As you drive by Old Rochester High School, you will see a flashing sign that says, “Home of the Bulldogs.”
The Bulldog has been the nickname of the school for 62 years, over a half a century. Hard to believe for an old fella like me who graduated in the third class. The origin of the nickname is a great story and one worth repeating, so I will.
Charles Jefferson, a standout member of the first ORR football team, was the inspiration for the name. Coach Frank Almeida, who heard someone in the crowd say Charlie “played like a bulldog” for his fearless play, suggested the team adopt the nickname “Bulldogs.” And so a nickname was born, soon to be followed by a real, live bulldog mascot named “Trouble.”
Coach Almeida confirmed the story years later. Soon after that first year, I was called upon to paint the original Bulldog logo on the center circle of the gymnasium floor. I was rewarded with a “lifetime” pass to all ORR athletic events. The pass was lost long ago, but I’m still here. (Hmmm … wonder if it still is valid?)
The ORR community is lucky to have a mascot which has existed without controversy for so long. This is not always the case. Not long-ago, nearby Dartmouth had their own dispute over their Indian mascot. After a four-year-long debate, their school board voted to keep the “Chief” logo. It is estimated that until recently there were over 300 high schools in the U.S. and Canada with indigenous-imagery-inspired mascots. I taught at two of them.
No one ever considered the head-dressed Chief’s profile at Grafton High School anything but distinguished. It never occurred to anyone that the school’s logo was racist. Of course, there weren’t any Native Americans in the school. We didn’t have any students costumed as feathered warriors or painted cheerleaders doing the “tomahawk chop” at football games. The consensus was that the school was honoring the Native Americans who founded the town. Still, I recalled that the school’s student newspaper was the “War Path,” and the Superintendent’s monthly newsletter was called “Smoke Signals.”
In 2020, they changed their name to the Gators, though I don’t recall any alligators in Lake Ripple upon whose shores the school rested.
At my next teaching assignment, the school’s nickname was the “Tomahawks.” In 2021, it became clear that it was time to retire the name, and the letter “T” became the school’s temporary logo. After 10 months, the students voted to become the “Titans.”
Sometimes a nickname change is in order just to avoid controversy. Natick High School changed its nickname from “Redmen,” even though the term originally referred to the football team’s red jerseys (not Native Americans), to “Redhawks.” To the best of my knowledge, no hawks protested.
The concern over school mascots is not new. Fairhaven High had their own issue many years ago when a group of parents protested the nickname “Blue Devils.” They were concerned that the school was advocating devil worship. Suffice it to say, the Blue Devils are alive and well to this day. Some schools have mascots that would surely create controversy in today’s “woke” world, yet they carry on.
As far as school mascots go, panthers, bears, bulldogs and other innocent animals seem to be popular. Even devils seem pretty innocuous compared to one high school in Idaho. Orofino High School are the “Maniacs.” The mascot is a maniac in a straitjacket. Orofino is near the state mental hospital.
A number of local, mental-health support groups protested the name, but the school board voted to retain the mascot because it had “nothing to do with the hospital,” rather it was chosen because fans at a football game many years ago said the team played like maniacs. (They should have played like bulldogs.) Supporters claim the crazed, electric haired, jumping mascot is merely a fan. Oh sure.
Richland (Washington) High School claims the “Bombers” and proudly sports a mushroom cloud on their athletic jerseys. The nickname honors the Boeing B-17 “Flying Fortress,” which dropped more bombs during World War II than any other aircraft. You can’t make this up.
Yuma (Arizona) High School are the “Criminals.” Soon after its founding, it moved to the abandoned Yuma Territorial Prison, where classes were taught in the cell-block area, and assemblies were held in the prison hospital. They beat the Phoenix football team, who naturally claimed Yuma “stole” the game. The school store is named the “Cell Block” – or is it the “Sell Block” – I forget.
And finally, there is the Freeport (Illinois) High School “Pretzels.” The legend is that the school board members were sitting around one day drinking beer and eating pretzels and “Walla!” a new nickname was born.
Go Bulldogs!
Editor’s note: Mattapoisett resident Dick Morgado is an artist and retired newspaper columnist whose musings are, after some years, back in The Wanderer under the subtitle “Thoughts on ….” Morgado’s opinions have also appeared for many years in daily newspapers around Boston.
By Dick Morgado