Evolution of the "Sachem" as Winchester High School's Mascot

Only in the early 1950s did Winchester High School sports teams start to regularly use a mascot, initially more often “Indians” than “Sachems.” The Aberjona first used “Sachems” for boys’ basketball in the 1953-54 school year, but “Indians” for football and ice hockey. Only in the 1956-57 school year did it refer to all sports teams as the “Sachems.” The Winchester Star continued to use “Indians” for the football team until the 1959-60 school year.25 In the 1954-55 school year an Indian started to appear on some of the athletic uniforms, with a consistent use of the same image - an Indian wrapped in a blanket, with a single feather in the back of his headband - in the 1957-58 school year. In advance of the 1958-59 school year the Star advertised in its pages items printed with this same Winchester Sachem mascot for the back-to-school supplies that it sold at its Church Street offices. Unfortunately not enough evidence exists to discover why, first, the shift toward the use of Indian mascots occurred in the early 1950s and, second, the full use of the “Sachem” by the 1959 school season.26