Saturday, April 11, 2009

Home of the Sparrows?

Seeing that no one seems to have the correct PhD to answer the cookie question, I propose another question: Why do I not know of any schools with the sparrow as the mascot? Do you know of any?

From Birds

Look at this picture I just took of one in the front yard. They are quite ubiquitous (at least in this area), and this photo is proof that they are 'tough' enough to be a mascot. There are gillions of schools using the cardinal, but I don't know that I've ever seen the actual bird.

7 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Is "cardinal" a proper noun? If so, I apologize for neglecting the capital letter. Also, apologies to sparrow, as well.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Is "also" and "as well" redundant? If so, my apologies also to the redundancy vice squad, as well.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I really don't have too much time on my hands.

    ReplyDelete
  5. [Post #1 Revised]
    I'm sure Grandma Pete will vouch for this, but us Ohio natives have seen many cardinals in the Midwest -- male and female. They are often included in Christmas cards of a snowy pine tree scene. Sighting a cardinal is a regional privilege. The Mighty Fighting Sparrows? Good question on mascot worthiness. After all, we have "Poets" in town, perhaps an even more genteel mascot.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Is the mascot a cardinal, like the St. Louis Cardinals, or is it like the Stanford Cardinal, a high ecclesiastic appointed by the pope?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wikipedia says:
    "In 1930, the Cardinal was chosen as the Whittier High mascot because it is a native of Mill Creek (the area just north of Rio Hondo College). The bird was chosen because of its scarlet coat, which corresponded with the school colors. It was also felt that this bird possessed the same spirit and determination that has always been representative of Whittier High School."

    Maybe the cardinals moved out during the Depression, but stayed the mascot because of the Catholic Hispanics. I've seen them.

    ReplyDelete