History of the Sheiks

Posted on October 7, 2014 by Eloisa Garcia in Features

   Eloisa Garcia

   Photo Editor

The world famous Hollywood High got its mascot in the early 1930’s from a local sportswriter who first called the football team “Sheiks,” which would later become the official mascot.

According to the book “The History of America’s Most Famous Public School,” by John Blumenthal, in the early 1920’s, the school’s athletes were known as the ‘The Foothillers’ or ‘The Filmmakers’. These nicknames were too long and not a good fit for the athletes. However in the early 30’s, Sheiks became the new nickname for the athletes first, then the school newspaper, before finally becoming Hollywood High’s official mascot.

The sportswriter who coined ‘sheiks’ as a nickname, was inspired by Rudolph Valentino’s starring role in the silent movie ‘The Sheik.’ The film was filmed in 1921 and was directed by George Melford, starring Rudolph Valentino.The film is about a powerful sheik called  Ahmed Ben Hassan, and a young girl named Lady Diana Mayo (Agnes Ayres). The film is about the powerful and romantic love between Ahmed and Lady Diana. Lady Diana is abducted by Ahmed and is forced to stay with him. Later in the film, he decides to let her go, which makes her realize the strong love that she has for him. She is then captured by bandits. Ahmed goes out looking for her. He fights with the bandits and rescues Lady Diana and they both realize the strong long that they feel for each other.

The movie reflects that the sheik never gave up and proved his strength to Lady Diana and to his enemies. The same way the Hollywood High Sheiks have demonstrated their strengths to their opponents.