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Rameses

Rameses is the mascot for the North Carolina Tar Heels. There are two versions of Rameses. One is a UNC cheerleader in a ram costume performed by a male member of the North Carolina Cheerleading team at athletic events. The second is a live a Horned Dorset sheep named Rameses who attends UNC football games with his horns painted Carolina blue.

The origin of a ram as the Tar Heels 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, UNC'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. The first appearance of Rameses was at a pep rally before the UNC-VMI game on November 8, 1924.

On March 23, 2007, Jason Ray, the cheerleader assigned to the Rameses costume, was struck by a vehicle outside the UNC cheerleaders' hotel in Fort Lee, New Jersey on Route 4 prior to the Tar Heels' Sweet Sixteen game with the University of Southern California. During the game, the university released a statement saying that Ray was at a local hospital in critical condition. Upon hearing the news, the UNC cheerleaders agreed to cheer at the game without the mascot.

Jason Ray died on March 26, 2007 at the Hackensack University Medical Center as a result of the injuries sustained in the accident. Jason was an honor student at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill and was set to graduate in May with a degree in Business, and minor is Religious Studies. Jason was an Eagle Scout, 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, spent a summer studying in Copenhagen Denmark, and was an active member of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, his church choir, lead singer in a band (9pm Traffic), and had done all of this prior to his 21st birthday.

ESPN's website did an E-ticket article on Jason Ray's life, and the lives of four people who were saved because Ray chose to become an organ donor. [1]

• Link about a day with Rameses
• Official Athletic history about Rameses
• UNC Traditions
• Anniversary of Ramses

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