Jesuit High School’s mascot is the Marauder, but the well-known pirate has a richer history than many think.

In 1967, the graduating class voted on the mascot, the colors, the name of the newspaper (The Plank), also the name of the yearbook (The Cutlass). But in 1970, the school colors were changed due to the issue of getting the right color in apparel.

“One year we bought football pants from someone or other in old gold and they looked almost pea green,” said Mr. Mark Warren ‘67, a member of Jesuit’s first graduating class and a former administrator at the school. “So we went to yellow gold, which was pretty standard.”

Due to the fact that the school colors were changed, the equipment had to be changed, too.

“ [A friend and I] were also the ones who put the yellow gold face masks on the football helmets. We changed them the night before one of the Holy Bowls,” said Mr. Warren.

Although the colors ended up as red and yellow gold, the original class wanted the colors to be black and gold.  The colors might have been black and gold if it wasn’t for the Jesuit priests at the school.

“I always suspected that the good Jesuit fathers when [they] tabulated the votes, [they] picked the colors they wanted because the consensus of my classmates was to make the school colors black and yellow,” Mr. Warren said.

If it wasn’t for the first graduating class Jesuit might be the home of the Hornets. We have the first class to thank for the Marauder.