Twin reasons to cheer

The Final Four wasn’t the only birth being celebrated in Chapel Hill this week.

Down the road from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Tar Heels welcomed two new wooly members to the Carolina family – Ollie and Marvin, the newest sons of mascot Rameses XXII.

The twin Horned Dorset lambs were born to Rameses XXII and Stella on March 22 at around 3 p.m. They are the couple’s eighth children.

“This has been a big week for the rams — and it’s not just because the Tar Heels are in the Final Four,” said Chris Hogan, one of Rameses’ handlers. “They had a new lambing. Stella had two baby rams that are both healthy.”

Since 1924, the lambs’ ancestors — sporting Carolina blue horns — have been a staple in Chapel Hill and on the sidelines of Kenan Stadium for football games. The costumed version of Rameses will be on hand in Houston to cheer on the top-seeded basketball team when it plays No. 10 seed Syracuse on Saturday.

The new twins will continue a nine-decade legacy of having Hogan family rams serve as the University mascot. (The first, by the way, hailed from Texas – where the Tar Heels just happen to be playing this weekend.)

“It’s a gift that we share with UNC because we think that it’s something very special, a special tradition and a special mascot,” Hogan said. “We’ve really been happy to be a part of it.”

Heirs to the Rameses throne, Marvin or Ollie could one day watch the Tar Heels play in person. But for now, Hogan is hoping the twins will be a good luck charm from afar.

“I’m counting on it,” he said.

For more history on the Tar Heels’ ram mascot, see: http://www.goheels.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=205498275