Chronology

Students found the Order of Gimghoul after hearing the Dromgoole story

Five undergraduates founded a secret society after hearing university president Kemp Battle tell the Dromgoole story. They first called it the Order of Dromgoole and later shortened the name to Gimghoul.

People: Kemp Plummer Battle

Subject: Gimghoul Castle and neighborhood

Rameses, the live ram mascot, makes his debut for Carolina

Head cheerleader Vic Huggins won athletic department approval and $25 to buy a ram as a mascot. Rameses first appeared at the football game against the Virginia Military Institute, which Carolina won 3-0.

Contractor Charlie Lee Martindale opens an airfield north of Chapel Hill

Martindale bought a 50-acre plot from philosophy professor Horace Williams and laid out an airfield he called Martindale Field. By 1931 it was known as the Chapel Hill airport.

People: Henry Horace Williams

Subject: Horace Williams Airport

Susan Grey Akers becomes UNC's first woman full professor

When Louis Round Wilson left the new School of Library Science, Akers was made its acting director and promoted to full professor, the first woman at UNC-Chapel Hill to hold that rank.

People: Louis Round Wilson

Akers is named dean of the School of Library Science, UNC's first woman dean

Akers, director of the school since 1935, was named dean, the first woman dean at UNC-Chapel Hill. She held the post until 1954.

Andy Griffith plays his first role, in The Gondoliers at Memorial Hall

Andy Griffith, who had arrived at Carolina in July 1944, auditioned on a whim and made his stage debut in a Carolina Playmakers production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Gondoliers at Memorial Hall.

Subject: Memorial Hall · Carolina Playmakers

UNC begins marking Hinton James Day each February 12

The university started Hinton James Day in 1945, during the sesquicentennial of its first student's arrival. It falls on February 12 and now also honors other Carolina firsts, including Sallie Walker Stockard and Henry Owl.

People: Henry Owl · Sallie Walker Stockard

Aycock suspends a basketball player in the betting scandal and makes Dean Smith head coach

After the player Doug Moe accepted $75 from a gambler in 1961, Chancellor Aycock suspended him and said the integrity of the institution was involved. Aycock then raised assistant coach Dean Smith to head coach.

People: Dean Smith

Julius Chambers graduates first in his class from the UNC School of Law

Chambers graduated first in his class from the University's School of Law in Chapel Hill in 1962. He went on to practice civil rights law in Charlotte.

Subject: UNC School of Law

UNC founds its computer science department under Frederick Brooks

Brooks, 33, founded what became the Department of Computer Science, the second free-standing doctorate-granting department of its kind in the United States; it was first called Information Science and took the name computer science in 1971.

William F. Little chairs the chemistry department

Little, who had come to Carolina as a chemistry instructor in 1956, became department chair in 1965 at 35. He hired young scholars and nearly doubled the faculty to 30.

Roberta Jackson joins UNC's School of Education as its first Black tenure-track faculty member

Roberta Jackson joined the UNC School of Education in 1970, a year after her husband Blyden Jackson joined the English department, as the school's first Black tenure-track faculty member. She earned tenure in 1974 and became the first tenured Black woman in the university's Division of Academic Affairs.

People: Blyden Jackson

Kenan Laboratories open for the chemistry department

The chemistry department's Kenan Labs opened in 1971, a building project Little led as chair to give the growing faculty laboratory space.

Woody Durham calls Carolina football and basketball on the radio

Durham, a 1963 UNC graduate, was the radio play-by-play voice of Tar Heel football and men's basketball for 40 years, calling more than 1,800 broadcasts.

Andy Griffith sets up a scholarship for Carolina drama and music students

Griffith established a scholarship fund in his name for promising dramatic art and music students at Carolina, which the university says continues today.

North Carolina funds UNC's TEACCH autism program as a statewide system of regional centers

State funding in 1972 created a regional-center system for TEACCH, the autism program Eric Schopler had developed at UNC-Chapel Hill, providing clinical services, training and research across North Carolina.

Anson Dorrance coaches the UNC men's soccer team

Dorrance, a 1974 UNC graduate, coached the Tar Heel men from 1977 through the 1988 season and won 172 games with them.

