According to local historian Michael Leibrandt, Abington Senior High School adopted the Galloping Ghost mascot after Harold “Red” Grange visited the Township in 1931. Grange was allegedly a teammate of a former Abington coach.
A member of the NFL Hall of Fame, Grange played for the Chicago Bears and the short-lived New York Yankees from 1925–1934. He was the first player to play professional and collegiate football at the same time and his signing with the Bears helped legitimize the NFL.
He was nicknamed the “Galloping Ghost” after the sports journalist Grantland Rice wrote a short poem about him:
A streak of fire, a breath of flame Eluding all who reach and clutch; A gray ghost thrown into the game That rival hands may never touch; A rubber bounding, blasting soul Whose destination is the goal — Red Grange of Illinois!
Grantland Rice
According to Deadspin.com’s article titled “Why Grantland Rice Sucked“, Rice “was a pandering mythmaker who wrote verse and prose the way Thomas Kinkade paints carriage lanes,” as well as a known racist whose father was a cotton dealer and whose grandfather was a Confederate veteran.
Whether or why the high school adopted Rice’s politics is a matter of debate. Many consider the original logo and mascot to look like a Klansman; as such, the mascot has been a longtime source of controversy and inspired a 2018 petition written to Superintendent Jeffrey Fecher. An excerpt:
Unfortunately, the depiction of Abington’s mascot is insensitive to the multicultural communities of people who reside in the school district. The Galloping Ghost was a football player, the mascot is a Klansman. “No place for hate” is a proclamation Abington stands by.
Prior to Grange’s nickname becoming the school’s mascot in the 1930s, Abington was represented by “The Maroons”, which gave the school the colors it still wears today.
Before they were “The Maroons”, the school may have gone without a logo or mascot for a period of time. According to EasternPAFootball.com, “The Ghosts apparently began playing with some other mascot, or none, in 1912; and for the first six seasons played 7 or fewer games a season, as was the case for most schools with early historical starts. An 8-1 season in 1921 was the first major successful season.”
Abington Senior High School’s mascot remains a Galloping Ghost to this day, though the rider on horseback has been modified, as seen in this ice hockey team logo:
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Information partially provided by Michael Leibrandt, local historian