The University of North Carolinas mascot is a ram, which is represented by an anthropomorphic ram costume worn by a member of the UNC cheerleading team and a live Dorset Horn sheep named Rameses who attends Carolina football games with his horns painted Carolina blue. There is also another anthropomorphic ram, Rameses Jr., or RJ for short). The idea for using a ram came from the nickname for star Tar Heel fullback Jack Merritt, known as the "Battering Ram". The term "Tar Heel" dates back to North Carolinas early history when the state was a leading producer of supplies for the naval industry. Workers who distilled turpentine from the sticky sap of pine trees and burned pine boughs to produce tar and pitch often went barefoot during hot summer months and undoubtedly collected tar on their heels. To call someone a "rosin heel" or "tar heel" was to imply that they worked in a lowly trade. During the Civil War, North Carolina soldiers flipped the meaning of the term and turned an epithet into an accolade. They called themselves "tar heels" as an expression of state pride. Others adopted the term, and North Carolina became widely known as the "Tar Heel State".