THE TRAGIC ERA OF THE FORDHAM UNIVERSITY RAMESES
THE TRAGIC ERA OF THE RAMESES
A Well Meaning Effort To Entertain And Inspire Fordham Sports Fans.
The history of this university's athletic endeavors is an impressive one: The Rose Hill Gym, which opened in 1925, is the oldest facility still used in NCAA Division-1 sports. The baseball team has the most wins over its 150+ years of interscholastic competition. The “Seven Blocks of Granite” identify as one of most famous nicknames in football history. Through much of this period real live rams were used to rally fan support. For most of these innocent animals, it was not a happy existence nor a proud chapter for our school.
The concept of an animal mascot is a tradition that may have had its origin as far back as 480 B.C. in Athens Greece with Athena’s feathered friend, the owl. Many institutions of higher learning, adopted this strong, fierce animal to rally their teams on to victory. As did the LA Rams and two competing schools in the Atlantic-10 conference (University of Rhode Island and Virginia Commonwealth University). Fordham too found this an irresistible opportunity. Rams, specifically a White Dorsets with curled horns, are male sheep and are one of the animal kingdom's true tough guys; with skull structures evolved to protect their brains during face-offs with their aggressive counterparts.
For over 50 years, generations of Rameses patrolled the sidelines of Jack Coffey Field or basketball games in the Rose Hill Gym-nicknamed “The Prairie,” as one of the nation’s largest on-campus facilities upon its opening.
Many of these animals were treated horribly. Here are just a few examples.
Rameses I
The first live ram made his appearance at a Fordham-Boston football game in 1925. According to the Fordham University Archives, he was kidnapped by a rival school and taken to a slaughterhouse. Students retrieved his body. His taxidermied head was kept in The Ram newspaper office from 1928 to at least 1935.
Rameses II was also sent to a slaughterhouse.
Rameses III succumbed to a pack of wild dogs.
Who won the most college games at the old Yankee Stadium?
It wasn’t us; it wasn’t West Point; nor Syracuse; nor Rutgers and never, never Notre Dame ....
Answer? New York University (NYU). Back when they had a campus in The Bronx, at the site now occupied by Bronx Community College, NYU played more games at the ballpark than any other school-96 in all. They used it as a secondary home field from 1923 to 1948 and collected a record of 52 wins–40 loses–4 ties.
During this same period, Fordham University also played big time college football, including trips to both the Sugar Bowl and Cotton Bowl. No surprise, there were incidents.
Rameses V
In 1933, the New York State Police had to become involved after NYU students absconded with Rameses V for two days, travelling over 300 miles and ending up “somewhere in Connecticut.” His exact location has been lost to history, but the state police contacted their Connecticut counterparts who retrieved the mascot and raced him to the New York border allowing him to make the big Fordham-NYU football game.
Rameses VIII
Kidnapped by NYU and taken to a Connecticut farm. New York State troopers picked him up at the state lines and he was escorted to the game by four squad cars and six motorcycles, sirens blaring. He arrived at the start of halftime. He also made headlines in 1941 when he escorted models at the British Relief Society's fashion show. He was also the first Rameses to grow old and die of natural causes.
In 1948, The Ram solicited “Fordham men with spirit” to guard Rameses from NYU students, whom they expected to “declare an open season on all rams in the Bronx,” the editorial continued, “it would be very discouraging to have him show up at the Polo Grounds on November 27 on the wrong side of the field.”
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Rameses were under threat constantly by rival colleges. “Every athletic rival Fordham ever had (and some it didn’t) took turns “ram-napping”. These schools — which included Georgetown, Iona, NYU, Seton Hall, Manhattan and seemingly every other collegiate school within the Tri-State area — made a (business) of stealing Fordham’s mascots before big football games …”
Rameses XIX
While the Ram Watchers attended Mass, he was kidnapped and dyed green by Manhattan College students. He survived but ran up many medical bills with recurrent colds and flu. Ram shares were introduced during his reign. For $50 per share, the money would be used to support the ram’s upkeep.
Rameses XVI
Died after being ram-napped in 1955.
Rameses XVIII died of cirrhosis of the liver from alcohol that his caretakers — officially titled “Ramkeepers” — would give him after Fordham’s athletic wins.
Rameses XX
In 1965, Fordham students had prevented a ram-napping attempt by students from Iona College in New Rochelle, N.Y., for the second time in two weeks. (Commenting) “Last week we weren’t so lucky and Rameses XX had some uncomfortable moments. Tuesday the boys from New Rochelle had a couple of uncomfortable moments.”
Rameses XXVII
Reportedly broke his neck by accidentally twisting his head in the fence of his pen.
After the original shed burned down in 1960 due to a mysterious fire, it was renovated into a 1260-cubic-foot “Ram Hall” by the father of Grace Kelly. Princess Grace of Monaco’s father … (was a self-made multi-millionaire) who ran a bricklaying business.
