Comments on: Column: A Rat By Any Other Name

By: Liz Nowland-Margolis

Liz Nowland-Margolis — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 16:35:26 +0000

The students participated in a brainstorming and then voting method. They were active participants in the process which they dictated. It was led by then Huron High School students who talked to the middle school students about mascots, representations, colors which best work on clothing and costs for reproduction. It was not a survey method.

By: jcp2

jcp2 — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 15:53:06 +0000

For some reason, I have trouble reconciling focus group surveys with creative vision, but then, the students have spoken.

By: Liz Nowland-Margolis

Liz Nowland-Margolis — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 14:02:09 +0000

Okay John, I am a bit late in this response but I feel the desperate need to correct your assumptions – from one River Rat to another!! Students were involved in the selection of the school name and most importantly the colors and mascots!

Incoming Skyline students were involved in a rigorous selection process led by the Huron graphic art class for the color and mascot. A slate of potential school colors were presented, over 12 variations, to over 400 students who then narrowed down the process. Visits were made to the middle schools feeding into Skyline and brainstorming was done with the students for the mascot. Believe me that I was so hoping Salamander would be selected but it didn’t even make the final cut. In fact students hated it!

Because Skyline is located on one of the highest peaks in the city, the students were really stuck on the Eagle, soaring high over the city. They also like that Eagles could soar and swipe up a River Rats and fly ahead of those Pioneer covered wagons. So the process for the selection of the Eagle (have you seen the logo with the talons?) and the North Carolina blue were strickly student selected. Don’t blame the adults on this one! And remember – we needed something that was a far awary from Purple/White and Green/Gold as possible. I think the kids did a great job!

By: Mitch

Mitch — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 12:50:00 +0000

Yeah, the committee did not choose so well for Skyline. After all you were there to put in your two cents worth. How about those River Rats? That was only a nick name cause Huron High was built on the town dump after all, and it stuck.

By: Jeff Mortimer

Jeff Mortimer — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 22:44:24 +0000

My first beats when I joined The Ann Arbor News as a sports writer were U-M hockey and Huron High athletics. It’s hard to say which I knew less about, but the only instruction I remember receiving was not to call Huron High athletes River Rats. Absent an “official” nickname, I was to call them “Hurons,” no doubt to conform to the Pioneer Pioneers precedent. I soon got tired of the charade, not to mention the dissonance (that’s how the coaches and athletes and fans referred to *themselves*, for pity’s sake), and started calling them River Rats whenever I knew someone sympathetic would be editing my copy. And I believe I was the first to have the audacity to use River Rats in a headline. I was later told, although I never substantiated it, that one reason for the administration’s adamance on the subject was the fact that Huron’s principal had had some close and disagreeable encounters with rats when he was a POW in either Korea or World War II.

By: Joel Batterman

Joel Batterman — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 14:41:19 +0000

I’ve heard that the “rat” name referred not only to the nearby river, but to Huron’s location on a former U-M Hospitals medical waste dump. Can anyone confirm this?

As a proud Rat, I’ve sometimes been troubled by the fact that some of the mascot images seem to more resemble mice; then again, I’m no expert in rodent physiognomy.

I hope we didn’t lose our last chance for “Bidlack High Bailiwicks” with the Skyline naming.

By: John Floyd

John Floyd — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 04:40:24 +0000

Conspiracy theory being such a great parlor game, I always figured the the name “Skyline” was chosen to re-inforce the zoning plans of the ruling class, because it was chosen around the time that A2D2 was in play.

The Ann Arbor Amphibians would be alliterative, unique, and recognize that salamanders were not the only representatives of their order on the site.

My eldest sister was the in first sophomore class to occupy the Huron building. She always told me that the original mascot was The Braves, or something like that , and that the administration actively suppressed the use of River Rat for several years before finally caving to student sentiment.

“Eagles” sounds like a deliberately safe choice, so bland that no one would be put off – or even notice. At least it isn’t like we mimicked a local college or anything. Mr. Ezekiel does make a good point – sky blue makes some sense if the mascot is an eagle. It’s not obvious how to make uniforms look bald.

By: Ruth Kraut

Ruth Kraut — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 15:47:01 +0000

Dan, it is true that the eighth graders (I think all the 8th graders in that part of the district) were polled–but I don’t think that Salamanders or Scavengers were on the list…

I don’t mind the name Skyline, but the light blue color is not a great choice for making uniforms stand out.

By: Dan Ezekiel

Dan Ezekiel — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 12:35:16 +0000

For the record, the 8th grade students who were to be the first Skyline class DID vote on the mascot name, from a list submitted by the committee (I don’t remember whether there were 3 or 5 names on the list). Eagles was the easy winner. They also picked the colors (sky blue and white). I personally like the name Skyline, as the school sits atop one of the highest hills in town. Once you have the name Skyline, the colors and mascot make sense.

By: Reid

Reid — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 00:34:48 +0000

I always thought they should be the Skyline Salamanders, since there was that hubbub about the endangered Salamanders that lived on the sight where the school was built. That would be way cooler than the Eagles. Or, they could do the opposite of Eastern and be the Skyline Hurons!