The Ram sculpture is located outside Kenan Memorial Stadium.
Track and field alumnus Irwin Belk (Class of 1945) wanted to bequeath an athletic statue that would make UNC-Chapel Hill world-famous. He, along with other family alumni (William Irwin Belk, Marilyn Belk Wallis, Carl G. Belk, and Anne Reynolds Belk), provided the funding for The Ram, a monument of the University mascot that would also become the world’s largest sculpture of a ram. The Belks chose Sweden-born, Texas-based sculptor Kent Ullberg—whose more than thirty monumental wildlife pieces can be seen in museums and public settings on four continents—to create the one-ton bronze behemoth that stands at the entrance of Kenan Stadium. Upon its unveiling in November 2002, Irwin Belk was confident of the monument’s enduring stature: “You come back in 2,000 years,” he told the Daily Tar Heel, “and it’ll still be here.”
Created by Kent Ullberg (2002).