Keep the Bombardiers flying high.

Changing the names of high school sports mascots is a topic that's been in the news a lot lately, but this is one time when it's not for the reason that immediately comes to mind.

There will be a public forum in Attleboro later this week to discuss the possible change of the high school's team nickname which has been in place for about 75 years -- Blue Bombardiers -- because it may not represent a lively and forward-looking branding effort that some folks at the high school want as they prepare to move into their new $250 million home next year.

I'll say right from the top that I'm against it. I've only known Attleboro High's teams as the Bombardiers for as long as I've been on this planet. In fact, there have been very few changes in the nicknames of local schools that have been around for more than 70 years or so, since the first wave of nickname selection started back in the 1940s. I've known nothing other than Hornets, Rocketeers, Warriors, Bulldogs and the like from our area's oldest schools, and I would prefer to see them endure.

Yes, it's irritating to see it misspelled as "Bombadiers" (as it once was on the gym floor) or shortened to "Bombers" (pronounced as "Bommas") out of sheer laziness. I like Bombardiers. It's unique. And it's not something contrived such as "Swamp Cats" or "River Hawks" for political correctness.

I like tradition. I like names that have a tie to history. And unless there's an overwhelming reason why the name might have been offensive at some point -- imagine, if you will, if Mansfield had chosen "Fighting Guineas" as their nickname to represent the large Italian population in town, how that name would be received today -- I see no need to rush to a name change just for the sake of "branding."

But Attleboro has been in search of a new identity (if not just a sports nickname) for a long time. In fact, leaving the sports issue aside for a while, Attleboro definitely needed something to paint a more positive image for what many believed to be a school in decline at the dawn of the 21st century.

Enter Principal Bill Runey, who came over to AHS after holding the same job at the city's Catholic high school, Bishop Feehan. Runey is a Southerner familiar with the importance of school nicknames to their fan bases, and he's a great salesman who is keenly aware that if you repeat something enough times, people will start to believe it.

So when he took over the Attleboro job, he coined the phrase "Blue Pride" to describe the atmosphere he wanted to create on Rathbun Willard Drive. At first, it was a little bit of a joke. Attleboro High, opened in the early 1960s, was falling apart and the school attitude was best described as defeatist, if not worse. But Runey is no quitter, so he turned "Blue Pride" into a mantra to describe anything and everything related to Attleboro High School.

And you know what? It worked.

Surrounded by both long-time administrators, teachers and coaches and new hires, both interested in committing themselves to the transformation of the school, the "Blue Pride" movement started to take hold and prosper. And today, with a more positive outlook regarding education at the forefront of the operation at AHS, Blue Pride has actual meaning to the student community.

The new high school is going to be a real palace, a showcase for the former Jewelry City. I can almost understand why there might be a desire for a new sports identity to go along with the new building and new outlook. But at the same time, it's not as if the existing nickname is patently offensive to anyone.

Yes, it is militaristic in nature. That's true. But is that entirely bad? 

Before Attleboro athletes were Bombardiers, they were ... well, I'm not entirely sure. The city was steeped in the jewelry industry for a long time, and I'm told that athletic teams in town were unofficially called "the Jewelers" for a long time (although those were mostly "town teams," semi-professional outfits that represented the city but not just the high school). As in the case of most of our other area communities, the references were usually to the team colors, as in the Blue and White.

Mansfield's Hornet, after a
1940s radio program

But somewhere in the 1940s, either during World War II or just after it, schools started adopting mascots as professional teams had. My hometown of Mansfield chose "Green Hornets" in 1948 to reflect the popularity of the popular radio serial about a newspaper publisher that became a mysterious crimefighter after dark, "The Green Hornet," which was adapted for the small screen in the 1960s as a campy TV series on ABC in the "Batman" mode. The town of Canton adopted "Bulldogs" because of the famous pro team that played in Canton, Ohio. Other schools selected names that reflected the Native American heritage of their regions, which is proving to be very controversial 75 years after the fact.

No one has ever pinned down to me why Attleboro selected "Bombardiers," other than its syllabic similarity to North Attleboro's choice of "Rocketeers." But at least it's understandable in the context of the times.

The Boeing B-17 bomber from World War II.

