division I wins by a coach in NCAA history behind only Mike Krzyzewski and Jim Boeheim. He reached 900 wins in fewer seasons and in the second-fewest games in NCAA history. He compiled the sixth-best winning percentage in the history of college basketball and was the Coach of the Decade for the 2000s.
• Carolina won its first NCAA men’s basketball championship in 1957 with a perfect 32-0 record. Led by National Player of the Year Lennie Rosenbluth, the Tar Heels share the NCAA record with the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers for most wins in a season without a defeat. Rosenbluth was elected to the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2024, the 14th Tar Heel enshrined in Kansas City.
• Charlie "Choo Choo" Justice is one of UNC’s most famous football players, leading Carolina to post-World War II appearances in the Sugar and Cotton Bowls. He won the Maxwell Award as the nation's best player in 1948 and was the Heisman Trophy runner-up in 1948 and 1949. The 22-yard lines at Kenan Stadium are painted Carolina Blue to honor Justice, who wore No. 22 at UNC.
• Lawrence Taylor, the 1980 ACC Player of the Year, revolutionized the way linebacker is played in the NFL. The New York Giant was an eight-time first-team All-Pro, three-time Defensive Player of the Year, two-time Super Bowl champion and 1986 NFL Most Valuable Player. Taylor is widely recognized as one of the greatest defensive players in NFL history.
• Defensive end Julius Peppers won the Lombardi Award as best lineman and the Bednarik Award as the best defensive player in 2001 as a Tar Heel and played a key role at power forward in Carolina men’s basketball’s run to the Final Four in 2000. He joined the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2024, was a nine-time Pro Bowler, three-time first-team All-Pro, member of the NFL’s All-Decade teams of the 2000s and 2010s and finished his NFL career fourth in quarterback sacks. Peppers also played two seasons (1999-2001) on the men’s basketball team and played a key role in the 2000 team winning the NCAA South Regional and advancing to the Final Four.
• Six Tar Heel players and three UNC coaches are inducted in the National Football Foundation’s College Hall of Fame. Harris Barton, who went on to a Super Bowl-winning career with the San Francisco 49ers, was the most recent inductee in 2021.
• Carolina football has played in 40 bowl games, won five ACC titles (1963, 1971, 1972, 1977 and 1980) and finished in the Associated Press Top 10 seven times. The Tar Heels played in the Orange Bowl for the first time following the 2021 season, its first major bowl appearance since 1950.
• The New England Patriots selected quarterback Drake Maye with the third pick in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft. Maye threw 78 touchdowns and had the two highest single-season total offense totals in UNC history in 2022 and 2023. His father, Mark, was a record-setting Tar Heel quarterback in the mid-1980s and his brother, Luke, hit the game-winning shot to beat Kentucky in the 2017 NCAA South Regional. Last year, in his second NFL season, Maye earned second-team All-Pro honors after leading the Patriots to an AFC championship and Super Bowl appearance against the Seattle Seahawks.
• Maye is one of six Tar Heels chosen in the top three picks in an NFL Draft with RB Ken Willard (No. 2 in 1965), OG Ken Huff (No. 3 in 1975), OLB Lawrence Taylor (No. 2 in 1981), Julius Peppers (No. 2 in 2002) and QB Mitch Trubisky (No. 2 in 2017).
• Carolina field hockey has played in 29 Final Fours, including 16 of the last 17 seasons. The Tar Heels are first all-time in NCAA Tournament Final Fours (29), championship game appearances (22), tournament appearances (42), wins (85) and games (116).
• Erin Matson led Carolina to four NCAA titles in five seasons as a player, a national championship in her first season as head coach and three Final Fours and ACC championships in as many years as head coach.
• Carolina became the first ACC school to play in the College World Series in four consecutive years (2006-07-08-09). The Tar Heels have made 13 CWS appearances, including 2024 and 2026 under head coach Scott Forbes.
• Prominent baseball alumni include the 1984 No. 1 overall draft pick B.J. Surhoff, 1988 American League Rookie of the Year Walt Weiss, two-time all-star, Brian Roberts, Seattle Mariner All-Star Kyle Seager, and 2016 A.L. Championship Series MVP Andrew Miller.
