>

Ramnapping Trophy
Teams	Connecticut Huskies Connecticut Huskies football The Connecticut Huskies football team is a collegiate football team that competes in NCAA Division I-A and the Big East Conference. Connecticut first fielded a team in 1896, and participated in Division I-AA until 1999. The Huskies began their two-year Division I-A transition period in 2000, and... Rhode Island Rams
Originated	1935
Trophy Series	Connecticut leads, 40–19–3
All-Time Series	Connecticut leads, 51–35–8
Current Holder	Connecticut
Connecticut (40) 1936 1937 1939 1942 1946 1947 1948 1949 1951 1956 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1964 1965 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1975 1976 1978 1979 1982 1983 1986 1987 1989 1990 1992 1993 1994 1996 1997 1998 1999	Rhode Island (19) 1935 1938 1940 1941 1950 1952 1953 1954 1955 1963 1974 1977 1980 1981 1984 1985 1988 1991 1995
Ties (3) 1957 1966 1973

The Ramnapping Trophy was formerly awarded to the winner of the annual college football

College football

College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...

 game between the University of Connecticut

University of Connecticut

The admission rate to the University of Connecticut is about 50% and has been steadily decreasing, with about 28,000 prospective students applying for admission to the freshman class in recent years. Approximately 40,000 prospective students tour the main campus in Storrs annually...

 and the University of Rhode Island

University of Rhode Island

The University of Rhode Island is the principal public research university in the U.S. state of Rhode Island. Its main campus is located in Kingston. Additional campuses include the Feinstein Campus in Providence, the Narragansett Bay Campus in Narragansett, and the W. Alton Jones Campus in West...

. The name of the trophy originates from a 1930s-era tradition where a few UConn students would go to the URI campus and kidnap

Kidnapping

In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...

 (or in this case, "Ramnap") the Rhode Island Ram mascot

Mascot

The term mascot – defined as a term for any person, animal, or object thought to bring luck – colloquially includes anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name...

.

Athletic rivalry

The rivalry between the two schools dates back to the 1890s and was born largely out of proximity, with the schools being less than 60 miles apart. The schools competed in all sports for decades as members of the Yankee Conference

Yankee Conference

The Yankee Conference was a collegiate sports conference in the eastern United States. It once sponsored competition in many sports, but eventually became a football-only league...

. Even though UConn became a charter member of the Big East

Big East Conference

The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletics conference consisting of sixteen universities in the eastern half of the United States. The conference's 17 members participate in 24 NCAA sports...

 in 1979, the schools continued to compete in football at the I-AA level as members of the Atlantic 10. This ended after UConn left the A-10 to move to I-A football in 2000.

Series facts & figures

In 96 meetings since 1897, UConn leads the series 51-35-8. The schools most recently met at Rentschler Field on September 26, 2009, with UConn winning 52-10.

The trophy

The trophy is topped with a football player standing on a football that is etched with a ram and a husky etched facing one another on a football field. The plaque on the base reads: "Connecticut State v. Rhode Island State Football Series Trophy in Memory of the famous ramnapping of 1934".

Where is the ramnapping trophy now?

The Ramnapping Trophy is on display to the public as part of the J. Robert Donnelly Husky Heritage Sports Museum on the UConn Main Campus in Storrs, Connecticut

Storrs, Connecticut

Storrs is a census-designated place and part of the town of Mansfield, Connecticut located in eastern Tolland County. The population was 10,996 at the 2000 census...

. The trophy was not brought out for the 2000, 2006 or 2009 games.

External links

• UConnHuskies.com article on the museum, including a mention of the trophy.