The Outlaws stole the show in Yuma School District-1’s Mascot Madness.
Yuma’s new mascot was made official last Friday morning. The Yuma-1 Board of Education held a brief meeting at 7:45, unanimously passing a motion declaring Outlaws as the new mascot.
An assembly then was held in The Pit at Yuma High School. Armed with a bunch of wrapped-up red T-shirts, the cheerleaders threw them into the crowd. Each student that caught one was asked to come down to the floor. They were instructed to stand in a straight line with their backs to the crowd, unroll their T-shirts, then turn around at the same time to reveal “Yuma Outlaws” across the front.
It is the first time since 1935 that Yuma is known by a mascot other than Indians. The Yuma mascot was Cornhuskers for about 14 years before the change to Indians.
Outlaws beat out Raptors in the final found of voting, receiving 718 votes to 555 for Raptors. The process began in August with more than 80 nominations. Those were placed into 16 groups for public voting, with the top vote-getters then put into a 16-mascot bracket. There was weekly voting until the winner emerged at the end of September.
Yuma-1 now is working with company on the graphic design for the new mascot. A survey will be conducted, with four selections eventually being presented. The district is leaning toward having the public vote again on the four. As soon as that is selected, work will begin on the official artwork, font, vectors and anything else involved
The hope is the new mascot imagery could be in place prior to the holiday break.
As most are aware, a law passed by the Colorado Legislature in 2021 placed a hefty monthly fine on schools that continued to use American Indian mascots, starting June 2022. Yuma-1 eliminated Indians and all imagery by the timeline to avoid the fine. It was eventually decided to wait on selecting a new mascot.
Yuma’s athletic teams simply went by Yuma for the 2022-23 school year, and the first several weeks of the current school year.
Now we are a bunch of Outlaws.
