The Brown Bears,The Gray Ghosts or the Red Raiders?

What's in a name? We never heard the Irish-American community complain about the University of Notre Dame's athletic teams being nicknamed The Fightin' Irish. Does that mean all that people of Irish heritage like to do is fight?

Ridiculous.

     The current scuttlebutt wafting through the halls of Barnstable High School is that there are new team nicknames being bandied about. Some say it's the Brown Bears. Oh, how cuddly. How fuzzy. How dopey.

     Leo Shields would be rolling in his grave right now if he heard such nonsense. Since the inception of Barnstable High School athletics in the late 19th Century -- Barnstable High School was established in 1873 -- the school colors have always been Red and White. In the late 1930s, then Cape Cod Standard Times sports editor Ed Semprini nicknamed the BHS teams, the Red Raiders. Long before that -- in numerous newspaper accounts of Barnstable High School football games -- Barnstable was called the "Red & White." The earliest known use -- and proof -- of the term "Red & White" to describe the Barnstable High School athletics teams that we could unearth is from 1902.

     By the 1950s, some sort of American Indian caricature was implemented as the school mascot. But therein lies the solution. If Native Americans are offended by the moniker Red Raiders, it's simple. Drop the Native American image and substitute it for a pirate. Raiders can be pirates too.

       We doubt there are any pirates out there who would be offended by the usage of an Oakland Raiders-style logo. Frankly, we have had enough of the watering down of tradition in this town.

     The school colors are Red & White. The teams are called the Red Raiders. Tell us, what is wrong with that? We've been down this road before. Before we go down this road again, much further, let's end it with a simple solution.