The Rhode Island Rams are the intercollegiate athletic programs that represent the

University of Rhode Island The University of Rhode Island (URI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is the flagship public research as well as the land-grant university of Rhode Island. The univer ...

, based in

Kingston Kingston may refer to: Places * List of places called Kingston, including the six most populated: ** Kingston, Jamaica ** Kingston upon Hull, England ** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia ** Kingston, Ontario, Canada ** Kingston upon Thames, ...

Rhode Island Rhode Island ( ) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Is ...

, United States. The Rams compete in the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

's Division I as a member of the

Atlantic 10 Conference The Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose schools compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I. The A-10's member schools are located most ...

. The

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

team, however, competes in the

Coastal Athletic Association Football Conference The Coastal Athletic Association Football Conference, formerly the Colonial Athletic Association Football Conference, branded as CAA Football, is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I whose full members are loca ...

of the NCAA's

Football Championship Subdivision The NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA, is the second-highest level of college football in the United States, after the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, Football Bowl Subdivision (F ...

, as the A-10 does not sponsor football. The program's athletic director is Thorr Bjorn. The school's colors are

light blue Light blue is a color or range of colors, typically a lightened shade with a hue between cyan and blue. The first use of "light blue" as a color term in English language, English is in the year 1915. In Russian and some other languages, there ...

(officially referred to as "

Keaney Keaney is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Brian Keaney, British author born in Walthamstow, East London * Conal Keaney, Irish footballer and hurler *Frank Keaney Frank William "Menty" Keaney (June 5, 1886 – October 10, 19 ...

blue"), white, and

navy blue Navy blue is a dark shade of the color blue. Navy blue got its name from the dark blue (contrasted with naval white) worn by officers in the Royal Navy since 1748 and subsequently adopted by other navies around the world. When this color name, ...

. The school's mascot is Rhody the Ram. It was chosen in 1923 as tribute to the school's agricultural history, making its first appearance in 1929. The school has not used a live ram since the introduction of "Rhody," a student in an anthropomorphic ram costume, in 1974.

Sponsored sports

As a primary member of the

, the University of Rhode Island sponsors teams in eight men's and ten women's

sanctioned sports, with football competing in the

Baseball

The Rams baseball program played its first season in 1898. It plays at

Bill Beck Field Bill Beck Field is a baseball venue located on the campus of the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is home to the Rhode Island Rams baseball team, a member of the NCAA Division I Atlantic 10 Conference. T ...

on campus. In

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

, under head coach

Frank Leoni Frank Leoni (born November 28, 1968) is an American baseball coach, currently the head baseball coach of the Mount St. Mary's Mountaineers. He played college baseball at Rhode Island from 1988 to 1991. He then served as head coach at William & ...

, the program reached its first NCAA tournament.

Basketball

URI Basketball went to the NCAA tournament in 2017 after an 18 year drought, nearly upsetting Final Four participant #3 Oregon in the second round. In the 1990s, the Rams made the Big Dance in

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

, and

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

. In 1998, the Rams went on a surprise run to the Elite 8. The women's team has made one NCAA appearance in 1996 after going 21–8 and 13–3 in A10 play, losing 90–82 to Oklahoma State. They have two other postseason appearances in the 2022 and 2023 WNITs.

Football

Rhode Island Rams and Brown Bears after the Governors Cup Game

The Rams have won eight conference championships, seven in the

Yankee Conference The Yankee Conference was a collegiate sports conference in the eastern United States. From 1947 to 1976, it sponsored competition in many sports, but was a football-only league from mid-1976 until its dissolution in 1996. It is essentially the a ...

and one in the

Coastal Athletic Association The Coastal Athletic Association (CAA), formerly the ECAC South Conference and the Colonial Athletic Association, is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA' ...

. Likewise the Rams have won one division title, in 1995: the Yankee Conference's New England Division.

Softball

Rhode Island's softball team has appeared in one

Women's College World Series The Women's College World Series (WCWS) is the final portion of the NCAA Division I softball tournament for college softball in the United States and is held annually in Oklahoma City, OK. The event is held at Devon Park (stadium), Devon Park loca ...

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C. ...

