Jessica Bies

The News Journal

The Conrad Redskins will be known as the "Conrad Red Wolves” following a student vote to replace the controversial nickname.

Conrad Schools of Sciences shed the mascot and logo last June after the Red Clay Board of Education voted to replace the old nickname after months of controversy and a recommendation from the Red Clay Mascot Committee.

T-shirts with a preliminary logo were given to students in celebration of the change Wednesday, though a final version won't be released until July and it could change again.

"I would say without question, it's a positive step for the school and the entire school community," Conrad Principal Mark Pruitt said.

Brock Nowell, a baseball player and senior at the school, said he served on the student-led committee that helped pick the logo and thinks it will help mend wounds opened by the previous logo.

"I think it's great," he said. "It gives us kind of a new start. I know there was some bad blood and memories from different sides. ... I think this give Conrad a new look."

POLL: What do you think of Conrad's new mascot?

Conrad had been one of hundreds of high schools across the country to call its sports team the “Redskins.” When it opened in 1935, it had been only 11 years since the Indian Citizenship Act had extended full United States citizenship to all Native Americans.

But in recent years, there has been a groundswell to rename teams called Redskins, Indians and the like. One of the biggest targets has been the Washington Redskins.

Following the school board’s directive to select a mascot that would strengthen ties with local Native Americans, a 15-member, student-led committee requested and received feedback on the finalists from local tribes, Pruitt said.

RELATED: Conrad Schools of Science sheds Redskins name

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Options included the Red Wolves, the Phoenix and the Clippers.

Red Wolves got more than 84 percent of the student vote, garnering 782 votes, perhaps because it "has some swagger," Nowell said.

The school community may choose to use the mascot informally beginning Thursday. The official change will begin with the 2017-2018 school year.

Pruitt said while the school's website and Facebook page will likely be updated this summer, sports uniforms will continue to be replaced on an approximately five-year schedule and may feature both logos during the transition.

"We're going to try to limit our use of a logo and mascot over the spring," he said.

Parents and community groups are welcome to make donations to help replace the uniforms sooner.

Of course, not everyone will be happy about the change.

The most vocal crowd that favored keeping the Redskins name were alumni of the Henry C. Conrad High School, who graduated long before the building was turned into a magnet school in 2007. Before that, in 1978, it had been turned into a middle school and the Native American face in the school's logo was changed to the letter C with a feathered headdress drawn on it.

The name and logo were a way of honoring the Native American heritage in the area, some argued.

Others, including Nanticoke Chief William Daisey have called it a thinly veiled insult.

"It is a slur word, folks," Daisey told a small crowd gathered for a meeting on the issue last May. "It's a slur word – period."

He and the chief of the Lenape, Dennis Coker, served on a Red Clay Consolidated School District committee charged with evaluating the use of Native American imagery in school logos.

Contact Jessica Bies at (302) 324-2881 or jbies@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @jessicajbies.