Cake Race

In the 1920s students began an annual tradition of running a cross-country race around the campus, with the winners receiving a cake. There were apparently many participants and many opportunities to win: for the 1923 race, the "ladies of Chapel Hill" prepared 100 cakes for the runners. Cake...

Marching band

The tradition of music at Tar Heel sporting events goes back to 1903, when the University Brass Band played at a baseball game on campus. The band played occasionally at games in subsequent years but did not become a fixture at sporting events until the 1920s, especially after the opening of Kenan S...

Jubilee

Jubilee was an annual music festival held at the end of the spring semester from 1963 to 1971. It was popular from the beginning. The headliners of the first Jubilee, the Four Preps, drew around 5,000 people to their performance on the lawn in front of Graham Memorial Hall. The concerts grew in popu...

Bull's Head Bookshop

In 1927 English professor Howard Mumford Jones set up the Bull's Head Bookshop in his office in Murphey Hall. Jones wanted to bring a different kind of bookstore to campus: one with modern books and comfortable chairs that could serve as a sort of informal gathering place for reading and discuss...