What is that? April 27, 2024

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Last week’s photo (see below right) recalled one of the Island’s greatest athletes and a debate that focused Islanders’ attention on the nicknames for the school’s sports teams.

Roger McKeon correctly identified the photo as, “The jersey of one of the basketball players before the Board of Education decided to retire the ‘Indians’ name in September 2020, now known as the Islanders.”

That player is Cori Cass, a superb three-sport athlete. Cori also helped bring organized baseball to the Island in the summer as general manager of the Bucks, the Island’s entry in the Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League. Being honored by his school was the fulfillment of “a dream,” Cori said at his induction in the School Hall of Fame in 2013.

Patricia McGayhey had it right, naming Cori, and Sharon Power also knows her Island’s sports heroes.

Cynthia Michalak wrote on our Facebook page: “The never to be forgotten old Shelter Island school jersey,” and Lynda Steinmuller followed on Facebook with, “That’s what we will always be, when I was in school 42 years ago, our old uniforms. And we will always be the Indians.”

In late August 2020, the Shelter Island School Board of Education voted unanimously to retire the “Indians” nickname for the school’s teams. The vote followed six weeks of research and discussion into the question of retiring the name and the image of a Native American used since the 1970s.

It was the second Board meeting that August in which the question was addressed by speakers from the community and representatives of Native American groups, including the Shinnecock Tribe.

The previous  meeting, a sunset gathering on the field by the playground, featured comments from members of the Shelter Island community — including recent as well as not-so-recent graduates of the school — who spoke to both sides of the issue, in a reasonable, non-contentious, at times impassioned  atmosphere.

Shelter Island was way ahead of the curve, it seems, in light of the New York State Education Department mandating that by June 30, 2025 all public schools must remove all references to Native American imagery or risk losing state funds to their school districts.

And not to forget Cori, Cara Cass-Atherley posted a note about the photo on our Facebook page: “Hey Uncle Coco (Cori), does that look familiar?”