Home Hudson County What’s a Redwing? Hoboken’s Most Famous Bird and Its History

What’s a Redwing? Hoboken’s Most Famous Bird and Its History

by Jeffrey Train
Jeffrey Train
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Jeffrey Train (AKA) Mr. Train is a Hoboken resident and birder. He is the co-founder of Our Tern, the newly fledged organization working to protect Hoboken’s tern colony. Train designs programs meant to inspire love and curiosity for the natural world.  He has created curriculum and content for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, NJ Audubon, and Hog Island Audubon Camp.  He leads family walks in the fall and spring with the Hoboken Public Library. He and his son have set out to identify 100 species of birds in Hoboken. Find out more at Ourtern.com and mrtrain.org

birdwatching hoboken jeff train

^Jeffrey Train (AKA) Mr. Train

What’s a Redwing? Terns Out It’s Complicated

The Common Tern is Hoboken’s official honorary bird, and its reception by our community has been rewarding to witness, but in recent weeks residents have asked me a compelling question: if Hoboken High School’s mascot is a Redwing, why isn’t it Hoboken’s avian representative? As an avowed bird-lover who can’t resist a good feather-friendly question, I set out to find a satisfying answer. With the help of some local experts, we uncovered a wealth of fascinating Hoboken History that illuminates how our community has always been captivated by birds.  

hoboken redwing birds

Photo Credit: Juan Melli

All Saints Episcopal Day School
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I began by speculating about the species I have seen in our city. Together with my son, we have spotted 94 types of birds that either reside, nest, or visit the Mile Square City.  Assuming that our high school mascot was named for a feathered neighbor, there are three possibilities that I believe could qualify as the inspirational identity for the Redwing: the Red-Winged Blackbird, The Red-Tailed Hawk, or the American Robin.

 


 

Golden Door Dispensary

All three of these species visit or nest in the Mile Square City during the spring and summer months, and they have likely resided on this land stretching back to when the Lenni Lenape were here.  These feathered neighbors also check the box when it comes to the sort of characteristics one would want in a mascot: they are tenacious, they each contain a hint of red, and they are pretty conspicuous.  It is easy to imagine someone being inspired to attempt a symbol after being awed by the sight of a redwing blackbird defending its nest from a crow, or being wonderstruck by the graceful dive of a Red-Tailed Hawk claiming an unsuspecting squirrel.

Read More: Here’s Why You Should Appreciate the Hoboken + Jersey City Pigeons

But why, I wondered, did the artist settle on the name Redwing?  When I asked Bob Foster, the operator of The Hoboken Historical Museum and expert on all things Hoboken, he surmised that Redwing was slang for a Red-Winged Blackbird.  This was a possibility, but accepting it becomes tricky when one realizes that there actually is a bird whose common name is Redwing, but which cannot be glimpsed in Hoboken or even in the US, for that matter. According to ebird, the Cornell Lab of Ornitology’s Birding Database, the Redwing is a type of thrush that resides in Western Europe.  It is in the same family as the American Robin and the two species bear a striking resemblance to each other.  Perhaps decades ago, a nameless high school artist noticed a Robin in Church Square Park, flipped through a field guide, misidentified it, and that was how the storied mascot came to be.

I continued considering other avian ancestors until I received an email from Hoboken History teacher Christopher Munoz, who emphatically wrote, “The Hoboken Redwing was never intended to be associated with a bird.” According to Mr. Munoz, who will be teaching a new course this fall focused on Hoboken History, “folks unfamiliar with the Hoboken Redwings can be forgiven for thinking that the school mascot is named for the Red-Winged Blackbird or another species, but The Hoboken Redwings are named for a wheel with wings, just like the Detroit Red Wings hockey team.” 

Interestingly, the Detroit Redwings adopted its logo – a wheel with wings emerging from the side – in 1933 because the team’s owner, James Norris, wanted to highlight the city’s history as an auto manufacturer and because he once played for a Montreal team known as the Winged Wheelers.  In this context, a Redwing uses imagery to link a powerful winged animal with a speedy car, sort of like the Thunderbird or the Firebird.  

