A California university is pulling the plug on a mascot that has been part of its identity for nearly a century, bowing to pressure from a small group of activists who raised concerns about Spanish colonial history.
The University of San Francisco (USF) announced it will retire “The Don”—a costumed figure sporting a pencil-thin mustache and green Spanish-style hat who has cheered on the sidelines at sporting events since 1932. The mascot will officially step aside at the start of the spring 2027 semester, according to the New York Post.
The decision reportedly came after a petition demanding the change collected barely 400 signatures. Critics argued that the mascot’s connection to Spanish colonial history was upsetting and inappropriate for a modern university.
A Nearly Century-Old Tradition Comes to an End
The Don has been a fixture at USF athletic events for 92 years. The mascot’s origins trace back to Don Francisco de Haro, the first mayor of Yerba Buena—the settlement that eventually became San Francisco. The term “Don” is a Spanish honorific denoting noble origin, traditionally used as a mark of respect.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the Don image that has been integral to USF’s athletics for nearly a century has “fallen out of favor in the modern world.” Some students reportedly began to feel the phrase and the figure it celebrates share too much in common with the history of Spanish colonization experienced by California’s Indigenous people.
In place of The Don, the university will introduce a wolf as its new mascot. However, the school’s athletic teams will still retain the traditional “Dons” nickname, creating what some observers see as a confusing compromise.
University President Defends the Switch
In a statement issued Friday, USF President Salvador Aceves attempted to frame the change as part of a broader revitalization effort rather than simply a response to controversy.
“With new leadership at USF and in Dons Athletics, we believe the time is right to revitalize our image and embrace a new mascot, one that is known for its intelligence, endurance and ability to work cooperatively in its pack,” Aceves said. “At the same time, we will proudly remain the University of San Francisco Dons.”
The statement notably avoided directly addressing the colonial history concerns that reportedly drove the petition effort, instead focusing on the positive attributes of wolves as a reason for the new direction.
Backlash to the Decision
The announcement has sparked considerable backlash, according to reports. Critics of the change point to the small number of signatures on the petition—just 400—as evidence that the decision does not reflect broad consensus among students, alumni, or the wider university community.
The private Jesuit institution’s decision also raises questions about how universities balance tradition with evolving sensitivities around historical symbols. USF is not the first educational institution to reconsider mascots with ties to Spanish colonial history, but the relatively small show of support for the change has made this case particularly contentious.
The mascot has been described variously as “a masked man with a green Spanish-style hat and pencil mustache” over the decades, becoming a recognizable symbol of USF athletics at events ranging from basketball games to other sporting competitions.
The Broader Context
The decision comes amid a broader national conversation about symbols, names, and mascots tied to controversial historical periods. Institutions across the country have grappled with whether traditional symbols should be retired when they cause discomfort to some community members, even when those symbols have been embraced for generations.
In this case, the connection between the Don mascot and Spanish colonization of Indigenous California populations became the focal point of criticism. Spanish colonization of California, which began in the late 18th century with the establishment of missions, had profound and often devastating impacts on Native American populations in the region.
However, supporters of keeping the mascot might argue that the Don character specifically honored Don Francisco de Haro, a historical figure tied to San Francisco’s founding, rather than serving as a celebration of colonization itself.
The university’s decision to keep the “Dons” team name while changing the mascot to a wolf creates an unusual situation where the visual representation and the team nickname will no longer align—a compromise that may satisfy neither those who wanted complete removal of Don-related imagery nor those who wanted to preserve the full tradition.
As USF moves forward with plans to introduce the wolf mascot in spring 2027, the debate over the decision is likely to continue among alumni, students, and observers who have strong feelings about the 92-year tradition coming to an end.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/sports/2026/11/02/don-with-it-woke-california-college-caves-and-axes-mascot-after-90-years/