Rameses (mascot)

Rameses
Costumed Rameses at Carmichael Auditorium
University	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Conference	ACC
Description	Bighorn Ram
Origin of name	Jack ("The Battering Ram") Merritt
First seen	1924
Official website	Rameses

Rameses is the Bighorn Ram mascot of the North Carolina Tar Heels. Two versions of Rameses appear at UNC sporting events. One is a member of the UNC cheerleading team in an anthropomorphic ram costume; the second is a live Horned Dorset Sheep named Rameses who attends Carolina football games with his horns painted Carolina Blue.

Origin

The origin of a ram as Carolina's mascot dates back to 1924. In 1922, the star fullback, Jack Merritt, was given the nickname "the battering ram" for his performance on the field. Vic Huggins, Carolina's head cheerleader at the time, suggested the idea of a ram mascot to the athletic business manager, Charles T. Woollen, and had the idea approved. Charles gave Vic $25 to purchase a ram. Rameses the First was shipped from Texas, just in time for the pep rally.

The first appearance of Rameses was at a pep rally before the football game against Virginia Military Institute on November 8, 1924. After the pep rally the ram was taken to Emerson Field. Through three quarters the game was scoreless. Late in the fourth quarter Bunn Hackney was called out to attempt a field goal. Before stepping out on the field he rubbed Rameses' head. Just a few seconds later Hackney kicked a 30-yard field goal that eventually won the game for the Tar Heels; the final score was 3-0. Rameses has been a fixture on the sidelines at UNC football games ever since. The current Rameses ram is under the care of the Hogan family of Chapel Hill.

The origin of the costumed version of Rameses is unknown. The costumed Rameses appears primarily at UNC basketball games.

Jason Ray

On March 23, 2007, Jason Ray, the cheerleader assigned to the Rameses costume, was struck by a vehicle outside the Carolina cheerleaders' hotel on Route 4 in Fort Lee, New Jersey prior to the men's basketball team's Sweet Sixteen game with the University of Southern California. He died on March 26, 2007 at the Hackensack University Medical Center as a result of the injuries sustained in the accident. On January 17, 2008 officers from the Fort Lee Police Department arrested Armen Hovsepian and his father Gagik Hovsepian for the 2007 death of Jason Ray.

Jason was an honors student and was due to graduate that May with a degree in business, and minor in religious studies. He was an Eagle Scout with Troop 38 in Concord, NC , had gone on three missionary trips (Haiti, Honduras, and Puerto Rico) to work with children, had visited the Sistine Chapel, run with the bulls in Spain, and spent a summer studying in Copenhagen, Denmark. Jason was also an active member of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, his church choir, and was lead singer in the band 9pm Traffic.

The ESPN website published an E-ticket article on Jason Ray's life, and the lives of four people who were saved because he chose to become an organ donor.