More than a week ago, on January 26, Garland ISD unveiled that the new mascot for South Garland High School would be the Titans.
In the news… A new era for @SGHS_Titans began Tuesday night as the school adopted the Titan as the new mascot: https://t.co/K2fFdsFeUd (via @CBSDFW )
— Garland ISD (@gisdnews) January 27, 2021
The move comes after the school trustees voted back in November to remove any association with confederate likenesses across the district. The change was one of the swiftest by any district in the state from vote to implementation, although the school’s website – at the time of this article – still shows the Colonel (Sanders) logo within the header.
On social, though, South Garland was quick to make changes to the respective handles to reflect the change from Colonels to Titans. Across UIL and TAPPS schools, South Garland becomes the nineth school to use titans as its mascot.
They are:
Donna IDEA
Brownsville Jubilee
Manor New Tech
Frisco Centennial
Victoria East
Southwest Legacy
Port Arthur Memorial
Longview Trinity School
In terms of logo usage, Garland ISD seems to have taken the simplistic approach – for now – by dropping the swords behind the interlocking SG logo.
It’s an easy change for the school district, which, according to the Dallas Morning News, stated the cost of a new mascot and logo at around $1.75 million. The district also said it would save more than $150,000 if it stays with the red, white and blue color scheme.
More than 200 entries were submitted on a new mascot name, and the district said the decision ultimately came down to two: Texans and Titans. Had it chosen Texans, South Garland would have been eighth school to have that mascot name.
It’s another positive change across the state as less and less confederate and Native American imagery/names are being used. In October 2020, Midland ISD chose Midland Legacy to replace Midland Lee for its school name, which will take affect in the Fall, similar to what Tyler ISD did with Tyler Legacy before the start of this current school year and what San Antonio ISD did in changing one of its high schools to LEE (Legacy of Educational Excellence) High School a few years back.
While South Garland has the colonel moniker removed, the school district still has North Garland, which uses a Yosemite Sam-looking mascot for its logo, called Raider Sam. The issue here is that Yosemite Sam once played a confederate soldier in an episode of Looney Tunes called “Southern Fried Rabbit“. Raider Sam is still featured prominently on the school’s Facebook page, but is no longer featured on the school’s site.
Midland Greenwood has a very similar logo of a Yosemite Sam character wielding two smoking guns. It has since started using this logo more recently, but the original Rangers mascot still shows on a languishing athletic website.
