New Mascot

MEET NUKKA! The newest husky of Northwood! Pet owner and member of our Business Office, Mrs. Ratkos-Stanton has been sharing Nukka’s puppy love with the students.

In the spring of 2020, Northwood released a new visual identity for the Husky mascot. A consistent symbolic visual of the husky, which ultimately generates a fuller sense of belonging and morale, had long been missing. Huskies are known to be energetic and athletic with an intelligent, outgoing, and friendly temperament. Like most dogs, they are wonderful companions. Dogs in general, are said to reduce anxiety, ease loneliness, and boost one’s mood. There proved to be no better time to unveil the new husky identity than last spring.

The history behind the selection of the husky as the mascot was compiled and written about in 2018 by Su Hae Jang ’20 in the Northwood Mirror. Excerpt: “Though the Husky is widely considered the symbol of our community, not a lot of people at Northwood realize that we had been the Northwood Indians for much of the school’s first one hundred years. However, students later found such ethnic labels offensive and saw the tradition as a bit anachronistic. The school-wide controversy on the mascot soon led students to take action. Don Mellor reflected on the history, “the Board decision to change the school’s official mascot from the Indian to the Husky began as an impromptu student initiative… when an informal vote picked the Husky over several other North Country options.” Bill Kelly, Northwood’s night watchman at the time, and a Native American, is assumed to have been the “real inspiration” for the choice of husky, because he raised a group of huskies in his trailer on campus near where the Hanke ’56 Ski Building is today. According to the official minutes of the February 2, 2001 Board of Trustees meeting, the school’s governing body formally approved changing the school’s official mascot from Indians to Huskies.