“In 1916 the newly organized St. Stanislaus varsity football team became known as the Rock-A-Chaws. Credit for coining the title belongs to Br. Macarius Pierce, St. Stanislaus principal, who organized a Rooters Club in 1916 to cheer for the team. Within a few years, the name Rock-A-Chaws was used for all St. Stanislaus athletes, and the rock-a-chaw became the school mascot.
Rock-a-chaw comes from an old Choctaw word meaning devil grass, and it refers to the pesky little sand burrs that abounded on campus before the lawns were cultivated. For years College students conscientiously removed the cockleburs from their playing fields where the prolific prickly weeds sprung up naturally in the sandy soil that was ideal for them. Sometimes St. Stanislaus students dragged woolen blankets across the fields before a game to pick up the rock-a-chaws that stuck with their small sharp spikes.”
Brother Xavier Werneth, SC
History of St. Stanislaus
1854-2004
“Ode to the Rock-A-Chaws”, written by Br. Macarius in 1916.
"There’s a favored spot with a golden shore
Where the waves splash music forevermore.
The creeping grass enamels with green
The banks of that shore with its brightest sheen.
The breezes that blow from the Southern clime
Waft through the oaks with a softened rime.
The tempting cool green invites you to pause
But alas, you will feel the sharp Rock-a-chaws.
What are they? ‘Tis my task to tell—
They’ve got the meanness of the devils from hell.
They’re the most consistent, persistent pest,
That puts a man’s patience to the test.
They lie in wait with a fiendish glee
For the innocent hand or foot or knee.
And they stick with an affection denying all laws,
The rancorous, cantankerous Rock-a-chaws.
In this favored spot stands a College grand
Famed for its athletes throughout the land.
Its football squad is a husky bunch
With brawn and brains--I have a hunch.
And casting around for a name to present
The qualities which to their enemies meant.
Confusion, disaster, and horrid death’s jaws,
They hit on a name of “The Rock-A-Chaws.”
The Rock-A-Chaw
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The Classic
Rock-A-Chaw
"Rocky" |
The St. Stanislaus
Rock-A-Chaw |
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