I feel compelled to respond to the letter from J.S. Rouleau in The Poly of February 25. Mr. Rouleau expressed the opinion that RPI’s practice of having multiple team names—Engineers versus Red Hawks—and mascots—Puckman versus. the infamous “chicken”—should be discontinued. I understand his sentiment, but I disagree with his proposed resolution.

Mr. Rouleau favored the adoption of the name Red Hawks, and the concomitant mascot, for all the sports teams. I see no logic at all in such a change. Our Division I hockey team—obviously the premier sports team at RPI—has been known as the Engineers for several decades. (Prior to the current name, the team was known as the Bachelors.) In addition, the football team—probably the most-followed of the D-III teams—is also the Engineers.

I cannot conceive of a reason good enough to abandon the history and tradition of the Engineer moniker and the (relatively) beloved Puckman. When President Shirley Jackson and Athletic Director Ken Ralph traveled to Nashville recently to lobby the NCAA in the matter of Propositions 65 and 65-1, they made sure to emphasize the historical significance of the RPI hockey program, and rightly so.

Mr. Rouleau suggested that the Red Hawk name be adopted because the term “engineer” does not apply to all students. But many students are engineers, and overall RPI is known as an engineering school. There have, in fact, been many engineers among the Engineers, ranging from goalie (and crowd favorite) Jim Palmer ’02 to standout student-athlete Joe Juneau ’91. And most importantly, while not all students are engineers, I know of none who are avian in species or crimson in hue!

In short, the Engineer name is the one that has historically been associated with RPI, and it is by far the more accurate of the two. The idea of choosing one name for all RPI teams is not unreasonable; perhaps those teams currently known as the Red Hawks might wish to consider a name change. In any case, I know that I’ll be out cheering for the Engineers—and the engineers they represent.

Nick Markham