HITW June 30, 2015
For the first time ever, I’m going to use the term “Redskins” in print, and I will only use it in the context of a column, and only to make a case for change; never in game coverage.
By the time you, kind reader, reach the end of this column, I hope you ask the question “how in the world can Goshen justify keeping Redskins as a mascot?”
I began this quest knowing well one person’s symbol of heritage is another’s logo of hatred. Free speech is a double-edged knife that cuts both ways, and we cannot as Americans choose what can and cannot be said strictly based on a level of offensiveness. There’s an reason why it’s called “taking offense;” as often as not it has to be picked up and carried as a burden.
First off, I wanted to know how Goshen High School teams became the “Redskins.” The investigation began as most do in the 21st Century; I entered “Goshen Redskins origin” into an insanely popular search engine.
Among the things turning up was a column on a now-defunct website www.goshencommons.org, which stopped adding new content 13 months ago. Joe Springer, the curator at Goshen College’s Mennonite Historical Library, submitted a story titled “What’s In A Name? An Investigation into the Origins of the Goshen Redskins.” If that’s not enough information to read the piece for yourself, send me an e-mail and I’ll send the link along.
To make a long story short, in an era when the high schools were all white, and people in them used racial slang (“racial slurs” is the term we use today) as a part of an everyday vocabulary, an evolution of sorts occurred to get to “Redskins.”
According to Springer, there were two newspapers in Goshen in the winter of 1926-27. Charles “Eck” Egenroad, Goshen Class of 1925, covered sports for the Goshen Daily Democrat.
“In the fall of 1926, ‘Eck’ had begun referring to the GHS football team as the Red (or Crimson) Menace,” Springer wrote. “Dec. 2, 1926, a day before the Goshen’s first basketball game of the season, marks the first appearance of “Red Skins” to refer to the team.
“The first use of the term in his ‘Sportfolio’ column appears to have been descriptive in a literal sense: team members all had to undergo smallpox vaccinations and were concerned that their sore, red arms might impact their performance.
“Within a week, ‘Eck,’ perhaps with encouragement from his readers, began focusing on the Native American connection.”
Bill Bradford, the then 16-year-old sports writer for the Goshen News-Times and a junior at the high school, picked up the nickname a few days later.
By the end of the school year, Egenroad and Bradford were using Native American references with great regularity. An example from Egenroad: “ “The war dance started by the Redskins last week in the New Paris massacre was continued unmolested last night and the scalps of the Warsaw Tigers were added to the belts of the locals. Said scalp belts are liable to be pretty well filled before the end of the season.”
Bradford wrote “Four schools have sent their hopes to this city so far this season and none of them has been able to defeat the blood thirsty savages,” and “Coach Gerald Phillips’ Goshen Redskins added the fifth scalp to their belt when they defeated Bristol.”
In 1927 Bradford used the term “palefaces” to reference the junior varsity basketball team, and “papooses” for the third team.
To be fair, until the 1940s “Redskins” referred only to the basketball team. The football squad was most commonly referred to as the “Red Menace,” the track team “Red Ramblers,” and the baseball team “Red Sox.”
Springer rightfully acknowledges Egenroad and Bradford were following “a widespread U.S. cultural phenomenon in the same era.
“The 1920s was an era that saw a proliferation of intentional nicknaming of Crimson 1945 athletics college-level athletic teams and these Goshen sportswriters embraced this fad. The choice in Goshen’s case seems to have been almost accidental, but was, at the time, uncomplicated and easy to launch. “Redskins” came conveniently pre-packaged with enough stereotypical accessories—words and images–that it took little effort for anyone to weave into writings and activities related to school life. The scalping, attacking, and blood-curdling whoops could become part of any sports article or pep rally.”
I can remember my father’s father, a World War I veteran, using several different euphemisms to describe peoples from places as far away as Germany and Japan. It’s almost tradition in the armed forces to have a derogatory name for the people of the enemy; a practice that continues to this day. I highly doubt Egenroad, Bradford and others would make the same choice in the 21st century.
Goshen athletic director Larry Kissinger, in a statement published on the Goshen Community Schools website, said “it is not my calling to defend or condemn the name. It is my responsibility to promote an environment of sportsmanship and learning of which our student-athletes, coaching staff, and community can be proud. We are proud to be called ‘Redskins!’”
He goes on to say “our attitudes towards sportsmanship, our behavior, and our pride in Goshen HS are not dependent on our mascot name, but on the positive life skills that sportsmanship instills in student-athletes.”
In a statement released to the media June 10, Goshen Community Schools Board president Cathie Cripe said “We, the Goshen Community Schools board, appreciate that community members have strong feelings on both sides.
“As we all know this issue has had national attention for some time. We wish we could say that we have a solution that would please everyone, but we don’t. At this time our mascot is the Redskins. As with all concerns that are brought to the board’s attention, we will take this under advisement.”
Surely this issue and others like it nationwide will ge the attention it needs. Certainly the GCS board realizes there’s no way to make everyone happy here.
The solution is painfully obvious: the mascot Goshen has now reflects the views of a largely white society from 90 years ago. The schools and the city have a unique opportunity to lead here, rather than follow.
This isn’t about the National Football League team in our nation’s capital, not is it about the three other high schools in the state (Fort Wayne North. Indianapolis Manual and Knox) still using “Redskins.” It’s about Goshen taking a position of leadership in making the change.
And unless the decision to change is made, the debate will continue indefinitely. It will never get easier to implement, but the longer it waits the more difficult the task becomes. There is no solution that will please everyone; households have a hard time coming up with such a thing, much less communities.