Andy Griffith speaks at University Day in Memorial Hall

Griffith gave the University Day speech in Memorial Hall and recalled fighting back tears as he approached the building where he had first performed.

Subject: Memorial Hall

UNC starts a varsity women's soccer team with Anson Dorrance as its coach

UNC named Dorrance head coach of its new women's soccer program in 1979, and he coached the men's and women's teams at the same time for the next decade.

Northside's Black population falls by about 40 percent

Between 1980 and 2010 Northside's Black population fell by roughly 40 percent as investors bought homes and converted or replaced them as student rentals; over the same period the share of university workers living 10 or more miles away rose above 60 percent.

Part of Historic Black neighborhoods of Chapel Hill and Carrboro · 78 events

Aziz Sancar joins the UNC faculty

Sancar joined Carolina's faculty in 1982; he became the Sarah Graham Kenan Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics in the School of Medicine, where his lab mapped how cells repair damaged DNA.

Subject: UNC School of Medicine

William E. Leuchtenburg joins the UNC history faculty

Leuchtenburg came to UNC-Chapel Hill in 1982 and taught for two decades, retiring in 2002 as William Rand Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor.

Charles Kuralt gives the UNC spring commencement address

Kuralt, who had edited the Daily Tar Heel as a student, returned to Chapel Hill to deliver the University's spring commencement address in 1985. He told the graduates that the influence of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill moves outward to the farthest corners of the state.

UNC men's soccer wins the ACC title and reaches the NCAA Final Four

Under Dorrance the Tar Heel men won the Atlantic Coast Conference title in 1987 and reached the NCAA Final Four.

Oliver Smithies and Nobuyo Maeda join the UNC faculty

Smithies and Nobuyo Maeda came to UNC's School of Medicine in 1988; Smithies later described himself as the trailing spouse, UNC having recruited Maeda.

People: Aziz Sancar

Subject: UNC School of Medicine

UNC's basketball team takes the court in Alexander Julian's argyle uniforms

At Dean Smith's request, the Chapel Hill native Alexander Julian redesigned the Tar Heel men's basketball uniforms, adding an argyle side panel that debuted in the 1991-92 season and became a symbol of the university.

People: Dean Smith

Smithies lab develops the first cystic fibrosis animal model

Smithies's laboratory at UNC used his gene-targeting method to produce the first animal model of cystic fibrosis.

Willie Scroggs is UNC's point person for the 1999 Special Olympics World Summer Games

As an athletics administrator Scroggs was the university's point person for the Special Olympics World Summer Games, part of which were held in Chapel Hill.

Andy Griffith gives his career memorabilia to Wilson Library

Griffith donated his collection of career memorabilia, including a guitar, to the Southern Historical Collection at Wilson Library, the same year he was among the first three recipients of the Carolina Performing Arts Lifetime Achievement Award.

Subject: UNC Libraries

The Sancars start Carolina Turk Evi

Aziz and Gwen Sancar set up the nonprofit Carolina Turk Evi to host Turkish students and scholars at UNC and promote understanding between Turks and Americans.

Three alumni recreate the walk attributed to Hinton James and finish at the Old Well

Nick Becketti, Bryan Jones and Whitney Reeds set out from the coast near Wilmington in the summer of 2008 to repeat the roughly 170-mile walk attributed to Hinton James. The university says the two-week trip ended at the Old Well in Chapel Hill.

Subject: The Old Well

Carol Folt is installed as chancellor at Chapel Hill

Folt was installed as the eleventh chancellor of the university on University Day in Polk Place, the first woman to hold the post. Chief Justice Sarah Parker administered the oath, and system president Tom Ross presided and presented the chancellor's medallion.

Willie Scroggs retires as a senior associate athletic director at UNC

Scroggs retired at the end of June 2014 after decades overseeing athletics facilities at Carolina, including work at Carmichael Arena, Boshamer Stadium, Kenan Stadium, Woollen Gym and the Eddie Smith Field House.

About 2,000 people hold a vigil in UNC's Pit for Deah Barakat, Yusor Abu-Salha and Razan Abu-Salha

The day after the three were killed, an estimated 2,000 people gathered at the Pit on the UNC campus. Speakers included Imam Abdullah Antepli of Duke, Deah's brother Farris Barakat, Chancellors Carol L. Folt and Randy Woodson, and Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt.

