MetroWest Daily News
Thursday, March 15, 2007

Redmen to "Big Red"

I played football, hockey and baseball for Natick High School from 1959 to 1963. As a freshman, our football team learned from our coach, James "Keecho" Christie, that we were from Natick and our team was from Natick, and we were the followers in the champion Natick tradition of great athletes like "Ned" Mahan, Charlie Sticka, Dean Webb, Joe Kiley, Ralph Doran, etc., and that we should hold our heads high and represent our town and our Natick High School and wear our red uniform with pride.

A few years later in talking to some men who had played football for Framingham, we learned that Framingham athletes hated to see the "sea of red" uniforms get off the football buses or when red Natick teams approached the field en masse, or the red Natick hockey sweaters skating around the old Boston arena or the red baseball caps. These Framingham players talked of a sort of awe and respect they had for our teams symbolized by our red uniforms and also that our players seemed to be bigger and faster due to the red uniform.

Our teams were "red" men, we weren't Indians. We didn't try to be anything more than proud athletes who were and are proud of our red uniforms, our town and our great high school, and we tried to honor all of the great athletes and people who paved the way for us to become the Home of Champions.

The Redmen name had nothing to do with Indians, but solely the proud color of a proud high school and town. To make a reference in 2007 to Natick Indians is a travesty and simply a fabrication and just not true.

If people who never played a down of Natick football or shot a puck at a Natick opponent's goals in hockey or field hockey or scored a basket, wish to stop using the name Redmen, then let's call ourselves the "Big Red" in favor our our uniforms. (Medfield and Swampscott are the "Big Blue").

Lastly, Wellesley can no longer be the Red Raiders, Braintree can no longer be the Wamps, Milton cannot use the nickname Whiz Kids. But Framingham can use the Flyers moniker, and I wonder if those Flyers have sent other Flyers to Natick to vote to cease using the name "Redmen."

No matter, Natick's Big Red will still be the home of champions and beat the hell out of Framingham on Thanksgiving.

MICHAEL CARR,
Natick