Date in History: 1967

As school gets underway and fall sports commence, we will be hearing more about our favorite school teams. A symbol of school pride is the school mascot and one mascot in Jefferson County has a particularly interesting story.

Jefferson High School students are known as the Eagles, and anyone who has been to the high school has seen the eagle perched on a globe by the front entrance. In 1967, the senior class wanted to leave some kind of eagle as a class gift so they went searching for the perfect bird. The J. I. Case Company of Racine had an eagle as their emblem since the Civil War and they graciously offered not one but two to the seniors. The class officers chose the larger of the two. Then after hearing of the limited funds at the seniors disposal, the company offered to provide the eagle free of charge. The 800 pound, 12 foot eagle was shipped from Oakland, California where it originally had perched over a J. I. Case plant.

This historic document aired on the radio as an Historic Minute on 09/05/2005.

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