The Evolution of the Brattleboro Colonel

The Brattleboro Colonels’ mascot is again being questioned. As it currently exists, it is a cartoonish characterization of a southern colonel, along the lines of something you’d see at a fried chicken franchise. It should be retired and replaced.

That said, the current version is not quite what was originally intended.

Joe Rivers, local history teacher and a president of the Brattleboro Historical Society, explained that for the first half of the high school’s existence there was no sports team name or mascot. “When the school was located in what is now the municipal center the sports teams were just known as Brattleboro. The sports editors assigned nicknames, often associated with the last name of their coach, but there was not an official name until 1950.”

Rivers said that it was 1949 when the school board and community voted to build a new high school on the old Civil War camp and Fairground site at the southern end of town. “With the move coming up, the school administration took steps to encourage the students to think about a sport team nickname and a new name for the yearbook. In February, 1950 the B.H.S. student body voted an official nickname for the athletic teams; the Colonels.”

He added that according to Principal Parry and Coach Natowich, the choice came down to Colonels or Panthers, and by a vote of 330 to 160 the Colonel nickname was victorious.

“The February 23 edition of the Reformer reported “Down through the years Brattleboro High teams have been called everything from Organ Grinders to Bratts, but the name most popularly used has been Purples. This has oftentimes presented a problem because the school colors of neighboring Bellow Falls High are also purple and white”. The paper reported that the student council had taken on the task of naming the teams when it was known that the school would be moving to the old military site and fairgrounds. Coach Natowich had lobbied for the Crusaders – his college mascot – but the students linked their sports team name to the Civil War site where their new school was being constructed” said Rivers.

When the high school first decided on the colonel, then, it wasn’t a nod to the south so much as an attempt to associate with victorious Union colonels around town and pay homage to the Civil War hospital grounds. Colonels were seen as a position of importance to local residents. Historically, Brattleboro has been home to many “colonels” – almost every white male of any stature held the title. Here are just a few familiar names from Brattleboro’s past:

• Col. William Brattle
• Col. John Sargent
• Col. Samuel Wells
• Col. J. Gray Estey
• Col. J. J. Estey
• Col. William Austine
• Col. Levi Fuller
• Col. Joseph Goodhue

There were others.

Rivers sent along the 1958 edition of the yearbook, with an early drawing of the Colonel. The illustration shows an old man with a big moustache in cap and gown, holding up one arm as if to say “stop” and holding a diploma in the other. Nothing about it is particularly “southern” unless we count the mustache, but our Union colonels had big mustaches as well. Nothing about this image is particularly “northern,” either.

So how did it evolve into a southern-style mascot?

The shift began in the 1960’s according to Rivers. “Roy Miner, the Brattleboro instrumental and vocal music teacher, went to college in Tennessee and is credited by some with bringing the southern Colonel mascot to Brattleboro when he was hired in 1962. A southern Colonel mascot often marched and performed with the high school band during Miner’s years from 1962 to 1973.”

More broadly, people in general began to associate the “Colonel” coming to represent “southern” as the fried chicken franchise featuring Colonel Sanders became known nationwide. The concept of northern “Colonels” never had a marketing campaign.

So, much like a game of telephone where a message becomes mangled as it passes from player to player, the mascot’s origins were forgotten and the image and concept evolved. The current Colonel looks like a fried chicken franchise representative, or perhaps a cousin of Yosemite Sam.

What should the mascot be going forward? Restoring the Colonel to its Union origins seems a bit pointless. As much as I like the “Organ Grinders,” I can imagine that one eventually getting mangled as well. Naming teams after the current coaches sounds interesting. I like the “Bratts” as something that might look good in headlines. Having no name could be innovative.

The dictionary says a mascot is “a person or thing that is supposed to bring good luck or that is used to symbolize a particular event or organization.”

It seems like it might be time for the students to present some new ideas and have a vote.