quadangles@uri.edu

“Ramnapped,” a story on the back page of the Fall ’13 issue, chronicles how Bill Menzi Jr. ’63 retrieved URI’s live ram mascot from UConn and saved a family from a burning house in the process.

Bruce Crowell ’53 writes in response to tell how he woke up on a Saturday morning in the football season of 1949:

“I was awakened by an unfamiliar scratching and grunting sound. Not at my peak due to pre-game celebrations the night before, I rolled over to see the door to the Quonset hut open, a GI cot lodged in the door, and a very large chain stretched tight to something I could not see. Outside was our arch rival’s mascot, the Brown University bear, doing his best to free himself. His claws had dug deep trenches in the dirt road. Fortunately, he never noticed me.

“After 64 years, I cannot remember how he was freed, but I do know Brown’s bear was on the correct side of the field at game time. The respective deans of men agreed never to condone such actions in the future—one swipe of that paw could do serious damage.

“During this interesting event, did anyone get away with Rhody the Ram? No. ‘Happy,’ my dorm proctor and aggie major, was keeper of the ram and had taught him to get in the ample trunk of a 1939 Plymouth coupe on command. We had taken him to an off-campus farmer’s barn the previous afternoon.”

Bruce said he’s always wondered how that bear came to be chained up in the Quonset Hut Village. If anyone knows, or has another great mascot story, please write to quadangles@uri.edu to tell us.