Tar Heel (or Tarheel) is a nickname applied to the state and inhabitants of North Carolina. "Tar Heel" is also the nickname of the University of North Carolina athletic teams, students, alumni, and fans.
During the late unhappy war between the States it [North Carolina] was sometimes called the "Tar-heel State," because tar was made in the State, and because in battle the soldiers of North Carolina stuck to their bloody work as if they had tar on their heels, and when General Lee said, "God bless the Tar-heel boys," they took the name.
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