The schools have had major building projects in recent years, and now is the time to remodel the mascot as well. And the sooner it’s done, the sooner the healing of any hurt within the community can begin.
By the time you, kind reader, reach the end of this column, I hope you ask the question “how in the world can Goshen justify keeping Redskins as a mascot?”
I began this quest knowing well one person’s symbol of heritage is another’s logo of hatred. Free speech is a double-edged knife that cuts both ways, and we cannot as Americans choose what can and cannot be said strictly based on a level of offensiveness. There’s an reason why it’s called “taking offense;” as often as not it has to be picked up and carried as a burden.
First off, I wanted to know how Goshen High School teams became the “Redskins.” The investigation began as most do in the 21st Century; I entered “Goshen Redskins origin” into an insanely popular search engine.
Among the things turning up was a column on a now-defunct website www.goshencommons.org, which stopped adding new content 13 months ago. Joe Springer, the curator at Goshen College’s Mennonite Historical Library, submitted a story titled “What’s In A Name? An Investigation into the Origins of the Goshen Redskins.” If that’s not enough information to read the piece for yourself, send me an e-mail and I’ll send the link along.
To make a long story short, in an era when the high schools were all white, and people in them used racial slang (“racial slurs” is the term we use today) as a part of an everyday vocabulary, an evolution of sorts occurred to get to “Redskins.”
According to Springer, there were two newspapers in Goshen in the winter of 1926-27. Charles “Eck” Egenroad, Goshen Class of 1925, covered sports for the Goshen Daily Democrat.
“In the fall of 1926, ‘Eck’ had begun referring to the GHS football team as the Red (or Crimson) Menace,” Springer wrote. “Dec. 2, 1926, a day before the Goshen’s first basketball game of the season, marks the first appearance of “Red Skins” to refer to the team.
“The first use of the term in his ‘Sportfolio’ column appears to have been descriptive in a literal sense: team members all had to undergo smallpox vaccinations and were concerned that their sore, red arms might impact their performance.
“Within a week, ‘Eck,’ perhaps with encouragement from his readers, began focusing on the Native American connection.”
Bill Bradford, the then 16-year-old sports writer for the Goshen News-Times and a junior at the high school, picked up the nickname a few days later.
By the end of the school year, Egenroad and Bradford were using Native American references with great regularity. An example from Egenroad: “ “The war dance started by the Redskins last week in the New Paris massacre was continued unmolested last night and the scalps of the Warsaw Tigers were added to the belts of the locals. Said scalp belts are liable to be pretty well filled before the end of the season.”
Bradford wrote “Four schools have sent their hopes to this city so far this season and none of them has been able to defeat the blood thirsty savages,” and “Coach Gerald Phillips’ Goshen Redskins added the fifth scalp to their belt when they defeated Bristol.”
In 1927 Bradford used the term “palefaces” to reference the junior varsity basketball team, and “papooses” for the third team.
To be fair, until the 1940s “Redskins” referred only to the basketball team. The football squad was most commonly referred to as the “Red Menace,” the track team “Red Ramblers,” and the baseball team “Red Sox.”
Springer rightfully acknowledges Egenroad and Bradford were following “a widespread U.S. cultural phenomenon in the same era.
“The 1920s was an era that saw a proliferation of intentional nicknaming of Crimson 1945 athletics college-level athletic teams and these Goshen sportswriters embraced this fad. The choice in Goshen’s case seems to have been almost accidental, but was, at the time, uncomplicated and easy to launch. “Redskins” came conveniently pre-packaged with enough stereotypical accessories—words and images–that it took little effort for anyone to weave into writings and activities related to school life. The scalping, attacking, and blood-curdling whoops could become part of any sports article or pep rally.”
I can remember my father’s father, a World War I veteran, using several different euphemisms to describe peoples from places as far away as Germany and Japan. It’s almost tradition in the armed forces to have a derogatory name for the people of the enemy; a practice that continues to this day. I highly doubt Egenroad, Bradford and others would make the same choice in the 21st century.
Goshen athletic director Larry Kissinger, in a statement published on the Goshen Community Schools website, said “it is not my calling to defend or condemn the name. It is my responsibility to promote an environment of sportsmanship and learning of which our student-athletes, coaching staff, and community can be proud. We are proud to be called ‘Redskins!’”
He goes on to say “our attitudes towards sportsmanship, our behavior, and our pride in Goshen HS are not dependent on our mascot name, but on the positive life skills that sportsmanship instills in student-athletes.”
In a statement released to the media June 10, Goshen Community Schools Board president Cathie Cripe said “We, the Goshen Community Schools board, appreciate that community members have strong feelings on both sides.
“As we all know this issue has had national attention for some time. We wish we could say that we have a solution that would please everyone, but we don’t. At this time our mascot is the Redskins. As with all concerns that are brought to the board’s attention, we will take this under advisement.”
Surely this issue and others like it nationwide will ge the attention it needs. Certainly the GCS board realizes there’s no way to make everyone happy here.
The solution is painfully obvious: the mascot Goshen has now reflects the views of a largely white society from 90 years ago. The schools and the city have a unique opportunity to lead here, rather than follow.
This isn’t about the National Football League team in our nation’s capital, not is it about the three other high schools in the state (Fort Wayne North. Indianapolis Manual and Knox) still using “Redskins.” It’s about Goshen taking a position of leadership in making the change.
And unless the decision to change is made, the debate will continue indefinitely. It will never get easier to implement, but the longer it waits the more difficult the task becomes. There is no solution that will please everyone; households have a hard time coming up with such a thing, much less communities.
The schools have had major building projects in recent years, and now is the time to remodel the mascot as well. And the sooner it’s done, the sooner the healing of any hurt within the community can begin.