Club sports

The University of Rhode Island Club Sports program consists of 13 teams. Each team is organized and managed by students with guidance from the Coordinator of Club Sports. They include Soccer, Tennis, Hockey, Field Hockey, Rowing, Sailing, Rugby, Swimming, Volleyball, Gymnastics, and Equestrian. The

women's A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functional uteruses ...

ice hockey team competes in Division I of the

American Collegiate Hockey Association The American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) is a college ice hockey association. The ACHA's purpose is to be an organization of collegiate affiliated programs, which provides structure, regulates operations, and promotes quality in collegi ...

in ESCHL league.

National championships

Team

Facilities

''Source:''

Mascot

Rhody the Ram is the official

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, sports team, university society, society, military unit, or brand, brand name. Mascots are als ...

of the University of Rhode Island. His mascot status was given on March 8, 1923, and he made his first appearance on November 21, 1929. At one time a real ram was housed at a dairy

barn A barn is an agricultural building usually on farms and used for various purposes. In North America, a barn refers to structures that house livestock, including cattle and horses, as well as equipment and fodder, and often grain.Allen G ...

across from the campus, but that stopped in the 1960s, and was picked up for one year in 1974. Unlike other popular universities, the Rhody the Ram mascot program is run by the URI Student Alumni Association, a student run organization that serves the university by organizing many popular events on campus.

Media coverage

Television

University of Rhode Island sports are televised regionally on the Ocean State Network, a joint venture of

Cox Communications Cox Communications, Inc. (also known as Cox Cable and formerly Cox Broadcasting Corporation, Dimension Cable Services and Times-Mirror Cable), is an American digital cable television provider, telecommunications and home automation services comp ...

and

WJAR WJAR (channel 10) is a television station in Providence, Rhode Island, United States, affiliated with NBC. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station has studios on Kenney Drive in Cranston, Rhode Island (shared with Telemundo owned-and-op ...

. OSN provides television and streaming coverage of all regular season men's basketball games not broadcast on a national carrier, and select football, baseball, soccer and women's basketball games. Select men's basketball games are also covered by

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

, and

A-10 The Fairchild Republic A-10 , also infamously known under the nickname , is a single-seat, twin-turbofan, straight-wing, subsonic attack aircraft developed by Fairchild Republic for the United States Air Force (USAF). In service since 19 ...

tournament games are televised by contract with ESPN,

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

and

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

. The University's ACHA men's ice hockey and women's basketball home games have live streaming video available on their respective websites.

Radio

Commercial coverage of men's basketball and football is provided by

iHeartMedia iHeartMedia, Inc., or CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc., formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc., a company founded by ...

stations

WHJJ WHJJ (920 kHz, "News Radio 920 & 104.7 FM") is a commercial radio station in Providence, Rhode Island. It carries a talk radio format and is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. Its studios and offices are on Oxford Street in Providence. WHJJ transmits ...

and

WWBB WWBB (101.5 FM, "B101") is a radio station in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. The station plays classic hits from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. WWBB's offices and studios are located on Oxford Street in Providence, on the 3rd and 4th flo ...

in the Providence area, with rights managed by

Learfield IMG College Learfield (often stylized as LEARFIELD) is a collegiate sports marketing company, representing more than 200 of the nation's top collegiate properties including the NCAA and its 89 championships, NCAA Football, leading conferences, and many of th ...

. The longtime announcer for both sports is Steve McDonald, who in 2011 was awarded the inaugural Ben Mondor Award for "extraordinary contributions in...sports in Rhode Island". Non-commercial coverage of home games for football,

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

, men's (and select women's) basketball, as well as the school's ACHA men's ice hockey team can be heard on the University's student radio station WRIU. Other sports, including men's and women's soccer, softball, women's ice hockey and select women's basketball games are carried on WRIU's online station RIU2.

Controversial incidents

February 3, 1998 – Rhody the Ram tried to prevent the St. Joe's Hawk from his eternal flapping by putting an inner tube over its head, temporarily immobilizing his arms. While trying to remove the tube, the Hawk's head (costume) fell off. The incident was televised and repeated on ESPN.

References

External links

* {{Navboxes , titlestyle = {{CollegePrimaryStyle, Rhode Island Rams, color=white , list = {{Atlantic 10 Conference navbox {{Coastal Athletic Association Football navbox {{Rhode Island Sports