WS Chronicle

After 20 years, the North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has unveiled a new look for WSSU’s plates that features the fierce new Ram logo.

The plates were approved in June and can now be ordered through the DMV’s website.

The specialty plates cost $25 and are available in two background formats. For each WSSU license plate issued, $15 goes to the university.

“Winston-Salem State University alumni, faculty, staff and friends are eligible to purchase these specialty license plates,” said Isaac Moore, director of alumni engagement at WSSU. “The purchase of every plate allows you to not only showcase Ram pride wherever you drive, but also helps to provide financial support to WSSU that aids in its mission to educate students.”

WSSU became the first Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in North Carolina to have a collegiate license plate, a version with the previous Ram logo, in 1998.

In August 2017, WSSU unveiled its fierce new Ram logo after nearly a year of surveys and focus groups of students, alumni, coaches and administrators.

Over the past year, the new logo has been seen on billboards around Winston-Salem, on campus-wide signage, on T-shirts and other merchandise, and on the field at Bowman Gray Stadium. Hero Sports, a national sports website, called the logo “devastatingly awesome.”

The Ram has been the mascot of Winston-Salem State since 1932. According to accounts, Theodore Hayes, a basketball player on the first collegiate team of any kind at the university, came up with the name.

In 1978, Amon – inspired by the West African deity – was chosen as the mascot’s name. WSSU’s previous Ram dated back to the mid-1990s and was designed primarily for use in print.