Saturday, September 19, 2009

Mascots -- the first was Wagi

Every high school has its nickname and mascot. In 1940 when the Board of Education decided to build the new high school in the south west corner of the city to ease some over crowding at West, the first name was somewhat obvious - Southwest. Just as obvious was the nickname -- now you have to remember it was 1940 and we thought about things differently -- not trying to make a value statement, just reviewing history. It was the West Cowboys and they were going to be the natural rivals for this new high school --so the first mascot was the Southwest Indians.

The first mascot for the new high school was "Wagi." A character drawing of an Indian brave who was given the name Wagi.

The mascot for Southwest has been a problem for many years. There was a period of time the image of a fierce looking shark evolved as some type of class mascot. How a fresh water paradise such as Minnesota ended up with a nasty shark might be question for its originators.

We became the Lakers and the mascot still is its own enigma. Admiral Anchor - a personified anchor was tried for a bit and other nautical themes evolved over time.

Do you know of other mascots that have been used at Southwest over the years?

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