Kathryn Burke ’12, Helen Miller ’12
Since 1785, tradition has been an integral component of Episcopal Academy’s character. The scrooge chapel, the Stripes, and singing the school song, “Episcopal, Episcopal,” are just a few examples of the importance of tradition at Episcopal. One of the school’s longest standing traditions is the spirit week events leading up to what was formerly known as EA/Haverford Day, and has since changed to EA/Haverford/AIS Weekend. While the name and events of Spirit Week have evolved with the times, at its core, Spirit Week has always remained the same. A look back on past traditions reveals a more aggressive element of spirit week that has since been forgotten in recent years.
A decade ago, Cheryl McLauchlan, III Form Dean, and Tim Gavin, Lower School Chaplain, started Spirit Week in an effort to reform the pep rally and school activities leading up to EA/Haverford/AIS Weekend. According to McLauchlan, “Before Spirit Week, only a clash day, a pep rally, and the student speeches existed.”
She recalled pep rally traditions such as “fruit being sling-shot at a Haverford dummy, and provocative senior skits targeted at AIS and Haverford.”
McLauchlan also stated that at one point, “the Lower School stopped coming to the pep rally because it was so violent” and that “there was a feeling that we [Episcopal] were creating an atmosphere of violence.”
Students and faculty alike recognized the divisiveness of Spirit Week. “Episcopal and Haverford decided to unite themselves over something and create the Can Dance because they used to do such horrible things to each other,” said McLauchlan.
Geoff Wagg, Head of Upper School, gave further explanation for why the pep rally was reformed ten years ago. “The pep rally is supposed to build school spirit for the big games; energy is what is trying to be created, and the old events weren’t doing that.”
Wagg described other traditions such as “Smashing a Ford car and an event called ‘Dead Man Walking,’” which included smashing pumpkin heads after a Haverford student’s name was read aloud.”
Wagg made it clear that, “Although we tried duct-taping the entire Ford car before we smashed it, it was still too much of a safety hazard.”
Yet despite the possible safety hazards, one Upper School student supported having old-fashioned traditions work their way back into Sprit Week. Matt Robinson ’13 said he wants to see events such as “Jay Crawford riding on top of a fire engine with a sledge hammer and smashing a window in on a ford car,” come back.
Other students, like Jenn Adelizzi ’12 feel that “EA/Haverford Spirit Week doesn’t do that much pumping up at all to be honest.”
Another reason Episcopal decided to remodel Spirit Week was, as Wagg explained, due to the move to the new campus. “Part of the advantage [of moving to the new campus] was that we could do things as a whole school.” With the incorporation of the entire school into the pep rally, Wagg said that old spirit week traditions “were not appropriate to teach school spirit to lower schoolers.”
The evolution of Spirit Week can even be seen in the student-created EA/Haverford day t-shirts, which clearly show a gradual progression from the aggressive themes of the past to slogans and depictions focusing more on school spirit. Angela Saggiomo ‘12 still has an EA/Haverford Day t-shirt from 1993 that she said pictures a “Wolverine in an Episcopal sweater shredding the Fords.”
Wagg attributed this to the fact that the t-shirt-makers “wanted to make a profit off the shirts,” which required selling them to the younger kids on campus. The themes and pictures on the EA/Haverford/AIS t-shirts shifted the focus more on school spirit in order to appeal to young kids and their parents.
“I think Episcopal has softened up when it comes to the EA-Haverford rivalry so we should definitely bring back the more aggressive traditions that once defined this weekend,” stated Will Blommer ’12.
Meghan Hubley ‘13 also agreed. “We have Spirit Week and we compete against the other grades, but if we were more aggressive towards the other schools, maybe it would help us focus on the actual games.”
Yet not all students feel dissatisfied with Spirit Week. Alex Bilotti ’12 said, “Spirit Week is always fun and exciting for me because it is a week of heightened school spirit which I don’t usually directly participate in seeing as I do not play a fall sport.”