People: Razan Abu-Salha · Carol L. Folt · Mark Kleinschmidt · Yusor Abu-Salha · Deah Barakat

UNC, Self-Help, the Jackson Center and the town launch the Northside neighborhood initiative

UNC-Chapel Hill committed a $3 million, 10-year, no-interest loan to Self-Help to buy Northside homes as they came on the market and hold them in a land bank for affordable resale or rental. The Jackson Center and the Town of Chapel Hill were partners.

People: Mark Kleinschmidt · Carol L. Folt

Subject: Marian Cheek Jackson Center

UNC dental students hold the first DEAH DAY of service

More than 350 students of the UNC School of Dentistry gave nearly 1,200 hours to 22 local organizations, from Habitat for Humanity in Efland to Table in Carrboro, in memory of Deah Barakat and Yusor Abu-Salha. DEAH DAY stands for Directing Efforts And Honoring Deah And Yusor, and the school was still holding it in 2024.

People: Yusor Abu-Salha · Deah Barakat

UNC names scholarships for its first Black undergraduates and other "firsts"

At University Day, UNC named existing grants and fellowships for 21 people who were firsts in its history, among them John L. Brandon, Ralph K. Frasier and LeRoy B. Frasier Jr., its first Black undergraduates.

People: John Lewis Brandon · Ralph Frasier · Carol L. Folt

Mildred Council receives EmPOWERment's first POWER award

At a gala at the Friday Center, basketball coach Roy Williams presented Mildred "Mama Dip" Council with the inaugural POWER award from EmPOWERment Inc., a group promoting affordable housing and economic development in Chapel Hill's neediest neighborhoods. The honor came in the month of her restaurant's 40th anniversary.

People: Roy Williams

Michael Jordan expands the Jordan Brand partnership with UNC athletics

Jordan announced an expansion of his Jordan Brand partnership with North Carolina Tar Heels athletics in March 2017, saying that it is always great to come home.

The Smith Center floor is dedicated as Roy Williams Court

UNC announced on August 2, 2018 that it would name the Dean E. Smith Center playing floor for Williams, and the floor was dedicated on August 24.

People: Carol L. Folt

Ground is broken for the Sancar Turkish Cultural and Community Center

Aziz and Gwen Sancar broke ground at 1609 East Franklin Street on a 1.7-acre center with a 9,700-square-foot community hall and a two-story guesthouse for Turkish students and scholars.

UNC names its new field hockey stadium for Karen Shelton

The university announced that its field hockey facility would be called Karen Shelton Stadium, the first UNC playing field named in honor of a woman. The team had moved in at the start of preseason that August, and the stadium holds about 1,000 spectators.

People: Carol L. Folt

UNC trustees vote to house the monument in a new $5.3 million University History and Education Center

At a special meeting the Board of Trustees approved a four-part plan for the Board of Governors: relocate the statue and tablets into a new free-standing building at the former Odum Village site on south campus, add a McCorkle Place gateway with plaques, and continue contextualizing campus history. The center was priced at $5.3 million with $800,000 a year to operate; Folt said police advised that the statue could not safely return to McCorkle Place.

Part of Silent Sam · 20 events

People: Carol L. Folt

Subject: Silent Sam (UNC Confederate monument) · McCorkle Place (with the Davie Poplar)

UNC dedicates Dorrance Field at its new soccer and lacrosse stadium

The university dedicated the field at its new soccer and lacrosse stadium to Dorrance before the women's game against Notre Dame, in his 43rd year of coaching at Carolina.

Tressie McMillan Cottom joins the faculty of UNC’s School of Information and Library Science

Sociologist and author Tressie McMillan Cottom joined the UNC School of Information and Library Science as an associate professor and became a senior faculty researcher in the Center for Information, Technology and Public Life.

Exhibit honoring housekeeping and facilities staff opens in the renovated Cheek-Clark Building

A lobby exhibit in the renovated Kennon Cheek and Rebecca Clark Building presents the lives of Cheek, Clark and groundskeeper William Hubbard with a timeline of the university's housekeeping and facilities work.

