Mascots across the nation are, for most colleges, the first identifier for that university. If they're able, alums will buy the animal of whatever mascot represented their school, plaster wooden cutouts in their front yards or back windows of a vehicle with decals. Mascots are everything.
And then there's Henderson State University's mascot.
Because of the red warm-up jackets of Henderson State University's football team in its earliest days, the school adopted the title "Reddie" without really having a symbolic identifier; however, this was not yet its mascot. As is told in the Pine Tree Speech at the beginning of each fall semester, the Reddie Spirit was born in a time of adversity. Henderson's main building was burned to the ground in 1914, and the students were left with the choice to go home and give up on their education or remain and rebuild. Students held class underneath the pine trees on Henderson's green campus — some of these pine trees still stand there today.
I could tell this story over and over again, and some still may not get it. Yeah, so what really is a Reddie?
Through the years, modernity has not changed the "mascot" of Henderson. The Reddie is every student that steps onto campus. The Reddie is the athletic young man who is the first in his family to ever attend college. The Reddie is the intelligent young woman who is working nights to put herself through. The Reddie is present between each student who passes one another on the footbridge and offers a kind smile to a fellow student they have never even spoken to before.
Maybe this still doesn't make sense. The Reddie spirit is the ultimate representation of camaraderie. We are students whose hearts break for one another. White men and women who support the Black Lives Matter movements of our brothers and sisters on campus. We are men cheering on our feminists friends in their quest for equality. We are heterosexual students encouraging homosexual classmates to embrace themselves. Reddies are passionate and compassionate.
We are students at Henderson State.
This summer, I'm eager to get back on campus. No, I'm not willing my summer away, but I do miss my fellow Reddies. I can't wait to see our boys on the field, my friends in the classroom and the Reddie spirit in abundance across campus.
What is a Reddie, exactly? I'm a Reddie.
