Brookline High School still calls its teams the Warriors, but the school replaced its former Indigenous imagery with a Spartan mascot more than a decade ago.
That distinction puts Brookline among Massachusetts schools that have kept their team names while changing the symbols associated with them. A MassLive survey published Nov. 1 documented both approaches, from retiring nicknames entirely to removing headdresses, spears and other imagery.
Brookline’s transition took place over decades, according to reporting by its student newspaper, now called The Cypress.
The paper’s January 2023 retrospective traced Indigenous imagery in the school’s yearbook to 1928 and documented the former “Sagamore Indians” identity. Its account contains conflicting dates for when that mascot disappeared, but found the Warriors name in newspaper coverage by 1986.
The school later used an arrowhead-and-feather symbol. Controversy over volleyball players wearing Native American headdresses before a playoff game helped prompt its removal. In March 2007 coverage, then-Headmaster Robert Weintraub supported replacing the symbol while retaining Warriors.
Students selected the Spartan Warrior in a May 6, 2014, vote, choosing it over a Revolutionary War Hero, according to The Cypress’s contemporary report. The decision followed two years of work involving the athletic department, Brookline Superfans, Student Council and student Legislature.
Athletic Director Kyle Williams told the paper in 2023 that the earlier absence of a shared mascot had allowed some teams to continue using Indigenous imagery. He also acknowledged unfinished work: arrowhead banners still hung in the Schluntz gym at the time. Their current status was not established by that report.
Elsewhere, Mendon-Upton Regional School District adopted Coyotes in 2026 after beginning to phase out its Warriors imagery in 2021, according to Mendon Commons. District officials said tribal representatives had expressed opposition to using their culture and identity as an athletic mascot.
Massachusetts lawmakers are also considering statewide restrictions. The current proposals, H.575 and S.312, are sponsored by Rep. Brandy Fluker-Reid and Sen. Joanne Comerford. They would establish a process involving state education officials and the Commission on Indian Affairs to identify and phase out school athletic names and imagery associated with Native Americans, according to an official committee summary.
S.312 received a favorable committee report and was referred to Senate Ways and Means on July 24, 2025. Its posted history lists no subsequent action.
