After Daniel Hauer (1888) and fellow student Benjamin A. Franklin (1887) formed the school’s first football team in 1887, they selected orange and black as McDonogh’s colors. Almost 90 years later, the School landed on the Eagle as the mascot. For years prior, sportswriters had referred to McDonogh players as the “Farmers” or “The Cadets.”
When McDonogh School dropped its semi-military program in 1971, the time was right for an official school mascot. The student body was tasked with finding a new nickname as part of the overall change for the School. The “Eagles” won the popular vote—a tribute to the eagle depicted on the McDonogh School seal and on the cadets’ uniform hat. A coordinating committee got to work designing the new mascot, and E. Carey Kenney, the head of the Art Department, made their ideas a reality. Before long, an Eagle costume was created, and Jeffrey Rogers (1974), a boisterous member of the cheerleading squad, was selected to wear it. Despite the heavy head and the stifling hot, feathered outfit, wearing the Eagle costume was, and still is, a popular duty.
