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As Greenhills School marks the Gryphon’s 50th anniversary, an untold story that could have rewritten the school’s identity emerges: “The legend of the lawnmowers.” For half a century, the Gryphon has been an integral part of the school identity that the students have come to know over the years, from the Gryphon den to the Gryphon school website.
In the school year 1973 and 1974, there was a school wide election for the mascot, which elected “the gryphons” to be the school mascot. But co-namesake of Greenhills library Bruce Gebhardt ‘72 said this election was tainted by the influence of the board of trustees.
It all started from John Tucker, the algebra teacher and head of the lower school at that time. Tucker was regarded as the person who proposed the lawnmower name.
“Tucker was famous for throwing chalk at people who were talking.” Gebhardt said.
Founded in fall of 1968, Greenhills did not have an official mascot before the election for the mascot in 1973.
“When I was there, no one was even thinking of anything like that,” Gebhardt said. “They were just trying to get us through graduation.”
In the years of ‘73 and ‘74, the school decided that they needed a mascot. A school election was open for students to vote on their preferred mascot name. “The gryphons” was an option, and so was “the lawnmowers.”
“The lawnmowers” won the mascot election.
“But, the school was different back then.” Gebhardt said. “Senior administration thought that ‘the lawnmowers’ was probably an inappropriate name for the school mascot.”
Therefore, “the lawnmowers” were put out of the election. The election was subverted, so that the school could have a “more appropriate mascot.”
Lively discussions took place among the Greenhills School Alumni Group, where the alumni discussed the legend of how the mascot came to be. A poll from the discussion revealed their lingering disappointment with the chosen mascot, even after all these years.
“I think the lawnmower name remains,” Gebhardt said. “Those of us who heard this legend later, many of us said, ‘no, I’m a lawnmower, not a gryphon.’”
To rectify this tragedy, members of the robotics team in its founding year of 2015 elected “the lawnmower” to be their team mascot. Among the top two nominations between “the lawnmowers” and “robo-gryphons,” “the lawnmowers” won by one or two votes.
“The name eventually was associated with fun because ‘the Lawnmowers’ was kind of a silly mascot, ” Founder and former head coach of the robotics team Alex Monte-Sano said. “We did a bunch of silly things to make that fun. For example, one of the early years, some students were supposed to be working on the robot, but instead they built a long handle for a kid’s lawnmower.”
Not only did the past students from the robotics team enjoy the name, most of the students on the robotics team have a heartfelt connection with the team name today.
“I like it a lot. It’s really fun, quirky, and cute for the robotics team,” Ivy Belen ‘26 said. “I think the history behind it is also interesting because it was like what the Greenhills mascot was supposed to be and then we took it on.”
With such a name like “the lawnmowers,” many of the announcers and teams from other schools were not able to forget the Greenhills robotics team.
“At certain events, we had people and announcers say, ‘Oh, we’ve heard of you.’” Robotics coach Jeremy Green said. “We had never seen that announcer before, but they’ve already heard of us, so I guess the name does get around.”
Adding onto the benefit of an unforgettable name, many of the students were able to continue the tradition of incorporating fun into the team.
“One of the team members wears the mascot and runs across the stage,” Belen said.” In addition, when the team gets an announcement, they would hold little lawnmower flags. ”
Looking forward, the school is currently working on creating a name for the student section for athletics, contributing to its identity in the next 50 years and beyond.
