FORT COLLINS, Colo. -- A substitute had to be sent in for Colorado State's mascot Saturday after CAM the Ram died shortly before the team's big day.
Colorado State president Tony Frank said CAM -- the 24th mascot in school history -- died before the Rocky Mountain Showdown against the Colorado Buffaloes.
The Rambouillet sheep was 6 years old. CSU officials don't know how he died.
The Fort Collins Coloradoan reports that a successor, CAM No. 25, took the field for the Rams' 27-24 loss to the Buffaloes.
CAM was a regular at campus events. At Hughes Stadium, he would run from one side of the end zone to the other in celebration of a Rams touchdown.
He lived with a Fort Collins family on a farm that also has horses, chickens and other animals.