North Carolina

The UNC men's varsity soccer team was founded in 1947 by Dr. Marvin Allen, the team's first coach. Before the team had only been at the club level.

Dr. Allen led the team until 1977 when the current UNC women's soccer team coach Anson Dorrance took over. Dorrance spent 12 successful seasons with the men's team until 1988. One of the main reasons for his retirement from the men's team was to focus on the women's program, which he had begun coaching while he was the men's coach. Dorrance led the Tar Heel's to their first ACC Tournament Championship in the tournament's inaugural year, 1987.

Elmar Bolowich took the reins from Dorrance and led the team to a National Championship in 2001, the first of the program. Bolowich resigned in 2011, and the former assistant coach, and current head coach, Carlos Somoano was hired. In his first year as head coach, Somoano won the 2011 national championship, a feat only accomplished by one other coach, Indiana's Mike Freitag. The same year, he also won the ACC regular season, and the ACC Tournament, winning every title possible for the year. Since the programs founding in 1947, Carolina has posted only 2 losing seasons. Making 4 consecutive College Cup appearances from 2008 to 2011, UNC has established itself as a powerhouse in modern-day college soccer in one of the most dominant conferences in the country.

The 2001 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship was the first national title that the men's soccer team had earned. The road to the championship game saw the #7 seeded Tar Heel's defeat #3 seeded Stanford by a score of 3–2 in overtime of the semifinals. That moved the tar heels along to the National Championship game against #4 seeded Indiana. The game would be won 2–0 by the Tar Heels in regular time with goals from Ryan Kneipper and Danny Jackson. When asked about the game, Coach Bolowich said, "I thought David- as well as our entire defense – played a fantastic game and the team effort was there". The team's record of 21–4 saw the program claim its first national title.

The 2011 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship was the second national title the men's soccer team had earned. During the course of the tournament, the #1 seeded Tar Heels defeated Coastal Carolina (3–2), Indiana (1–0 in OT), and Saint Mary's (2–0) respectively, to reach the College Cup. In the semifinal, the Tar Heels faced #13 seeded UCLA, and would win the game 2–1, by way of a penalty kick shootout (3–1). Carolina faced the unseeded Charlotte 49ers in the final, winning the game 1–0 on a second-half Ben Speas goal. Team captain, Kirk Urso, who died due to a congenital heart defect at age 22, said in an interview after the game "My whole college career has been awesome, but there was something extra about this team. To cap it off with this is something I'm going to remember the rest of my life." A final record of 21–2–3 illustrates what a special year the Tar Heels had.