What do you get when you combine a graduation cap, a good imagination, and a lifelong love for RAM? If you’re seventeen-year-old Robby Lyons of Wythe County, Virginia, you get your picture in the paper and a call from the local RAM dealer thanking you for your support and dedication to the brand.
The story goes like this: the night before graduating from Fort Chiswell High School, Robby decided to bolt a RAM’s head hood ornament to his graduation cap. It took him more than two hours to complete, and during that time he had zero inclination of the celebrity it would bring.
The next day Robby received his diploma with head held high, the gleaming, 4-inch silver RAM’s head held even higher. This in turn led to the story in the paper and now, Robby says, people in the county look at him curiously. “They recognize me. Some ask me if I’m that kid who put the RAM’s head on his graduation cap.” Clearly it pleases Robby to answer that it is. For him, it’s a fitting thing to be known for.
“My whole family loves Mopar,” says Robby. “I love RAM trucks, and I have all my life. We have a 2004 RAM 2500 HD. I sit in that truck and I get chills. The power and durability combined with handling—it just blows me away.”
The now-famous hood ornament came not from the 2500 but from the “Ol’ Goat,” Robby’s 1989 Power RAM W100 Series, a truck he has owned for about 18 months. Robby figures he’s the fifth owner overall and that the RAM has 188,000 miles on it, though it could be the engine has 100,000 miles more. Either way, Robby says, the Ol’ Goat still “runs like a top.”
Robby isn’t sure if he’s started a school-wide trend with his hood ornament graduation cap. However, he would like RAM to know he’s available to help design other types of headgear, RAM-inspired baseball caps, for instance.
We’ll keep the offer in mind.
Congratulations to Robby and the entire class of 2012!
*Photo courtesy Wytheville Enterprise
