Stephen Harris

Back in the Hometown

A news reports in from an alternate Earth in the DC Comics Multiverse:

A large gathering of multicultural protesters from Minneapolis, San Francisco and New York City converged today on the north quad of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, surrounded the Silent Sam Confederate soldier statue and vehemently chanted for hours, demanding that UNC drop its nickname, the White Phantoms.

That last parts true. North Carolinas sports teams once were called the Phantoms, principally its undefeated 1923-24 basketball team (before the Dean Smith era) that posthumously was named the universitys first national champions.

The Phantom nickname didnt stick, however, and by 1950 those at the school had settled on Tar Heels, the nickname of the state.

Now, a small Chapel Hill group called Union Soldier Campaign has called for the elimination of Tar Heels as UNC-CHs nickname because of its association with Confederate soldiers. Imagine the sticky situation (heh-heh) today if the nickname instead was still White Phantoms (white from the uniforms, phantoms because of untouchable speed nothing to do with racism).

Tar Heel also has nothing to do with racism or blackness except for the natural color of tar. Eastern North Carolinas extensive pine forests once produced tar and pitch starting before the Revolutionary War to help waterproof and preserve wooden sailing ships. When Cornwallis British Redcoats crossed the Tar River in 1781 trying to conquer North Carolina, their shoes became stained by tar dumped in the river by Patriots, my old UNC-CH N.C. history professor the late Bill Powell once taught.

But because Confederate commander Robert E. Lee once famously praised God bless the Tar Heel boys during the Civil War for North Carolina soldiers sticking to their ground in battle, it now provides an opening for an attack on the hallowed nickname.

Whats puzzling in all of this is the silence surrounding more problematic nicknames at Duke and Wake Forest.

The Blue Devils of Duke were named by a 1921 student newspaper contest after les Diables Bleus, a group of French soldiers in World War I known for long blue capes worn in the cold Alps mountains. The nickname has nothing to do with devilment or Satanism, so the nickname is left alone.

Similarly, the student newspaper at Wake Forest, back when the school was in Wake County, named that colleges sports teams Demon Deacons following a coy 1923 description of devilish play against the Blue Devils. Wake Forest had been called The Baptists, a reference to the schools denominational origins. Again, no ties to Satan.

Even N.C. States cute wolfpack moniker has not avoided attack. In 1946, chancellor John Harrelson did not like wolfpack. He famously said the only thing lower than a wolf is a snake in the grass. Harrelson asked students to come up with a new nickname. They refused.

Weve yet to hear from UNC-CH or the governor about the modern assault on Tar Heels. History and heritage and good sense may just win out on this one.

North Carolina residents have sat back on their heels ever since, happy to be Tar Heels, once opined professor Powell, so often quick with a wicked little grin and a playful poke at a rival. Whod want to be a Sandlapper, anyway? Oh, professor, better let the South Carolinians alone during these sensitive times. As well as those on the mountain of conceit, as you described Virginia.

Now, East Wilkes Middle School, about that disgusting nickname Scorpions

Original post:

Tar Heels stomped out the Phantoms; Scorpions next? - Elkin Jonesville Tribune