People: Rebecca Clark · Kennon Cheek

UNC trustees vote to remove Josephus Daniels’s name from the student stores building

On July 29, 2020 the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees voted 11 to 2 to remove four names from campus buildings, among them Josephus Daniels. The Daniels Building became UNC Student Stores, and the names of Charles Brantley Aycock, Julian Shakespeare Carr and Thomas Ruffin Sr. were removed at the same meeting.

People: Thomas Ruffin · Julian S. Carr · Charles B. Aycock

Tressie McMillan Cottom wins a MacArthur Fellowship

The MacArthur Foundation named McMillan Cottom a 2020 fellow for her work as a sociologist, writer and public scholar on race, gender, education and digital technology, including her books Lower Ed and Thick. She was an associate professor at UNC’s School of Information and Library Science.

Jenny Levy is elected to the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame

UNC announced that Levy had been chosen for the 2021 class of the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame in her 26th season at Carolina, with a record of 373 wins and 117 losses and two NCAA titles at that point.

UNC announces a permanent memorial to James Cates in the Pit

Chancellor Kevin M. Guskiewicz announced that a permanent memorial to Cates would be installed in the Pit later in 2022, developed with students, faculty, staff and the Cates family, approved by the Board of Trustees and supported by the Town of Chapel Hill.

People: Kevin M. Guskiewicz · James L. Cates Jr.

UNC dedicates the James L. Cates Jr. Memorial in the Pit

On the 52nd anniversary of his death, UNC dedicated a black lectern-style marker near the spot where Cates was stabbed, with an inscription from the University and the Town of Chapel Hill. Speakers included Chancellor Kevin M. Guskiewicz, Congresswoman-elect Valerie Foushee for the family, student body president Taliajah Vann and BSM president Julia Clark.

People: Valerie Foushee · Kevin M. Guskiewicz · James L. Cates Jr.

Karen Shelton announces her retirement as UNC field hockey coach

Shelton retired after 42 seasons with a record of 745 wins, 172 losses and 9 ties and 10 NCAA championships, the last won by an unbeaten 2022 team. She is the winningest coach in the sport's history.

People: Bubba Cunningham

Daniel Wallace gives UNC's Winter Commencement address

Novelist and English professor Daniel Wallace was the speaker at UNC's Winter Commencement in the Dean E. Smith Center.

Erin Matson succeeds Karen Shelton as UNC field hockey coach

UNC named Matson, who had graduated a month earlier after playing on four championship teams, the fifth head coach in program history and only the second since the early 1980s.

People: Bubba Cunningham · Erin Matson

UNC awards Alexander Julian an honorary Doctor of Arts

At Spring Commencement, UNC-Chapel Hill gave Alexander Julian, a Chapel Hill native who entered with the Class of 1969 and designed the argyle basketball uniforms, an honorary Doctor of Arts, one of six honorary degrees that year.

Guskiewicz leaves the Chapel Hill chancellorship

He announced on December 8, 2023 that he would step down after nearly five years leading the campus, and January 12, 2024 was his last day. He became president of Michigan State University on March 4, 2024.

Mia Hamm gives UNC's spring Commencement address in Kenan Stadium

Former Tar Heel soccer player Mia Hamm, class of 1994, delivered the 2025 Commencement address to 6,829 graduates in Kenan Stadium.

Subject: Kenan Stadium

UNC extends Bubba Cunningham's contract and names his successor as athletics director

The university gave Cunningham a two-year extension through July 2029 and announced he would leave the athletics director's post in the summer of 2026 to become senior adviser to the chancellor and athletics director. Racing executive Steve Newmark was hired as executive associate athletic director to succeed him.

UNC announces a campus extension at Carolina North

The university announced plans for a mixed-use extension on about 230 acres around the former Horace Williams Airport, with student and workforce housing, research space and retail, calling it the largest expansion since 1793; groundbreaking is expected in summer 2027.

Subject: Horace Williams Airport

UNC says a new residence hall will be named Jackson Hall for Blyden and Roberta Jackson

UNC-Chapel Hill announced that one of two new residence halls, to be built on the site of the former Jackson Hall that housed undergraduate admissions, will be named Jackson Hall for Blyden and Roberta Jackson. The two halls will add about 730 beds.

People: Blyden Jackson