WHAT IS A BURR?
The question was answered thanks to some research by Brother Tim Ahern, former school President. This information is taken from the first West Catholic Boys Yearbook of 1920.
-West Catholic Boys opened in the fall of 1916. By 1918, West Catholic had a young football club. One of their early games was at Haddon Heights, New Jersey. A recap of the game included the following, "THE NEXT GAME PLAYED AT HADDON HEIGHTS WAS A HARD FOUGHT BATTLE, IN WHICH OUR BOYS DISPLAYED THAT QUALITY OF GAMENESS, WHICH WON FOR THEM THE APPELLATION OF "BURRS."
Most West grads believed that the nickname Burrs came from the trees on Chestnut Street. This is false because at the time in 1918, there were no trees planted on Chestnut Street. Tenacity and stick-to-it-ive-ness seems to be the concept of the early football team, and the name just “stuck.”
-West Catholic Boys opened in the fall of 1916. By 1918, West Catholic had a young football club. One of their early games was at Haddon Heights, New Jersey. A recap of the game included the following, "THE NEXT GAME PLAYED AT HADDON HEIGHTS WAS A HARD FOUGHT BATTLE, IN WHICH OUR BOYS DISPLAYED THAT QUALITY OF GAMENESS, WHICH WON FOR THEM THE APPELLATION OF "BURRS."
Most West grads believed that the nickname Burrs came from the trees on Chestnut Street. This is false because at the time in 1918, there were no trees planted on Chestnut Street. Tenacity and stick-to-it-ive-ness seems to be the concept of the early football team, and the name just “stuck.”
