With so much money to be made from merchandising and protecting intellectual property, you’ll never see a high school football team called “The Bartmans” or helmets with the Tasmanian Devil emblazoned on the side. (At least not legally.) But Loyola College Prep School in Louisiana has an official stamp of approval to have Snoopy on its uniforms, courtesy of Charles M. Schulz himself.
In 1966, Gerald McCaffery, a Jesuit scholastic and French teacher at the school, then known as Jesuit High, wrote a letter to the Peanuts cartoonist asking to use a specific image of Snoopy as a World War I flying ace as the official mascot for its team, the Flyers.
Schulz, in a time before mega-corporations held tightly to images and copyrights like they were secrets of the state, readily agreed. “Dear Mr. McCaffery,” he wrote, “You certainly have permission to use Snoopy as a specific image to go with your school name ‘Flyers.’”
Not only did Schulz give the thumbs up, but he also enclosed a drawing of Snoopy atop his Sopwith Camel chasing down the Red Baron. The drawing “should be just about what you want for your image.”
It’s no surprise that Peanuts Worldwide International, the entity that now owns the rights to Charlie Brown and friends, tried to put a stop to the team’s use of the Snoopy logo during the 2010s. A Peanuts representative wrote a letter to the school, stating, “I understand your school is using the mascot without our permission,” according to a KTBS report.
“Well, no ma’am, that’s not actually accurate,” came the response from Loyola Prep principal John LeBlanc. “The only permission we have is the letter we have from Mr. Schulz in 1966.”
In your face, Peanuts Worldwide International! Confronted with the permission letter from Schulz himself (and after family members confirmed that the Peanuts creator had blessed the team back in the day), the company backed down.
“You can keep it,” came the response. “We certainly don’t want you to lose your mascot after 50 years of having him.”
Er… seems like the entity did want the school to lose its mascot before they saw Schulz’s letter, but who’s counting?
That means the Flyers still have permission to plaster Snoopy not only on the sides of their helmets, but on the school’s playing field as well, which has the same Snoopy image painted on the 50-yard line. It’s the only high school stadium in America where linebackers can tackle opponents directly into the face of a famous cartoon beagle.
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