The Cooperstown Central Redskins high school sports teams have elected to drop what some consider to be its racist nickname and mascot.
Interestingly, as Yahoo Sports' Prep Rally points out:
In the same week that [the Washington Redskins] were extolling the virtues of the Redskins as a nickname, the students of one school whose teams are still called the ‘Skins voted to change their nickname, poste haste.
As reported by the Associated Press, teams competing for Cooperstown (N.Y.) Central High will no longer be known as the Redskins as soon as the school board selects a mascot/nicnkname replacement.
The Daily Star of Oneonta first reported that Cooperstown high school and middle school students had voted to change the district’s mascot.
Unlike the Washington Redskins, Cooperstown Central had more of a justification for naming its teams after a Native American figure. Cooperstown was the hometown of famed author James Fenimore Cooper, who penned “The Last of the Mohicans” among other tomes. As it stands, Cooper’s legacy with the school may not end with the Redskins nickname’s demise.
The AP reported that Deerslayers, Hawkeyes and Pathfinders, all characters in Cooper novels, are the current favored mascots to take the Redskins’ place.
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