The Many Colors of Westford Academy

The Many Colors of Westford Academy

Originally Exhibited as The Other Colors of Westford Academy in mid to late 2019

Westford’s high school colors were not always maroon and grey (and sometimes gold) with a floating Grey Ghost. Into the 1950s, the school’s colors were less solid, as well as the description of the sports teams (mascots). In fact, a football team was not formalized until the 1950s. In 1958, students voted to adopt the Grey Ghost as their mascot. However, though not always stated in the yearbooks, individual classes would choose their own colors, which were often reflected on the yearbook covers. The tradition of highlighting class colors fell away after 1968.

Please click on the images for expanded view and slideshow

  • 1937 Cover
  • 1937 Inside Cover
  • 1942 Cover
  • 1942 Inside Cover
  • 1959 Inside
  • 1959 Inside Cover
  • 1959 Football
  • 1960 Cover
  • 1960 Inside Cover
  • 1960 Football
  • 1964 Cover
  • 1964 Inside Cover
  • 1968 Cover
  • 1968 Inside Cover (Right)
  • 1968 Inside Cover (Left)
  • 2005 Cover
  • 2017 Inside Cover
  • 2005 Inside cover (Right)
  • 2005 Inside Cover (Left)
  • 2017 Cover

Class Colors

1936 — Gold and White

1937 — Red and White

1938 — Green and White

1939 — Maroon and White

1940 — Blue and Silver

1941 — Blue and White

1942 — Green and White

1950 — Blue and White

1951 — Maroon and Gold

1952 — Green and Gold

1953 — White and Maroon

1954 — Blue and White

1957 — Red and White

1958 — Blue and White

1959 — Green and White

1960 — Red Rose and Satin Blue

1962 — Maroon and White

1963 — White and Gold

1964 — Royal Blue and White

1965 — Maroon and White

1966 — Ivory and Gold

1967 — Maroon and Silver

1968 — Green and White

School or Team Colors:

1911 — Navy Blue and White

1914 — Black and White

1940s — Maroon and Gray

1950s — Black and White

1959 to Present — Maroon and Gray

Team Name – Mascot:

1956-1958 — The Black Knights or the Black and Whites (football team)

1959 to Present — The Grey Ghosts

Class Pins

The 1911 class pin belonged to Addie Louise (Day) Keizer (1893-1988). It is 14K gold, and made by Folger, NY City. Addie was the mother of Eleen Keizer, class of 1936. George and Barbara Parkhurst donated it in 1998.

Marjorie Mitchel (Seavey) Johnson (1898-1975) owned the 1914 pin. It was also made by Folger in NY. The reverse specifically has Marjorie’s etched initials. The pin was donated in 1983.

The visible colors were navy blue & white in 1911 and black & white in 1914.

1911 Pin
14K Gold
W.1998.1.3b

1914 Pin
Gold
W.1983.59.1

  • Class Ring (top)
    Class Ring (top)
  • Class Ring (inside)
    Class Ring (inside)
  • Photo of WA Trustees with Arnold Wilder (third from left)

Photo of WA Trustees Left to right, front row: Alan Bell, Gorden Seavey, H. Arnold Wilder. Back row: Austin Fletcher, Maurice Huckins, Allister MacDougall, John Kimball, Dick Hall, ?, Dana Fletcher, John Abbot.

Arnold Wilder’s Class Ring

The Wilder family moved to Westford in 1923 from New Hampshire, with Henry Arnold Wilder (1909-2009) graduating from Westford Academy in 1927. Arnold was a mechanical engineer and active Freemason. Before working at Raytheon,  he worked at the local Abbot Worsted Company between 1935 and 1956 and the Wright and Fletcher General Store between 1928 and 1934. A railroad enthusiast, he was involved with the National Railroad Enthusiasts and Locomotive Historical Society. He was later a member of the Westford Historical Commission and a Trustee of Westford Academy. Arnold was the town’s oldest man in 2009. School or class colors are not known for this time, while the ring itself is gold.

Class Ring
10k gold
Engraved
W.2016.15 .1

Photo
7×5″
Paper
Black & White
W.2016.9.3

WA Football Pin

The WA football pin is from between 1946 and 1947. It shows the team colors being maroon and gray in those years. The team colors would become black and white by the late 1950s, before going back to today’s maroon and gray (Grey Ghost) starting in 1959.

The pin is felt with a leather “football” on the front and safety pin on the reverse. It was made in the USA by The Felt Crafters of Plainstow, NH, whose slogan was “Always Something New.” Cynthia Cook Winterhalter of Ashland, MA, donated the pin in 2012.

Insignia Pin
Felt, leather, metal pin
W.2012.7.4.1

  • 1964 Cover
  • 1964 Inside Cover
  • 1977 Cover
    1977 Cover
  • 1979 Cover
    1979 Cover
  • 1979 Banner
    1979 Banner
  • 1982 Yearbook Interior
    1982 Yearbook Interior
  • 1987 Yearbook Interior
    1987 Yearbook Interior
  • 1989 Yearbook Interior
    1989 Yearbook Interior
  • 2001 Cover
    2001 Cover
  • 2003 Cover
    2003 Cover
  • 2004 Cover
    2004 Cover
  • 2005 Cover
  • 2005 Inside Cover (Left)
  • 2010 Cover
    2010 Cover
  • 2015 Cover
    2015 Cover
  • 2017 Cover

The Black Knight and the Grey Ghost

Just prior to the Grey Ghost mascot, Westford Academy had the Black Knight. This first known mascot existed very briefly between 1956 and 1958, with the school team colors being black and white in those years (WA teams also known as the “Black and Whites”). The 1959 yearbook specifically stated that WA teams would no longer use the symbol after the 1958 season.

The image was taken from the November 1958 issue of the Lowell Sun, and is currently the only known picture of the Black Knight (clipping courtesy J.V Fletcher Library). It features a young boy, Ralph Symmes, Jr. (1944-2013), dressed as the short-lived mascot at its last football game. According to the sports archives at the Chelmsford Historical Commission, his father, Ralph, Sr. (1908-1980), owned and trained horses in the 1950s, as well as being the then president of the Silver Spurs Horse Club.

The familiar Grey Ghost was voted for by the students, and applied starting in 1959. This change was related to new maroon and gray uniforms. Research at WHS suggested the Ghost was inspired by the title of a popular TV series at the time, The Gray Ghost. The mascot was sometimes spelled “Gray Ghost” in the first years, and was first featured on the 1964 yearbook cover, merged with the clarion trumpeter featured on the covers prior. Not counting aesthetic changes, the Grey Ghost since became synonymous with WA.