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50 free UNC trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
UNC is the oldest public university to hand out a degree, the home of the Old Well and Franklin Street, and the program that gave the world Michael Jordan and Dean Smith. This quiz covers the campus, the history and the sports: six basketball titles, 22 women's soccer championships, the live ram called Rameses, the rivalry with Duke, and the buildings and traditions every Tar Heel knows. It suits a game-day tailgate, an alumni night, or a college-sports pub quiz. The opening questions are easy for anyone who has been to Chapel Hill; the later ones dig into the 1957 triple-overtime final, the first Black students on campus, and the Speaker Ban fights of the 1960s. Every answer was checked against the Wikipedia articles on the university and its basketball program, and each question links to the sentence that supports it.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which town is the University of North Carolina's flagship campus?
Chapel Hill
It is one corner of the Research Triangle, with NC State in Raleigh and Duke in Durham.
Q 02In what year was the university chartered?
1789
It began enrolling students in 1795 and is one of three schools claiming to be the oldest public university in the US.
Q 03What are UNC's athletic teams called?
Tar Heels
The name refers to North Carolina's 18th-century prominence as a producer of tar and pitch.
Q 04What kind of animal is Rameses, the live mascot?
A Dorset ram
The tradition began in 1924, inspired by football player Jack 'The Battering Ram' Merritt.
Q 05Why does the costumed Rameses mascot wear a sailor's hat?
A WWII Navy flight program was based at UNC
UNC was one of 131 schools in the wartime V-12 Navy College Training Program.
Q 06Which two colours are UNC's school colours?
Light blue and white
The football team adopted them from the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies in the 1880s.
Q 07Which small neoclassical rotunda is the symbol of the university?
The Old Well
It is modelled on the Temple of Love at Versailles and stands where the original well supplied the school's water.
Q 08Which is the oldest building on campus, built from 1793 to 1795?
Old East
Its cornerstone was laid on October 12, 1793.
Q 09Which US president, a UNC alumnus, is the campus's second quad named after?
James K. Polk
The quad was built in the 1920s south of the original campus.
Q 10Which street, lined with shops and bars, do fans rush after big Tar Heel wins?
Franklin
The first known rush came after the 1957 title; fans painted the street blue after the 1982 championship.
Q 11The planetarium on the UNC campus is named after which benefactor?
Morehead
John Motley Morehead III also funded the bell tower and the Morehead-Cain Scholarship.
Q 12UNC is a charter member of which league, founded on June 14, 1953?
Atlantic Coast Conference
The Tar Heels compete in 28 sports and have 51 NCAA team titles, eighth all-time.
Q 13Which two universities form the other corners of the Research Triangle with UNC?
NC State and Duke
Since 2001 the Robertson Scholars program has given students full privileges at both UNC and Duke.
Q 21Which ex-star with four national titles as a player became UNC field hockey coach in 2023?
Erin Matson
She was the first athlete to win the ACC's player of the year award five times.
Q 22How many NCAA men's basketball championships had UNC won by the end of the 2024-25 season?
Six
1957, 1982, 1993, 2005, 2009 and 2017, plus a retroactive 1924 Helms title.
Q 23Which coach led the Tar Heels to their perfect 32-0 season and first NCAA title in 1957?
Frank McGuire
The final against Kansas went to triple overtime, the only such final in championship history.
Q 14Which merit scholarship at UNC has produced 29 Rhodes Scholars?
Morehead-Cain
It has been offered for decades and its benefactor also paid for the campus bell tower.
Q 15What is the title of UNC's alma mater?
Hark the Sound
'I'm a Tar Heel Born' began in the late 1920s as a tag on the end of it.
Q 16What is the name of UNC's student newspaper?
The Daily Tar Heel
It once christened a low campus wall 'Dan Moore's Wall' after a governor during the 1960s speaker-ban fight.
Q 17Which Confederate monument was toppled by protesters on campus in August 2018?
Silent Sam
It had stood since 1913, erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
Q 18Which sport had brought UNC the most NCAA team titles, 22 of them, by the end of 2024?
Women's soccer
Field hockey had eleven and men's basketball six at that point.
Q 19Which coach led the Tar Heels' most decorated program from 1979 to 2024, winning 22 national titles?
Anson Dorrance
He also collected 38 ACC championships and more than 1,000 wins.
Q 20Which soccer legend was twice named national athlete of the year while at UNC?
Mia Hamm
She went on to two World Cups and two Olympic golds with the US.
Q 24Whom did UNC beat 54-53 in triple overtime for the 1957 title?
Kansas
Carolina had also needed three overtimes to beat Michigan State the night before.
Q 25Which UNC coach won 879 games over 36 years and two national titles?
Dean Smith
His total was the Division I record when he retired in October 1997.
Q 26Who hit the game-winning shot with 17 seconds left to beat Georgetown for the 1982 title?
Michael Jordan
He was a freshman; James Worthy, with 28 points, was Final Four Most Outstanding Player.
Q 27Whom did UNC beat for the 1993 national championship?
Michigan
Donald Williams scored 25 as Final Four MOP in Dean Smith's second title.
Q 28Which coach came home from the Jayhawks in 2003 and won three national titles at UNC?
Roy Williams
He had been Dean Smith's assistant from 1978 to 1988; the titles came in 2005, 2009 and 2017.
Q 29Whom did the Tar Heels beat 75-70 for the 2005 national title?
Illinois
It was Roy Williams's first title as a head coach; he then lost his top seven scorers.
Q 30Which player broke Phil Ford's UNC career scoring record in December 2008?
Tyler Hansbrough
The team went on to win the 2009 title over Michigan State.