A Christian college in Massachusetts is dropping its Crusader mascot, as the image has ties to religious wars during the Medieval Ages. The school president of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester confirmed the decision a month after saying that the Crusader mascot would be retained.
Jesuit Father Philip L. Boroughs stated in a letter dispersed around campus on March 14 that the mascot, Iggy the Crusader, and its other depictions around the school that have been compared to the Knights Templar would be slowly phased out. In its place, the school will use the image of a purple shield with interlocking letters H and C as its official logo.
The college has been using the Crusaders moniker since 1925 after a public vote. Crusaders actually replaced the school's original symbols and images that featured Native Americans.
The school's student newspaper will also drop the name The Crusader and will, instead, be called The Spire.
In 2016, student activists wrote a letter to the editor to call out the choice to retain the Crusader name and mascot given its ties to religious violence. School officials, along with its board of trustees, have been holding discussions over the name's fate since September last year.
Boroughs also announced at that time that the school formed a working group to look into whether "the Crusader moniker and mascot are appropriate, or inappropriate, representations of the college, given our mission, values, and identity." After the working group released its report, the school board said that the era of the Crusades was one of the darkest hours in the history of the Church.
"The visual depiction of a knight, in conjunction with the moniker Crusader, inevitably ties us directly to the reality of the religious wars and the violence of the Crusades," Borough further stated in his letter. "This imagery stands in contrast to our stated values."
