Photo: 1987students via wcupa.edu .jpeg
On Thursday, Feb. 29, our beloved mascot, Rammy celebrated his birthday out in the Quad, receiving so much love from West Chester students and faculty. However, I found it shocking that we first started off with a dog as our mascot back in 1904. The dog was a pet of a professor named Dr. Philip and was named “Puck.” This was back when the university was a normal school — a sort of vocational high school that taught elementary school teachers.
30 years later, we got our first goat mascot called, “Elmer.” Elmer, a goat, first appeared in 1934 when our football team played La Salle University. A WCU site, ‘The timeline of WCU’s Mascots,’ states, “The girls in the dorm had raised $10 and Joe Guarini, Bud Hickman, and Dan Shields visited Tapper’s farm and bought Elmer.” But soon after that, Elmer the goat was replaced by a ram and a complete ram costume was secured in 1957.
Wayne Hussey, a student, wore the first-ever costume and became a constant presence at every athletic event and gathering to foster enthusiasm and support from the students. Having settled on a mascot, the school then played around with a few names for our Ram mascot. In 1958, the Booster Club members came up with the name “Prince Ramses I.” The article states, “When not at the games, [the ram] is kept on a farm near Downingtown…” From then to 2007, a real goat, adorned in our purple and gold colors, was brought out to the field to open our football games.
It was later in 1962 when the mascot name was changed once again to “The Golden Ram,” and although we no longer refer to our mascot as that, the name stuck as a nickname for the school overall. In the year 1985, a photo of the mascot in the school’s yearbook was captioned, “Mascot for WCU, Rammie” (now Rammy) and, at last, we had finally settled on the perfect name for our mascot. For every game, and even since our first Banana Day in 1996, Rammie was always the center of attention providing the crowd with school spirit. In 2007, the university installed the Ram statue on campus.
And while Rammy’s costume has changed over five times throughout the years, his new and final look was revealed at the 2017 homecoming parade. In that same year, Rammy was honored to win the 2017 Mascot Madness with over 32,704 votes. Rammy fought against 14 universities and pulled through victoriously during the final round against Indiana University.
The Golden Ram is the symbol of good luck and team spirit. And that’s everything and more than Rammy has added to our school. I hope that when you pass over the castle, you’ll think of Rammy. And years later I hope your curiosity brings you back to the castle to see how much you have grown with confidence, ambition and wisdom. Because like Rammy, you are and will always be a Golden Ram.
Perpetual Kahindo is a third-year Political Science major. PK973548@wcupa.edu