"We're Bulldogs Now!"

The Contra Costa Gazette headline in its September 13, 1947 edition drew attention to a story about the welcome back-to-school assembly and the momentous change that returning students would face.   The student body and the town would no longer root for the Alhambra Panthers – that mascot would henceforth belong to Antioch Union High School.  Instead, by vote of the student body, Alhambra Union High School would now be known as the Home of the Bulldogs.  The story continues….

“It (the assembly) brought home to the student body that no longer will they hear the roar of the Panther in victory or defeat, but will instead listen for the low menacing growl of the Bulldog when the going is rough, and his more friendly growl when all is well.”

How and why that happened during the 1946-47 school year is still shrouded in mystery.  And while many current students and more recent alumni think Alhambra’s mascot has always been Spike the bulldog, there are others who remember with a shrug that it changed years ago but who cares now?  There are still a few, mainly proud athletes on Alhambra Panther teams, who 65 years later suspect that their alma mater was indeed robbed of a precious and longstanding symbol.

In 1946, Alhambra and Antioch Union High Schools shared three things – initials (AUHS), colors (blue and gold) and mascot (the Panther).  For over a decade, the schools belonged to the same league competing in football, basketball, baseball and track and field.  Looking at the record over the years, sometimes Alhambra was dominant and other times Antioch was.  This was particularly true in the late 1940s according to Frank Bellecci, member of the Alhambra class of 1947 where he was named MVP for football, served as first president of the newly formed Block A Society and played baseball.

“They always beat us” Frank recalls although he was on the team that nearly defeated the powerhouse but for a touchdown in the last minute and a half of the 4th quarter.

Frank isn’t sure and neither is his good friend and 1947 Alhambra student body president Al Zamolo why the issue even came up and who pushed for the change.  The suspicion is that Alhambra principal “Butch” Knowles and the Antioch principal might have hatched the idea.  There are stories that coins were flipped either by the administrators or by the two teams’ coaches.  One version says that Antioch won and chose the mascot while the other is that Alhambra won and kept the colors in part because it would be cheaper to keep the logo-less blue and gold uniforms – after all, the position numbers wouldn’t change.

There is even a strong feeling by a number of class members including 1947 Alhambra Panther football hero, Bill Bland, that there was a playoff game the winner of which would get first choice of mascot or colors.  That theory can be laid to rest with fair certainty as the extensive school news clipping files in the Contra Costa County History Center contain every news story about every athletic contest between the two schools in the 1945-47 period and many stories about the meetings and the student body votes at each school over the issue.  Not one mentions the outcome of a game as the determinant of which school ended up with the mascot or the colors.

One thing Frank and his friends were sure of at the time – Alhambra would get stuck following whatever the decision was but Antioch wouldn’t change its mascot or its colors no matter what the agreement between the two schools stipulated.

In fact, Frank didn’t vote on the new mascot in the May, 1947 student body election “because I didn’t trust any of them up there! I knew Marchetti (a team star) and all of them.  They kept the Panther and the blue and gold.  They weren’t going to change!”

That opinion was shared by Dunstan Granshaw of the 1946 class.  “It was a big controversy.  Everybody said ‘you picked the wrong thing because they won’t change!’ Everyone was up in arms.”  It was thought, he continued, that Antioch would get away with keeping the colors as well as the mascot because “black and dark blue are so close”.

It turns out that mistrust was misplaced.  Antioch did end up with the mascot and immediately started the process of selecting new colors. 

According to the January 15, 1947 Gazette “Alhambra Panthers today were destined to pass into history.”  It reported that the Alhambra school council agreed to change the mascot to end the confusion.  “Antioch Union High initiated the move by volunteering to change from blue and gold to green and gold if Alhambra would change its emblem.  Alhambra agreed pending Antioch’s adoption of new colors.”

Liz Rimbault, Executive Director of the Antioch Museum, recommended calling Bruce Hiebert, an Antioch old timer who she felt would know how it all came down if anybody would.  She was right.  It turns out that Bruce, Antioch ’49 and a junior in the 1947-48 school year, played a major role in the process.

“I got a uniform manufacturer to make some sample football uniforms which I hung in the hallway.  We had black and gold, green and gold, silver and black, and green and white,” he recalled. Although earlier news stories had speculated that while black and gold was the most popular among the student body, it would be too close to Pittsburg’s black and orange so the final choice would be green and gold.  Wrong! According to the November 18, 1947 Gazette, black and gold came out on top at Antioch, 877-74.

