Wayback Wednesday: The Mascot Mystery

It had been the kind of winter that made you wonder if you’d ever see the color green again. But the spring thaw had finally begun, and, as I put away my parka, my hand brushed across my trusty trench coat, that quintessential gumshoe garb.

That’s right. It’s time to tackle another Parkland mystery.

It just so happens that I’ve been treading lightly around a puzzler for quite some time, but it’s time to bring it to light – to bring it out of brumation, as it were. So here it is (and I hope I’m not opening a can of snakes – er, worms): there is no evidence supporting the selection of Parkland’s mascot, the Cobras. None. Zilch. Zippo.

I’m not the first to attempt to crack this case.  Using the information she could obtain, Sally Foster Wallace, author of Parkland Works: A 1966-2001 History, could find no clear path to how the Cobras came to be.  She did, however, uncover a great deal of controversy that stemmed from the name. In February 1969, the basketball team decided to change their name to the Hilltoppers, citing the distasteful use of the word “snakemen” some used when referring to them.  The March 7, 1969, issue of The Prospectus went so far as to include two separate articles, one referring to the Cobras and the other to the Hilltoppers. Student Body president Donald Lookingbill ended the team’s actions:“The name is Cobras until student government changes it.”  In an interview for the book, Coach Lynette Trout said she refused to call the Women’s volleyball team the Cobras, resulting in a Prospectus headline which read, “Let’s hear it for the Parkland Whatevers.” Criticism continued nearly two decades later, with a Prospectus article (April 11, 1984) noting that some of the student body found the name and logo offensive. The result of this controversy was not a name-change but, rather, a logo redesign. 

At the time, Wallace had to infer voting results, because the actual results were missing. Imagine my excitement when I was made aware of some recently discovered voting results from the many (many, many) elections held between 1967 and 1968. (Why so many elections? It’s Parliamentary, my dear Watson.)  Excitedly, I ran down the Library stairs to Student Life. This was it, I thought to myself, the long lost winning vote. No such luck. Snake eyes.

The new information confirmed what we already knew: Pioneers and Patriots were consistently front-runners in elections held in November and December, 1967, and again in March 1968, according to results posted in The Sprinkler, Parkland’s weekly print newsletter at the time.  There was an election in April – and the results are still missing – in which Cobras was “officially” chosen the team mascot. Then, in November, 1968, the final election on record was held. These are the newly discovered results:

So there you have it. Besides the fact that Hilltoppers actually did top the hill, the only other conclusion that I can draw from this find is that students were tired of voting on the subject, as evidenced by the extremely low voter turnout. Yet it’s puzzling that the ultimately victorious moniker received just two write-ins, and I’m left with more questions than answers. Who championed the name Cobras? Why did the two votes for Cobras trump all the other votes? And, after all the elections in which Robert's Rules were so rigidly adhered to, why did the Cobras ultimately make the cut?

But what’s done is not to be undone. We’ve had many years of success under that mascot, including Parkland’s Women’s Basketball team, currently competing in the National Championship this week. So Parkland Cobras it is, and the mystery remains.

We’d love to have the scoop on how our mascot came to be. If you have any information that will unearth some answers about this mystery, we hope you’ll share with us.

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