One of the tide-turning aspects of the war in Europe was American air power, sending wave after wave of B-17 "Flying Fortress" bombers from English air bases into Germany to devastate the industrial capabilities of the Third Reich. And on each of those aircraft, the bombardier was the crewman most entrusted with the responsibility of delivering an awe-inspiring payload of destruction to the factories that had fueled Adolf Hitler's dreams of world domination.

The bombardier sat at the very front of the B-17's fuselage, practically defenseless to the danger of attacking fighter planes or anti-aircraft flak guns from the ground, focused upon his bombsight and choosing the very moment when the plane's payload could be dropped accurately upon the target below.

The level of bravery among the airmen flying B-17s was staggering. Some 55,000 US airmen lost their lives during the European air war. And those that survived returned to America able to tell tales of abject horror in the skies, of having to endure wave after wave of fighter attacks and a veritable wall of shrapnel from the flak guns over their targets, and somehow making it back to their bases in England with their planes held together seemingly only by the power of prayer.

If you wanted to choose a symbol of bravery from the just-concluded world war, "bombardier" was as good as any.

Attleboro High School's eagle logo.

Attleboro is also questioning the use of an eagle as its mascot. Well, that probably has its roots in the war as well. The eagle was a popular symbol of the US Army Air Corps, which became the US Air Force in 1947. It represented the might and ferocity of what American war planes brought to battle, dovetailing with the already-existing imagery of the eagle as a national symbol. Unless you want your teams to be represented by a giant marshmallow, the eagle is a good choice.

It was good enough for Sharon High, which chose "Eagles" to replace "Hilltoppers" as its school sports identity about 70 years ago.

Keep in mind, I do not believe that Runey is forcing this change upon Attleboro High -- although I don't think he will be disappointed if there is a change. He says this has been part of student marketing research since the fall, and that the result of the survey distributed in the school indicated a disconnect between students and the nickname. Some objected to the militaristic nature of the nickname.

Maybe there needs to be a little more history taught inside AHS to offset that. While not all of the air war against Germany was altruistic in nature (do a Google search for Dresden), overwhelmingly the reason for the air war and its terrifying results was to stop perhaps the greatest evil ever known on this earth.

Or maybe there's just no real need for change.

Here's an example to consider. 

The athletic teams of my college alma mater, Northwestern University, are known as the Wildcats. In the 1970s, almost every Northwestern team sucked, and sports had become a bad joke on campus. So, students voted overwhelmingly in a referendum to change the nickname to “Purple Haze” — a tribute to Jimi Hendrix and to what they were all smoking on campus. 

Fortunately, the Athletic Department ignored them. Now that Northwestern is much more competitive in all sports, people are proud to be Wildcats again. Purple Haze would have been an unmitigated disaster.

Earlier today, I asked a young woman and recent Mansfield High athlete if she was proud to be a Hornet when she played at MHS. Of course, she was. But it should be pointed out that she was unaware that back in the late 1970s, there was a move afoot to change everything about MHS because the sports teams had fallen upon hard times and the changing demographics of the student population saw nothing awe-inspiring about hornets. 

That old mural of the Incredible Hulk on the gym wall? It had a painted banner above it that said, "MHS Green Machine," and that was the name suggested for future Mansfield teams as the school committee pondered a move to the Tri-Valley League or the Mayflower League because Mansfield was being manhandled every day in the Hockomock League.

Well, again, no one jumped the gun. New and better coaches came to town. A larger student population meant more candidates for teams. More competent administrators supported positive changes for academics and athletics. And the wins started coming. A positive aura developed around the school -- and now, it's a matter of intense pride in Mansfield to be a Hornet, the logo of which adorns almost every aspect of school operation these days.

I can see the same for Attleboro.

With a beautiful new school coming and more success in all sports being enjoyed with an even brighter future possible, I believe Attleboro can continue to embrace tradition … and sure, maybe even put “Blue Pride” on the uniforms the way North Attleboro uses “Big Red" on some of theirs -- even though that's a brand of chewing gum.

I'd like to see Attleboro take the chance to fully remove whatever tarnish there may still be on "Bombardiers" before it's time to scrap that part of history.