Thanks to our partner at Hendersonville High School Alumni Association, we have a new batch of materials that includes decades of the Red & White, Hendersonville High’s premier student newspaper, along with dozens of athletic programs. These programs date as far back as the 1950s, when students danced the sock-hop at Homecoming, to as recently as 2015! Issues of the Red & White will join an existing collection of nearly three hundred issues, nearly doubling the digitized collection. Both the athletic programs and the newspapers are suffused with the love that students and alumni hold for Hendersonville High School, and are an amazing example of community publications.
Going through decades of Hendersonville High School’s athletic programs are an amazing way of feeling this love. Each issue is full of sponsors from local businesses, many of which tout their Bearcat Pride. Older issues of the programs even have full-color illustrations and covers sourced from students and local artists. As the decades progress, these programs get thicker and thicker, as more sports (and alumni sponsors!) are added to the school’s athletic season. While a sport’s uniforms, players, and coaches may change throughout the years, Bearcat Pride stays the same!
At this point, non-Hendersonville-onians may be curious what a Bearcat is. According to student journalists at the Red & White, a bearcat (also known as a binturong) is a weasel-like creature native to South and Southeast Asia. It has dark fur, short legs, and smells strongly of freshly popped popcorn. Decades of lore surrounding Hendersonville High School has given rise to myriad theories as to the origins of this unusual mascot, which is often depicted in the newspaper wearing a sporting tuxedo. Unfortunately, there is no definitive support for any of these theories.
If you’re interested in learning more about Bearcat apocrypha, you can find the newly digitized issues of the Red & White online now at DigitalNC here. More athletically minded readers can find the new collection of Bearcat athletic records online here. You can also find every digital record from the Hendersonville High School Alumni Association available on NC Digital at their partner page here. Thanks again to our wonderful partners at the Hendersonville High School Alumni Association for making this collaboration possible!
