Name-a-Day Calendar, December 2: Boston College Eagles
Page 26 of 365
Chosen in: 1920
Chosen by: Alumnus Rev. Edward J. McLaughlin
Boston College has historically been associated with high places. Its campus sits both within a hill (the village of Chestnut Hill) and atop an actual, physical hill about six miles west of the city center. Its student newspaper is called The Heights.
The school’s sports teams played without a mascot for their first couple decades of competition. In 1920, their track team won a big meet, so Boston Traveler cartoonist Charlie Donelan illustrated the team as “a stray cat lapping up the opposition”. Some students and alumni were evidently offended by this portrayal. One alumnus, speaking anonymously at the time but later revealing himself to be Rev. Edward J. McLaughlin, wrote a letter to the editor of The Heights claiming that the cartoon wouldn’t have been drawn if the school had a real mascot.
McLaughlin recommended the school adopt the eagle as its mascot, as it is “symbolic of majesty, power, and freedom” and “its natural habitat is the high places”. By and large, the school agreed and that was that.
The school received its first live bird mascot in 19231 but switched to a costumed mascot in 1966. Read about the history of their current mascot Baldwin here.
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I would specify “live eagle” but the first bird the school received was, for some reason, a hawk.