A Fort Smith committee last night overwhelmingly chose Mavericks as the new mascot for Fort Smith Southside High School.

The School Board decided to shed its former Rebels nickname for the plantation Civil War imagery it was intended from the outset to represent.

Mavericks won out over Spartans, Marshals, Patriots and Mustangs.

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Next step is a design for the mascot. I’m not clear from the coverage what type of Maverick the selection committee has in mind. From an on-line dictionary, the choices could be:

1. An unbranded calf, cow, or steer, especially an unbranded calf that is separated from its mother.

2. a) A lone dissenter, as an intellectual, an artist, or a politician, who takes an independent stand apart from his or her associates: a modern-dance maverick.

Synonyms: nonconformist, individualist; free thinker; loner, lone wolf.

b) a person pursuing rebellious, even potentially disruptive, policies or ideas: You can’t muzzle a maverick.

Synonyms: rebel, cowboy; loose cannon.

3.
Maverick, an electro-optically guided U.S. air-to-ground tactical missile for destroying tanks and other hardened targets at ranges up to 15 miles (24 km).

There’s that rebel again. Or they could get one of those old Ford Mavericks to loop the field after touchdowns. I like the idea of a goateed artist wearing a beret. Members said last night an animal of some sort, or an abstract design, would likely be chosen over a human representation,

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