Jack Caldwell ’18 & Ben Klau ’18

With a roaring crowd packed in Staples Stadium, the varsity football team storms onto the field before a rivalry game. The PA announcer’s voice booms over the excited crowd with a heightened sense of school spirit. “Here come the Wreckers!”
But what is a Wrecker, and what does that have to do with Staples?

According to Dan Woog ’71 of the 06880 blog, the Wrecker mascot dates back to a football game in 1930. “Staples played undefeated Norwalk in the last game of the season, beat them and wrecked their perfect season,” Woog said. “So it’s not about a tow truck, it’s about wrecking that perfect season.”
Considering Westport’s strong ties to the Revolutionary War, it’s surprising that Staples does not have a mascot that acknowledges its past. One of Westport’s most recognizable landmarks is Compo Beach’s Minuteman statue, which pays homage to a 1777 battle between local militia and British forces. But contrary to popular belief, the Minuteman name has never been used by Staples. “I don’t think there ever was a mascot [before the Wrecker],” Woog explained.

Students are generally confused by the Wrecker mascot, and many have voiced support in favor of a Minuteman mascot. “Minutemen means more to our town,” Kate Rutter ’19 said.

Jackson Dembski ’18, member of the varsity football team, agrees. “I would change it to Minutemen because it has so much more historical background.”

It should also be noted that Staples does not currently have a physical mascot. Although the name was never used, Staples once had a physical minuteman mascot. “It’s hard to have a mascot that’s a Wrecker. For many years, we used a minuteman that looked like the statue by the beach,” Woog said. “In the 1980’s, somebody designed a paper mache like the [Wrecker] we know now with the helmet, and they’d dress up at football games. But somebody left it out in the rain and that was the end of that.”

However, there is no such thing as a perfect mascot. The Minuteman name could be problematic for girls’ sports teams. University of Massachusetts Amherst, which has a Minuteman mascot, uses the term “Minutewomen” for their women’s sports teams. Not only is this over-complicated, but it would make Staples the only school in the FCIAC to have separate names for boys’ and girls’ teams. “It’s also affiliated with war and some parents might think this is too violent of a name,” Rutter said.

The Wrecker name may not make sense to some, and it’s hard to have a physical mascot with that name. But Staples is also one of very few schools in the country with a Wrecker mascot. “It’s part of our history, and I’ve never come across another name like Wrecker. So why change?” Woog noted.

There may not be many tow trucks in Westport, but the Wrecker has distinctly represented Staples for decades throughout dozens of championships.