The Hays Rebels didn’t exist until 1968 – the same year Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy were assassinated. However, the Civil Rights movement with all its marches and ideals were seemingly very far from Central Texas, where many communities were only just emerging from their rural cultures.
Schools in Kyle, Buda and Wimberley were brought together as the nascent Hays Consolidated School District (Wimberley would form its own in 1986) and, according to “A Tribute to Vision, Courage, and Trust: The story of the Hays Consolidated Independent School District” by Gene Johnson, the colors and mascot and school song of the new high school were left to be made by the student councils of the three student bodies.
Johnson was vague about what happened next. “According to the memories of some on the committee, one group made the suggestion for the mascot and another for the colors,” she wrote in the book published in 2007. “After these suggestions were made – all by student committees – students in grades eight through eleven were given the opportunity to vote” on suggestions that included the Rebels and the Ranger. Red, white and blue were the chosen colors the Rebel football team wore on the field that September.
