The distinctive ram with Carolina blue horns has a storied history with UNC athletics, but much of its past is unknown to the University community.
The most recent Rameses, who died Thursday, was the 18th ram to assume the duties of the University’s mascot.
Rameses first became a part of UNC tradition in 1924 when the football team was searching for a mascot for its games.
The University’s athletic nickname, the Tar Heels, did not lend itself easily to a tangible mascot, said Ann Leonard, one of Rameses’ caretakers.
“The football team had a player whose name was Jack Merritt, and they called him the battering ram because of his preferred style of playing football,” Leonard said. Rameses was created with Merritt in mind, she said.
Leonard was married to Rob Hogan, Rameses’ caretaker, who died in 2010. The Hogan family has cared for every ram since 1924.
Don Basnight, Hogan’s 52-year-old cousin who has helped care for the farm since his childhood, has seen some landmark moments in Rameses’ history — including several kidnappings of the ram by rival schools.
One of the most notorious of these kidnappings was by several East Carolina University students prior to a UNC Homecoming game in the late 1970s.
“They stole the ram and took him to a fraternity house in Greenville where he lived on beer and pizza for a week,” Basnight said. “He showed up at the game painted in all purple.”