To illustrate the connection between the High School’s image and the professional hockey teams, Mr. Munoz produced the school’s original logo, which appeared in the early 1940’s, when Hoboken’s high school was located in the Demarest building adjacent to Church Square Park.  

“How the mascot was changed to an actual bird is beyond me,” said Mr. Munoz. Regardless of the artist’s intention, however, people did begin thinking of the Redwing as an actual bird.  Hoboken lifer, local firefighter, and assistant varsity baseball coach Mike Casazza, who graduated from Hoboken High School in 1993, summed up what other former Redwings impressed upon me: he and his teammates internalized the Redwing as a muscular flying creature. “I know it sounds strange,” Casazza said, “but to us, it always signified a strong bird.  Like an Eagle on steroids.”

hoboken high school

So how did the original symbol evolve, or migrate, from a nonavian image to a fierce, feathered creature? 

To answer this question we returned to the yearbooks.

When viewing the school’s original logo, the imagery contains a distinct difference from the Detroit Redwings’ logo, which Mr. Munoz referenced in his earlier comments: the iconic automobile tire embedded in the hockey team’s emblem is omitted. The artist instead includes a transparent circle containing the words “Hoboken” and “High School.” As a result, viewers’ attention shifts to massive H-bearing Norselike wings.

See More: All About Northern New Jersey’s Own Bat Cave

“Despite that imagery,” said John Bincoletto, who played for Hoboken in 1972 and who now works at Stan’s, the locally owned business that has produced uniforms for just about all of Hoboken’s recreational and varsity sports for the past 78 years, “we didn’t really think of ourselves as birds.  It was just “once a Redwing, always a Redwing.”  But over the school’s first 30 years in existence, the red H and wings slowly rose to prominence, while the circle, detached from its origins as a wheel, slowly disappeared in subsequent iterations. 

Flipping through Bincoletto’s yearbook from the early 1970s we could see how this subtle, gradual shift impacted people’s imaginations by the image emblazoned on the football team’s jerseys: a brawny red bird flexing its wing, sort of like the “Eagle on steroids,” described by Casazza. It was easy to see how, when, and why people began mistaking the innocuous Redwing for a pugnacious bird.

Anyone who falls in love with birds understands the power associated with noticing their presence.  One is struck by the birdsong that suddenly permeates every avenue of life.  Ordinary parks transform into fascinating spectacles bursting with vivid colors and captivating behaviors.  It’s an awakening that cultivates enthusiasm, joy, and curiosity, and I have been lucky enough to witness this process take shape in other people young and old. 

 Listening to people raised in Hoboken speak about their connection to the Redwing, I have been struck by how their emotions reflect the passions of bird lovers.  After I shared the content of this essay with Casazza, he noted, “We created this special bird, and its wings are stronger and it’s flying higher than ever before.” The use of the word “wing” in the high school mascot seems to have been all it took to channel birds and their many meanings. Casazza’s comments demonstrate how Hoboken became captivated by hope and optimism soaring through their collective imagination in the form of a Redwing. 

hoboken high school mascot

In 1995, Stan’s unveiled a new version of the logo: a prominent crimson “H” bisected by the sleek wings of a raptor.  This symbol has become ubiquitous in Hoboken, emblazoned on sweatshirts, caps, and websites and both reflects and shapes residents’, athletes’, and fans’ conception of the robust red bird inhabiting the city. 

It’s been quite a journey, and the story of the Redwing, the apocryphal red bird that has inspired numerous generations reminds me of the recent story of The Common Tern, the species once again thriving on our shores. What these compelling creatures highlight is that birds have always been woven into the fabric of Hoboken.  In both cases, we are witnessing the various ways that birds play a vital role in our history and humanity, a role that is worth cherishing and protecting.  As a bird-lover, a steward of nature, and a Hoboken resident, I proudly don my Redwing hoody when I head out to observe our honorary Tern, and I smile whenever I see others captivated by the many winged animals that contribute to our city’s ecological story.

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