What does identity mean when it comes to a mascot? For Lakewood High School, identity is our spirit, our curriculum, our halls–and our mascot. Although the subject of certain controversy, the concept of being a ranger is a commonality that echoes through the minds of current students and alumni.
The Lakewood Ranger as we know it today was selected as the school’s mascot in the 1920s after winning a popular vote. Though chosen very early, the Ranger Man was depicted sparingly throughout the school. The first depiction of a ranger can be found in a 1949 Lakewood High School yearbook. This also happens to be the only instance in which the ranger is given a real name, Rodney Ranger.
This depiction should be taken mildly as it was a Western-themed yearbook. Before we had the actual mascot costume, various groups around the school frequently adapted the ranger to their own purposes.
“A lot of these groups…morphed Ranger Man into their own thing like Ranger Man with a seahorse for the swim team and a hockey stick for the hockey team,” said former Lakewood High School student and principal Mark Walter. “It was used in the traditional way and also in a variety of unique ways to the specific program.”
Ranger Man was not used until the 1993 yearbook, which had the first Ranger Man mascot in a uniform and a much rougher appearance. Contrary to the modern mascot, the old Ranger Man featured a less realistic face, one carved into the material of the head itself.
This mascot design remained until the removal of the guns in the Ranger Man’s holster, a decision that spurred a slight controversy among Lakewood alums.
“You’re talking about a time when school shootings became an unfortunate part of the school environment,” social studies teacher and Lakewood alumni Ron Lewis said. “You had Columbine…Virginia Tech, if I’m correct the guns went away around that time.”
“Having guns promotes the idea that guns are acceptable in a school and I’m not supportive of it…I wouldn’t want guns to be seen in any way as acceptable in a school,” Walter said. “You want to make sure that your mascot represents what you want your school to be.”
However, the removal isn’t universally celebrated. Other student body and staff members believe there’s no reason for us to have removed them in the first place.
“I’d give him a gun, why not?” Social studies teacher and Lakewood High School alumni Alexander Cammock said.“Guns exist. We know they exist. That doesn’t mean the Ranger Man is a serial murderer or anything of that nature.”
Though there might be slight controversy over the removal of the guns, this change did not sour the opinions of the Ranger Man overall. Despite the change, the Ranger Man remains a pillar of Lakewood High School. Ranger Man, like all school mascots, affects the student body.
“I love it,” Cammock said. “I think we have tough kids who usually aren’t super braggadocious and do things for the right reasons, and if not, I would hope that we can afford a little bit of humility and learn how to do things the right way with a bit of toughness.”
The Ranger Man has no identity of his own, but the staff and students who care about the Lakewood community are what make him so special. We celebrate mascots not because of who they are but because of who they represent. The Ranger Man embodies what we want to see from our community and who we are as a whole.
“It’s not just branding, it’s identity,” social studies teacher and Lakewood alumni Chuck Greanoff said. “Identity and branding are different, identity also has to do with tradition and history…many many people have played for the Lakewood Rangers and played in the Lakewood Ranger Marching Band, etc. And so if you were starting anew that’s a different question then should you retain what you have?”
However, the question now becomes: is the ranger really what we want to represent us? Does the ranger accurately represent what Lakewood is as a community?
“The only thing that can represent Lakewood fully is the L,” Greanoff said. “Because that’s the commonality we all have. None of us have a commonality with a tiger or a ranger or a shoreman…I think L is the thing.”
Does that mean we replace our mascot? Should we use him less? What are the next steps for Rodney Ranger? Does he just get stuffed in the athletics room for good?
Sure, having a Western mascot in the middle of northeast Ohio doesn’t make much sense, but at the end of the day, it’s about tradition, not how realistic the Ranger Man is. It’s so much easier and simpler to leave it be.
“I think the real branding logo of Lakewood is the block L, I mean, I think we’re more Lakewood than we are Rangers,” Greanoff said. “Ranger Man’s sort of an add-on that goes with the thing. I think we could live without Ranger Man, but I’m not in favor of getting rid of it either.”
It’s who we are whether we like it or not. The Ranger Man isn’t just our mascot but our identity. It’s the connection between our alumni and current student body, and it’s what Lakewood is known for. The Ranger Man will always be the spirit of the school. Once a ranger, always a ranger.
