The Spring 2008 Ram Roast and Pep Rally will be held tonight at 7:30 p.m. outside of the Free Expression Tunnel in light of the upcoming basketball game against UNC-Chapel Hill Wednesday night.
According to Zach Adams, senior class president, the Ram Roast was a tradition that began three years ago after Carolina fans painted the Free Expression Tunnel blue before the football and basketball games against UNC-CH.
“Since then, we’ve held the event not only to protect the tunnel, but also to start a tradition to get people fired up for the games,” Adams said.
This year will mark the sixth biannual Ram Roast held by the Senior Class Council and Alumni Association Student Ambassadors, but only the first year for the pep rally.
“The senior class council and student ambassadors introduced the pep rally to kick off the rams roast and attract a larger crowd,” Adams said.
Adams said the premier of the pep rally addition was before the Ram Roast was prior to last season’s football game against Carolina.
“It was a huge success, so we decided to hold the event again,” Adams said. “We are planning on hosting an even bigger crowd this semester.”
Adams said he hopes to see 1,000 students at the event — 200 more than the amount of students that attended last semester’s pep rally and Ram Roast.
Jessica Stenson, a freshman in animal science, attended the pep rally Ram Roast last semester and said the large amount of people made it exciting and created lots of energy but also caused some problems.
“It made it really hard to see everything going on, especially things up on the stage,” Stenson said.
Stenson said he hopes tonight’s Ram Roast and pep rally will be modified a bit from last semester’s.
“They should maybe make the space [the event is held in] a bit bigger so we’re not so crammed and can see,” Stenson said.
Adams said that the activities for tonight’s pep rally include performances from the marching band and cheerleaders, telling UNC jokes, hearing from Coach Lowe and the players, and a giveaway of 500 “Beat UNC” T-shirts.
“We will be giving some of the shirts out on a ‘first come, first serve’ basis, but we will reserve a lot of them to throw out to the crowd during the pep rally,” Adams said.
After the pep rally, the Ram Roast will begin, where Adams said they will serve up two barbecued pigs, paint the tunnel, show last year’s home win over UNC-CH on a projector screen, and raffle off a few tickets for the game.
“Because almost all of the tickets went to the Campout this year, we will only have a few tickets to raffle off,” Adams said. “For the few students that win a ticket, we’ll be asking them to help us monitor the Free Expression Tunnel in three-hour shifts.”
Ed Mason, a freshman in biology, said he is mostly looking forward to this event because he is excited for the game and hates Carolina.
“I’m really excited to be guarding the tunnel, because I don’t want any blue on there,” Mason said.
Will Tatum, a senior in computer science, however, said he is unsure if he wants to attend the event.
“I think it sounds like a great idea, but I’ll probably be too lazy to go across campus,” Tatum said.
But Stenson, Mason and Tatum feel this event will help raise school spirit and get everyone pumped up for the basketball match-up.
“I think it will give us momentum for the upcoming Duke game and hopefully the ACC tournament,” Mason said.