When asked about the potential Pittsburg color confusion problem, Hebert denied it was ever a concern since the only black on Antioch’s new uniforms was on the shoulder pads and the numbers.

Alhambra’s student body needed two elections to choose a new mascot.  The first vote was held with the Student Council elections on May 14, 1947.  The choices were Wolverines, Bull Dogs, Wild Cats, Cougars and Hornets. 

Contra Costa Gazette: May 17, 1947:  “The checkers counted vote after vote, calling out “Bull Dogs,” “Wolverines” in turn again and again.  Then came the last ballot.  Breathlessly, the judge opened it, read the choice and announced ‘It’s a tie.’ And so it was.”

A run-off vote was held in early June to determine, as student correspondent Jerry Perry wrote, “will the student yell be ‘Fight on you Bull Dogs, or ‘Tear ‘em up, you Wolverines!’” 

The June 4 paper announced the students had chosen the Bulldogs by “a heavy vote which left only a scattering of ballots for the name of Wolverines”.  Since Bulldog contained the same number of syllables as Panther, the reporter pointed out that school songs and yells could be easily preserved, modified and used

In the process of solving at least some of the mystery surrounding an issue which seemed so important at the time, another one emerged at the last minute when it was too late to call Bruce Hebert back --- exactly when did Antioch choose the Panther mascot and logo originally?

Checking the fabulous Alhambra Torch collection at the Martinez Museum, Director Andrea Blachman and I discovered that the first mention of the Panther as the Alhambra mascot occurred in the 1927 Torch.  In the preceding issues going back to 1909, the teams were always described as Alhambra or Varsity or Bees for what would now be the Freshmen and Jayvee teams.  Checking the amazing clipping binders containing every news story about every school in the county from 1900 or earlier until very recently compiled by County History Center volunteer Bernie Freedman, the Panthers were not mentioned in any sports story until the championship team in the 1926-27 school year.  Prior to that, the only time any designation used was “the Alhambra Blue and Gold” to describe the 1924-25 championship team of which the late Claude “Red” Greerty was the star running back.  The surprising thing is that there was no news story about choosing the mascot probably because there was no “Alhambra Notes” column in the Gazette during the 1925-27 period as there was before and after.

Checking the Antioch clips, I found out that Riverview High School served both Antioch and Pittsburg from before the turn of the century until Pittsburg broke away to form its own high school district in the late 20s or early 30s.  From then until 1940, Antioch teams carried no name other than to differentiate Varsity from the younger players.  An article in the spring of 1940 about an athletic contest between the Alhambra Panthers and the Antioch “Tigers” (quotes not mine) was the first time it appeared that Antioch teams had a mascot. 

However, just two years later, Antioch also sported the Panther name with one sports story describing a game between “the Alhambra Panthers and the Antioch Panthers”.  What???  Why would a high school which had played a nearby school for years all of a sudden choose the same emblem and colors as their longtime rival and why would it be allowed by the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) which had instituted play-off and championship games by that time?  Well, if Bruce Hiebert doesn’t know, Jim Baggio, class of 1943 at Antioch, might.  I will have to check on that.  But it may explain why one news story during the period described Antioch as being willing to give up both colors and mascot because they had been chosen after Alhambra had.  That willingness was dropped according to the next article about the issue.

And one last question – when was the first Homecoming Parade down Main Street? Just give me an approximate date.  Now that I know where Bernie Freedman’s 40 big black school news clip binders are, I can probably get to the bottom of that mystery in time for this year’s Parade on October 26.

In the meantime, alumni who remember 1946-47 when “everyone was up in arms over it” can share opinions with each other and with posterity by attending the Martinez Museum Open House (Saturday from 9 to 12 and Sunday from 1-4 p.m.) and stepping up to the recording mike at the Oral History booth.  Historical Society volunteers Jane Moore and Shirley Skaredoff welcome your reminiscences on this and on any other aspect of Alhambra High School’s history.  And since I don’t think either of them attended the school, you won’t get an argument about your opinion.

And check out the Facebook discussion started by Robert Perry in the Alhambra pre-1960 and Beyond group trying to nail down the name of the fight song heard after every AHS touchdown – both the high school name and the college name of the tune which Alhambra has borrowed. 

Final note:  I am still struggling with scanning and transferring the two old timey Panther and Bulldog logos I borrowed from the Museum so only the Panther survived the process sort of.  But to see actual mascot logos featuring each strong and fearless animal and other Alhambra historic items, drop by the Museum open house at the times mentioned above or any Tuesday or Thursday from 11:30 to 3 and first four Sundays of the month from 1-4 p.m.

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