Spirit Club Animals: History Inspires Design

A search for club mascot origins sparks Winterim discovery and design

When Kelly Huddleston set out to organize a Family Feud-style club competition for upper school students during Winterim in January, she had a fun idea — she wanted to put the official logo for each club’s animal mascot on a banner for the teams to wave.

But when she asked for the images, she discovered something surprising.

While Harpeth Hall’s four spirit clubs — Angkor, Ariston, Eccowasin, and Triad — have long been a part of school tradition, the animal mascots associated with those clubs had no official logo or image.

The question quickly followed: How had each club’s animal come to be? Was there a history or meaning to each?

That curiosity led to the launch of two Winterim class projects. Leigh Mantle’s history and archives class researched the origins of the club system and its mascots. At the same time, Ms. Huddleston assigned her graphic design class a final project to create modern logo graphics of the club's animals.

The result was both a step back in time and a chance to create history going forward.

Tracing tradition through Ward-Belmont

The tradition of Harpeth Hall’s club system stretches back more than 100 years to the days of Ward-Belmont.

As a high school and junior college for women, Ward-Belmont primarily served boarding students from all over the country. In the 1920s, however, the number of students from Nashville began to increase. These students were designated as “day students” since they did not live on campus.

According to the student research conducted during Winterim, the Ward-Belmont day students formed their own club system to Storied tradition: Harpeth Hall’s club system match the boarding students, who already had an established 10-club system modeled after Greek sororities.

“Our day students are becoming every year more and more prominent in our school life,” a 1924 quote from the “Ward-Belmont Hyphen” newspaper notes. “In athletics, scholarship, dramatics, and ‘pep’ they are outstanding, to say the least.”

When the four clubs first formed, they were designated as one, two, three, and four, and each was assigned a color. In 1928, names were chosen for each club Angkor (blue), Eccowasin (green), Ariston (yellow), and Triad (red).

A search for club mascot origins sparks Winterim discovery and design

On Feb. 28, 1951, Ward-Belmont students and faculty awoke to the news that their school had been sold. The new school would be coed and would not have a high school — only the college would continue. The community rallied behind the younger students, and a group of supporters purchased the property where Harpeth Hall stands today, opening a new school for girls in September 1951.

Faculty and students at the new Harpeth Hall decided to continue the Ward-Belmont tradition of four clubs. Each club had an emblem or a crest with letters and symbols, and a club cheer to sing at meetings and special events.

Then came the mascots.

The rise of the mascots

Eccowasin was the first of the Harpeth Hall clubs to record a mascot. In the 1960-1961 club meeting minutes, the group noted: “The sign of the club is the thunderbird signifying benediction, health, and good omen.” A few years later, a drawing of the thunderbird appeared in a 1967 “Milestones” yearbook photograph of students holding a sign that says “Eccowasin is best.”

Ecco was the only club during that era with an identifiable animal mascot, but a little more than a decade later, the other clubs followed, with middle school students leading the way. In 1980, the Ariston gators appeared in a middle school club photo. In 1981, the Angkor whale arrived. Then came a brief blip of unrest in the club system.

In 1982, the upper school shifted to a two-club system: Ariston-Triad and Angkor-Eccowasin. Students at the summer leadership conference voted on mascots —the Izod alligator for Ariston-Triad and polo ponies for Angkor-Eccowasin. A few years later, in 1985, the upper school clubs were abolished entirely.

The four-club system returned in 1986, restoring Angkor, Ariston, Eccowasin, and Triad as distinct groups. That same year, the first documented example of the Triad ladybug was found sketched in a scrapbook with a list of club officers, meeting minutes, and multiple club songs. Throughout these shifts, the middle school maintained its four-club structure, and students organically began to associate mascots with their clubs.

By 1990, all four mascots were clearly established in middle school club life. Today, thanks to the curiosity sparked during Winterim, the clubs are not only grounded in tradition but also moving forward with new logos designed by students — an artistic bridge between past and future.

Creativity makes history

Back in Ms. Huddleston’s 2025 Winterim class, just days after discovering there were no official logo images for the club mascots, she assigned her students a class project.

Take what you know about the spirit clubs, she told them, and design original logos for each. She then divided her students into groups of four and let them unleash their creativity. Each group was told that their designs may be in the running to be voted in as the official spirit club logos for the school — a chance to leave their mark on Harpeth Hall history.

As part of their Winterim lessons, the class had already learned how to make logos “sleek and easy to recognize while making it personal,” sophomore Mary Martha Nord said. With that in mind, Mary Martha, along with classmates Iara Kullock, Mae Mae Galyon, and Mary Varina Willse, decided their designs would incorporate both the names of the clubs and the animals associated, “making it clean and timeless for the future of Harpeth Hall.”

Other groups took other approaches, with each team creating distinctive designs. “I loved the process of creating these designs, and was ecstatic to see our vision turn to life,” Mary Martha said.

As Winterim ended, the students presented their original works and passed them on for consideration. Harpeth Hall administrators reviewed each design and selected two as finalists. The entire student body then voted for their favorite design. In May, the group of Iara, Mae Mae, Mary Martha, and Mary Varina learned that their club mascot animal designs had been selected as the winners and would be officially adopted by the school.

“I think designs can really tell so many stories depending on the different person,” Iara said. “I thought our design idea was creative and original and so cute.

“I am so excited to have this opportunity and to be a part of Harpeth Hall history."

Meet the new spirit club logos