The Rams lived on campus for approximately 2-3 months and were then shipped to a farm. A bell, provided, was used for announcing feeding.
A Full Decade before the film Animal House-Rameses made an appearance in the Dean’s Office.
The year was 1965. In the Fall of that year, the football program would introduce a new ram. The prior semester, he would make a very impactful, overnight visit to the Dean of Students office.
Harry Stanton, FCRH '66, would appear to be the prototypical B.M.O.C. of his time: He was the editor of The Ram for calendar year 1965. He would go on to attend NYU Law School and later have a successful career with the Associated Press. There was nothing in Harry's background to suggest he might be a troublemaker; but that semester, he was also pledging the elitist Fordham Club.
His initiation prank: escort Rameses, from his residence, and spend the night in the Dean's office over at Keating Hall. “As I recall.” Stanton, now retired and living in Westchester County, NY remembered,” Ramses was absent without leave several times, including once in the spring of 1965 when he spent a night in the Dean’s Office.
(So far so good?) “What I didn’t account for,” he added ”was the ram would spend the entire night sh@#ting on all of the rugs.”
There were other lighter moments in the history of Rameses as well, Once, these non-stop hostage attempts led to a press stunt which became the stuff of legend when Rameses XIX, called “Thumper,” was kidnapped by students from Manhattan College, dyed bright green (Manhattan’s colors) and left in front of the Madison Square Garden Circus, which claimed him in press releases as an “Irish dog act.”
According to The New York Daily Mirror, which ran a center spread on the event, a couple of Fordham students came and persuaded him with a handful of oats to be “taken away for a bubble bath.”
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| NYPD officers assisted in Rameses retrieval. |
During World War II, eight members of the Rameses line visited Fordham servicemen in Europe, with one of those ambassadors,
Rameses VIII, becoming a local star after he accompanied models during a fashion show to support the British Relief Society.
Speaking of the military, one Rameses had its own don't-ask-don't-tell moment. Rameses XXIV was forced to abdicate when “he” gave birth to a baby ewe. Rameses XXIV was not, in fact, a ram.
Rameses XX, from the mid-1960s — better known as “Fatty” — peacefully died.
Rameses XXIII grew old enough to retire, and when his beard turned gray, moved to Birch Hill Game Farm, now Thunder Ridge ski trails, in upstate Putnam County, New York.
After Rameses XXVII’s accidental death, in his pen, there were no plans by the administration to appoint a successor. However, when a student donated a ram from his family farm in exchange for the baby ewe and (mother)
Rameses XXIV. The last mascot.
Rameses XXVIII. Died in 1978, university administration, disenchanted from live mascots, constant kidnapping, rising health expenses and violent deaths, decided to end live mascots. Ever since, their duties have been assumed by students in ram costumes.
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| Associate Athletic Director of Marketing at Fordham Julio Diaz Jr. said, “Two things we ask of our students in The Ram mascot costume are don’t take your head off and don't talk. |
Not Your Grandfather’s Sports Program Anymore
When Joe DiBari, Fordham's Sports Information Director, was asked about the possibility of a return to a future generation of Rameses, he replied with a statement: "The question of returning a live ram has come up a number of times." "Mr.Gabelli (namesake for the business college) brought a Ram to the Rose Hill recently, but not for a game." There was talk about having a Rameses live next door at the Bronx Zoo. However, the zoo has a policy that once an animal goes in, it can not come back out."
He added that this is especially true with what went on recently (COVID-19)."
DiBari reflected on the use of live animals as sports mascots: "I went to graduate school at the University of Houston. They were The Cougars. They had to drug the animal to get him to the stadium. He would just be coming out -of-it around halftime. By the third quarter they had to give him another shot to get ready for the return home. It wasn't really much fun for the animal."
THANKS TO THE FORDHAM UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES INFORMATION ON THIS SUBJECT
Check out more Rameses photos:
https://www.pinterest.fr/bergin0639/the-fordham-ram-throughout-history/
Execution by the Fordham Rifle Team
If this article in the (12/16/27) edition of The Ram is to be believed, RAMESES III was extremely aggressive. “He repeatedly ran away from campus and attacked New York Central trains (Metro-North). The result was many delays and angry train conductors.”
It just seems unlikely that a municipality would allow a rifle team to kill an animal?
In an email response, Dennis Tierney, the Chief of Operations at Fordham University's Department of Military Science, questioned the likelihood of the newspaper story:
"The Rifle team most likely used .22 caliber rifles for matches and nothing more. "His conclusion, "So rumors of killing the ram are probably just rumors."
-Kevin Bergin
Class of 1980
Gabelli
Class of 1980 Facebook site: https://www.facebook.com/groups/537184563628982
#fordhamuniversity #rameses #NYU #nypd #dennistierney #pologrounds #yankeestadium
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