The days when URI had a live mascot are the gift that keeps on giving. Jim Lynch ’59 writes to share:

“The summer I was 14, I worked odd jobs on the Highland Farm in Scituate, R.I. One of the residents was the URI ram mascot, which the farm owner housed gratis. I called him Toughie. He was the most magnificent ram I have ever seen, but he would attack any human being or farm animal on scent.

“One late-August day, the farmer told me that we would be getting Toughie back to campus, an event he celebrated with early-morning whiskey. Corralling Toughie was a problem, but after an hour or so, we got ropes on both horns.

“The truck would not start, so the farmer, still celebrating, decided to use his pristine 1949 Packard sedan. We removed the rear bench seat and stuffed Toughie into the rear. I think I still have the bruises from that exchange. As we headed to URI, Toughie destroyed the marvelous wood paneling on the rear doors. He calmed down when he discovered that the upholstery on the bench seat contained straw.

“I admired Toughie’s spirit and was sad to leave him. Little did I know that I would enter URI as a freshman in the fall of 1955. It was a pleasure to see him, now strutting his stuff as the URI mascot known as Ramses, although I pitied his handlers. One told me they had to keep him near the end zone, away from people. I told them that they needed Packard straw to calm him down.”