{"id":42416,"date":"2025-11-11T13:25:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T13:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/42416\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T13:25:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T13:25:13","slug":"banish-the-green-devils-heck-no-st-petersburg-high-decides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/42416\/","title":{"rendered":"Banish the Green Devils? Heck no, St. Petersburg High decides"},"content":{"rendered":"

Principal Darlene Lebo\u2019s phone rang nonstop Monday, and her email inbox filled up, all with people wanting to know one thing.<\/p>\n

Was there really a proposal to dump the Green Devil, a symbol of St. Pete High School since the 1920s, in favor of a Pelican?<\/p>\n

\u201cShe said it was true,\u201d said Lisa Day Walker, Class of 1984, who made one of those calls.<\/p>\n

Walker put a post on Facebook urging alumni to attend the school\u2019s 6 p.m. advisory committee meeting, where the idea would be discussed. She wasn\u2019t alone, as several school-related organizations took to social media asking Green Devils to unite in support of their shared history.<\/p>\n

\u201cSt. Pete people love their Green Devils,\u201d Lebo said.<\/p>\n

More than 200 current and former students showed up, many decked out in green and white, for what Lebo said was the school\u2019s best-attended advisory committee meeting that she could recall.<\/p>\n

They didn\u2019t face much of a fight.<\/p>\n

Parent R.J. Garbowicz, who asked about replacing the Green Devil with a \u201cless divisive\u201d mascot, didn\u2019t come to make his case. Each speaker who addressed the committee rejected the idea that the Green Devil carried some sacrilegious connotation.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur devil doesn\u2019t represent the actual devil,\u201d senior Daniela Julian said. \u201cIt represents spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Rui Frias, a former teacher and soccer coach, said he and his staff at the St. Petersburg Museum of History researched the origin of the mascot and found it had \u201cnothing to do with religion or Satan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rather, he said, the story was that an underclassman on the football team returned a kickoff for a touchdown, prompting the announcer to shout, \u201cLook at that little green devil run.\u201d<\/p>\n

The St. Petersburg Times first referred to the team as the Green Devils in late 1920, he said, and the community has done so ever since.<\/p>\n

Over time, senior Rafael Faraci said, the mascot has come to represent unrelenting dedication to service, and a strong school community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe impact of our mascot cannot be understated,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He and other speakers mentioned \u201cMr. Green Devil\u201d Bob Pfeiffer<\/a>, an ardent school booster who regularly dressed the part until his death, as the epitome of what\u2019s good about the mascot. Pfeiffer\u2019s grandson Nick Hansen, Class of 2000, said his grandfather \u2014 who led fundraisers for the school and helped preserve its history \u2014 wouldn\u2019t have wanted the discussion to be about him, but rather about the school, community, students and staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great stress test to see everyone come together to rally behind a symbol that is more than a cartoon character,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Barbara Melander Keller, Class of 1974, was the last speaker before the committee. She led the crowd in singing the alma mater.<\/p>\n

After the applause subsided, Lebo took the microphone.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is my opinion we do not need to move forward any further,\u201d she said to more cheers.<\/p>\n

Junior Kelly Fuss, a committee member, said she was thrilled, but not surprised, with the outcome.<\/p>\n

The meeting had the potential to become dramatic and messy, Fuss said. Instead, it showed the school\u2019s unity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is symbolic of how much this school means to everyone,\u201dshe said.<\/p>\n

Jeffrey S. Solochek is a reporter covering education as a member of the Tampa Bay Times Education Hub. You can contribute to the hub through our journalism fund by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Principal Darlene Lebo\u2019s phone rang nonstop Monday, and her email inbox filled up, all with people wanting to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[27995,27994,27990,17278,27993,27992,202,204,27991,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-42416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-advisory-committee-meeting","tag-advisory-council","tag-green-devil","tag-green-devils","tag-lisa-day-walker","tag-principal-darlene-lebo","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-high-school","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}