• Miller, who earned a save in the 2017 MLB All-Star Game, is one of five Tar Heel baseball players to win National Player or Pitcher-of-the-Year honors – Dave Lemonds in 1968, Surhoff in 1985, Miller in 2006, Dustin Ackley in 2009 and Jake Knapp in 2025. Ackley set the all-time College World Series record for most base hits.
• Carolina is one of two colleges whose alumni have been starting pitchers multiple times in the Major League Baseball All-Star games in the 2000s. Matt Harvey of the New York Mets started the 2013 All-Star game and Zac Gallen of the Arizona Diamondbacks started in 2023.
• Relief ace Caden Glauber went 12-0 (UNC was 29-1 in his 30 appearances) in 2026 to earn National and ACC Freshman-of-the-Year honors.
• Carolina players and coaches have won Sports Illustrated's Sportsman-of-the-Year award three times, including Michael Jordan in 1991, Dean Smith in 1997 and the United States Women's Soccer Team in 1999. The U.S. team featured eight Tar Heels among the 20 players (Lorrie Fair, Mia Hamm, Kristine Lilly, Tracy Noonan, Carla Overbeck, Cindy Parlow, Tiffany Roberts and Tisha Venturini).
• Carolina’s 22 NCAA titles in women’s soccer are the most by a team in women’s soccer history. The Tar Heels are also first in Final Fours (32), championship game appearances (28), tournament appearances (44), wins (155) and games (179).
• Carolina has won 22 of the 44 NCAA championships in women’s soccer history and played in the Final Four 32 times. UNC also won the AIAW national championship in 1981, the final season before the NCAA began oversight of women’s athletics. • Fourteen (14) women’s soccer players have combined to win 21 gold medals in the Olympics (1996, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2024). The United States has also won four World Cups (1991, 1999, 2015, 2019) with 28 Tar Heels on those rosters.
• Mia Hamm set the NCAA women’s soccer scoring record with 278 points, was the National Player of the Year in 1992 and 1993, led UNC to four national championships and became an international sports icon. Hamm was selected ESPN’s No. 1 Athlete of the Title IX era, the Greatest Female Athlete of the First 50 Years of the ACC and one of the three top female soccer players in the 20th century by FIFA. Hamm was FIFA’s Women’s World Player of the Year in 2001 and 2002, U.S. Soccer’s Female Athlete of the Year from 1994-98 and held the all-time FIFA goals record for men and women from 2004-13. She finished her international career as the world’s all-time leading scorer in women’s soccer history.
• Hamm remains the USWNT’s all-time leader in points (305) and assists (147) and is second in goals with 158.
• Cindy Parlow Cone, who won three National Player-of-the-Year awards at Carolina, is president of the United States Soccer Federation.
• Carolina women’s soccer twice compiled unbeaten streaks of 100 or more games. The Tar Heels went 103 games without a loss from 1986 to 1990. Following a loss, Carolina then embarked on a 101-game unbeaten streak that stretched from 1990 to 1994. The 101-game unbeaten streak included a 92-game winning streak. The 1990 streak was snapped by Connecticut, which Carolina beat 6-0 later that season in the NCAA final. The 92-game win streak was ended by Duke, which UNC went on to defeat in the ACC and NCAA Tournaments, and the 101-game unbeaten streak was snapped by Notre Dame, which the Tar Heels beat in the 1994 national championship game.
• Men's track hurdler Allen Johnson won a gold medal at the 1996 Olympics, one year after he set the world record in the 110-meter hurdles. Johnson competed at UNC in the early 1990s and later returned to UNC to earn his degree in 2012.
• Monique Hennagan won gold on the U.S. 4x400 relay in 1996 and 2004. She was joined on the 1996 gold medal relay by her former UNC teammate, LaTasha Colander.
• Track distance star Jim Beatty became the first person to break the 4-minute mark in the indoor mile. Beatty set the mark and established a world record in 1962. That same year, Beatty won the James E. Sullivan Award and was ABC’s Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Year. He was inducted into the USA Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1990.
