Due to black-and-white photography, it’s difficult to confirm the colors of the megaphones used by these uni- dentified East Aurora High School cheerleaders during the 1929-1930 school year, but they were most cer- tainly blue and white. Students three decades earlier voted to declare Yale blue and white as the official col- ors of East Aurora High School. This photograph appears in the 1930 school yearbook. (From the archives of the Aurora Town Historian’s Office). Olive Green as EA’s School Color? It Almost Happened.

by Robert Lowell Goller Town and Village Historian

magine East Aurora High School decked in olive green! School colors have become so en- I grained in our local culture that it’s difficult to imagine East Aurora students donning any- thing other than blue and white. However, the fate of a major part of our school’s identity and pride almost went in a different direction nearly 120 years ago.

The students of East Aurora High School back then probably never imagined the long-term impact of a decision they made in the autumn of 1901. The only mention of it in the East Aurora Advertiser was a tiny, one-paragraph article on an inside page of the Oct. 10, 1901 issue. According to the article, the school principal thought it was time to follow in the footsteps of colleges and other school districts by adopting official school colors. He placed the decision in the hands of the students. According to the Advertiser, two committees were formed, one consisting of four female students, and the other consist- ing of four male students.

The committee of young women suggested olive green and white. The committee of young men put forward Yale blue and white.

The two choices were presented to the student body. “Yale blue and white carried the day,” the Advertiser reported.

Although the Advertiser article did not divulge precise vote tallies, the newspaper reported that blue and white won “by a small majority.”

Had just a few students voted differently 119 years ago, East Aurora’s athletic uniforms, memorabilia, signs, T-shirts, walls and gymnasium floors might be olive green today.

And East Aurora most assuredly would have a different mascot.

Just as students in 1901 found inspiration in the colors of a major university—Yale—East Aurora in 1934 turned to an- other university—Duke—in selecting the Blue Devil.

East Aurora’s mascot was unveiled on Dec. 14, 1934, as part of the festivities surrounding the first basketball game in the school’s new gymnasium, which was constructed as part of an expansion project at the High School (now the Middle School) on Main Street.

The colors of East Aurora High School, officially adopted in 1901, inspired the name of the student literary magazine, Blue and White. Members of the magazine staff in 1936 pose for the yearbook photo. Seated, left to right, are Martha Petersen, Kenneth Lewis and Helen McFarlan. Standing, left to right, are Philip Bar- tram, Edward Case, advisor Raymond McFarland, Elizabeth Baker and James Summersgill. (From the ar- chives of the Aurora Town Historian’s Office). Suspense had been building in the school for several weeks. In what no doubt was a well-orchestrated attempt to raise intrigue, devil silhouettes with question marks inside them popped up on walls throughout the building.

“Last Friday evening, the mystery of the question marks and devils’ heads was cleaned up as soon as the first team ran onto the floor,” the Advertiser explained in a report of the basketball game the following week.

The boys ran on to the court with, according to the newspaper article, “a devil’s head sewn onto each sweatshirt and the words, ‘The Blue Devils’ sewn onto the jerseys.”

There is no mention in the early newspaper articles of why and how the Blue Devil was chosen, but several high schools of that period followed the lead of Duke University, which had adopted the Blue Devil as its mascot, at least informally, beginning in the mid-1920s.

Like the Duke University mascot, East Aurora’s Blue Devil likely traces its roots to the Chasseurs Alpins, also known as "les diables bleus" ("the Blue Devils"), members of a mentally and physically strong French military unit during World War I who were distinguished by their royal blue uniforms, flowing capes and berets.

With the selection of blue and white as the official East Aurora school colors more than three decades earlier, choices for school mascot in the early 1930s likely were narrowed down considerably. Had the students of 1901 chosen olive green and white, it is safe to say there would be no Blue Devil at East Aurora High School today.

______Robert Lowell Goller is the eighth Aurora town and East Aurora village historian since the office was created in 1919. The Historian’s Office is open for research Wednesdays and Thursdays from 1-4 p.m. Visit www.townofaurora.com/ departments/historian for more information. The Town Historian’s Office can also be found on Facebook at “Aurora Town Historian” and on Instagram at “auroratownhistorian.”