OAImages Blog

Much has been written about the performance of the UNC men’s basketball team over the past weekend, from their comeback against USC to their collapse against Georgetown.    Much has also been written about the familial connections between this year’s Georgetown team and 1982’s who lost to UNC on a last minute shot by a UNC student named Michael Jordan.

Rapidly becoming lost in the hustle and bustle of March Madness is the tragedy of Jason Ray.   Jason was a member of the UNC cheerleading squad and performed the role of Ramses, the UNC mascot, for the past three years.   Friday he was struck by a car while crossing the street in NJ.   Early Monday morning he left this mortal world.

Fox Sports wrote this in an article about him:

…At 6-foot-5, Jason Ray was such a commanding presence that when UNC coach Roy Williams first met him in the campus gym, he wondered aloud why Ray wasn’t on his team.

“I’m too slow and I can’t jump,” Jason told Williams. “But I can be of assistance in other ways, Coach.”…

That helpfulness alludes to another aspect of this young man’s life that has receiving only passing glances in the stories about his tragic death.   Jason Ray was also an Eagle Scout.

So far I have found no online references to Ray’s Scouting involvement.   However, news reports say he was from Concord, NC so most likely would have belonged to a troop in Central North Carolina Council.   If he was an OA brother, he would have been in Itibapishe Iti Hollo lodge.   If I find any information about his Scouting involvement, I will add it here.

He was also an active member of his campus’ Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship and sang for the band Nine PM Traffic.

Let us remember Jason Ray and his family during this trying time.

RIP Jason Ray:   Student, “Ramses”, Eagle Scout.

P.S.  How do you spell the name of the UNC mascot?  Well, this photo answers that question, even as the website it’s posted on spells it wrong!