The Oklahoma City-based Capitol Hill High School announced last week that it will replace its former “Redskins” mascot with “Red Wolves.”
In December, the Oklahoma City school board voted unanimously to drop the “Redskins” mascot, which had been in place for 88 years, effective immediately. Following the board’s vote, Tierney Tinnin, the district’s spokesperson, released the following statement (via KFOR.com):
Oklahoma City public schools respects and honors the Native American community and students in our district, state, and nation. The administration will immediately begin eliminating the use of the Redskins mascot and will create a committee of students, alumni, and community members to identify a new mascot for Capitol Hill High School before the end of the spring semester.
By March, a committee of students, alumni, and community members initially selected four possible alternatives: Red Hawks, Red Wolves, War Eagles, and Nations. Other mascots under consideration included Chieftains, Warriors, Wolverines, and Jaguars, but all four failed to make the cut. The former’s allusion to American Indians is what disqualified it.
“Our students don’t want the mascot that we chose now to be offensive 80 years from now,” said faculty representative Curtis Phillips to News9.com. “So they were really looking ahead and wanting to choose something nobody could find offensive in any way.”
The committee eventually settled upon Red Wolves and Guardians as the two alternatives, according to
Tim Willert of