• Track’s Tony Waldrop set a world record in the indoor mile while competing for UNC in the early 1970s and ran off a string of 11 consecutive sub-four-minute miles. Waldrop later served for a decade as UNC’s vice chancellor for research.
• Track's Reggie McAfee became the first African-American to break the 4-minute mile when he ran 3:59.3 at the Big Four Meet in Raleigh in 1973.
• In 2024, Parker Wolfe, an NCAA champion in the outdoor 5,000 meters, became the first athlete to sweep ACC Male Athlete-of-the-Year honors for cross country, indoor track and outdoor track in the same academic year.
• In 2025, Ethan Strand became the first NCAA track athlete to break the collegiate records in the indoor mile and 3,000 meters in the same season. Strand was the NCAA champion in the indoor 3,000m, the National Indoor Track Athlete of the Year, finished second in the NCAA outdoor 1,500 and finished second in the U.S. Championships in the 1,500. He and Madison Wiltrout (women’s javelin) qualified for the 2025 World Championships.
• Swimmer Thompson Mann won a gold medal at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo on the 4x100 medley relay. He was the first person to ever swim the 100-meters backstroke in under one minute.
• Men's golfer Davis Love III won the 1997 PGA Championship, 19 other PGA events, played on six Ryder Cup teams and captained the 2012 and 2016 U.S. Ryder Cup teams and 2022 Presidents Cup team.
• David Ford, Austin Greaser and Dylan Menante were members of the United States Walker Cup team that defeated Great Britain and Ireland in 2023 at the Old Course in St. Andrews, Scotland. Ford provided the clinching point with a singles match win.
• David Ford became the first Tar Heel and second ACC player to win PGA TOUR University, a two-year accumulation of points from tournament finishes that earned him his PGA TOUR card for the 2025 and 2026 seasons.
• Ben Griffin was one of three players (with Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy) to win three PGA TOUR events in 2025 and represented the United States in the 2025 Ryder Cup. Ryan Gerard also won on the PGA TOUR in 2025 and has multiple top-10 finishes in majors, including the 2026 Open Championship.
• Carolina men's soccer has played in the College Cup nine times, winning NCAA championships in 2001 under Elmar Bolowich and again in 2011 under current head coach Carlos Somoano. UNC has the seventh-most men’s soccer College Cup appearances. Only Indiana, Saint Louis, Maryland, UCLA, Virginia and Clemson have played in more Final Fours.
• Men's soccer defensive standouts Gregg Berhalter and Eddie Pope played for the United States in the 2002 and 2006 World Cups. Pope played 11 years for Team USA and is a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame. Berhalter was the head coach of the United States Men’s National Team, leading the U.S. to a Gold Cup championship in 2021 and a berth in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
• Sebastian Berhalter played for UNC for one season (2019). He played for the USMNT in the 2026 World Cup.
• In 2025, Two Tar Heels softball alumni – Kat Rodriguez and Kristen Brown – were named to the Sports Illustrated All-Quarter-Century Team.
• UNC student-athletes have won the ACC Female Athlete of the Year Award (the Mary Garber Award) more times than any other school. Nine Tar Heels have won the award 10 times. Former ACC member Maryland is second with seven and Duke is third with five. Field hockey standouts Erin Matson and Ashley Hoffman won the Garber Award in 20129 and 2020, joining women’s soccer players Shannon Higgins, Mia Hamm (two-time winner), Tisha Venturini, Cindy Parlow, Casey Nogueira, Whitney Engen and Crystal Dunn as Tar Heel winners of the award.
• Vic Seixas was a standout tennis player at Carolina in the late 1940s. He went on to win singles titles in the U.S. Open and Wimbledon. He set the record for the most Davis Cup matches by a U.S. player. He held that mark until Jimmy Connors broke it in the 1980s.
• Rinky Hijikata, who competed for the UNC men’s tennis team from 2019-21, played in the 2025 Wimbledon doubles finals. He won a major doubles championship in the 2023 Australian Open and represented Australia in the 2024 Summer Olympics.
• Women’s tennis has made seven NCAA Final Four appearances (all since 2010), including five of the last seven seasons. The program has also won seven ITA Indoor National Team Championships, all since 2013, 13 ACC championships (seven of the last 10).
