Ram Nation helps rock, chalk out the Jayhawks
Senior Brandon Rozzell says hello to his family and friends after the win over Kansas. Photo: Kyle LaFerriere
Douglas Wyatt
Contributing Writer
Commonwealth Times Sports’ Twitter
Students, alumni and citizens of the city of Richmond all show up and support the Rams. VCU has broken attendance records for home games the past two seasons and the support could not be higher as the Rams have made history this year in their run in the NCAA tournament.
They now find themselves booking plane tickets to Houston for the Final Four, but they will certainly not be the only Rams that are frantically searching for flights to Houston; they will be joined by the growing fan base known as Ram Nation.
Ram Nation is made up of VCU students, alumni and even the pep band that bring energy for their beloved players wearing black and yellow.
The VCU men’s basketball team has taken down Goliaths such as USC, Georgetown, Purdue, Florida State and Kansas to make it to their very first Final Four.
Ram Nation has had just as tall of a task to bring the energy over some of the largest fan bases in the country.
That energy begins with the VCU pep band, which is getting national attention for out-dueling the bands of all five of the Rams’ opponents in the tournament so far.
Ram Nation, however, goes deeper than the band.
The solid contingency of Rams fans that have showed up to the games in Dayton, Chicago and San Antonio have made an impact on the energy level that the basketball team brings on the court.
Ram Nation has been at every game to rival the voices of huge fan bases such as in the Elite 8 against Kansas – whose fan base traveled approximately 781 miles from campus to San Antonio, compared to 1,521 miles that VCU fans had to travel to support their team.
What Ram Nation brings to the table for the men’s basketball team – especially in this deep tournament run – has not been overlooked by Shaka Smart or any other member of the team.
When asked about the presence of Rams fans at the game against Kansas, with Jayhawk fans making up about 80% of the crowd, Brandon Rozzell stated, “I think we was all very thankful. Our fans stuck with us through this tournament.”
“Even when Kansas fans got loud and the arena was loud, our fans were right there in that section still cheering us on.”
Senior guard Joey Rodriguez exclaimed his appreciation of the Black & Gold faithful also.
“They were the loudest and we could hear them and they motivated us to keep fighting,” Rodriguez said. “They got really loud when Kansas made that run. Our fans never gave up. You could see them standing up throughout the whole thing and we just came together as a group.”
Ramnation is unarguably, undoubtedly growing in size and strength with the success the men’s basketball team has had in this year’s NCAA tournament.
It is great to know that whether this historic Rams team comes away with a national championship or an early exit from Houston in the Final Four there will always be Ramnation: a proud and loyal group of fans that will support any Rams team through thick and thin.
