Red Devils Kick Off Season With Time-Honored Tradition

While District 86 residents know that 's mascot is the Red Devil, they might not realize that the school's football team wears white devil horns on their red helmets.

In fact, the devil horns are a tradition that Hinsdale Central football players have upheld for decades.

Thursday night members of the varsity football team and their parents gathered on Dickinson Field for the team's Horn Ceremony, a relatively new tradition that allows players' parents to present their sons with the devil horns that will adorn their helmets for the coming football season.

"It's a great tradition," senior team captain Michael Pircon said. "It's a lot of fun to get the parents out there [and] to think about how many people have gotten those horns."

Although the ceremony is new, wearing devil horns on their helmets is something Hinsdale Central football players have done for many years. In fact, Pircon's father, Ron, also was a Red Devil football player who wore horns on his helmet.

Pircon's mother, Sue, also a Hinsdale Central graduate, remembers the horns from her high school days.

Football players have always attached their devil horns to the back windows of their cars once the football season ended.

"The horns have always been on the cars since way back when," Sue Pircon said.

She also remembers Hinsdale police officers seeking out cars with devil horns on their windows to find trouble-making teenagers. 

The horns have a special meaning to the football players. No other Hinsdale Central students are given the horns and it's a tradition special in the high school football world.

"I've been told the horns are only worn by a couple schools in the whole country," head coach Rich Tarka told the players and their families Thursday night.

Tarka, who took over as head coach this year, also acknowledged the significance of the devil horns.

He joked to the crowd, "I really wasn't nervous about a lot of things taking over this job, but … once in a while I'd wake up sweating, thinking, 'I didn't order the horns yet!'" 

The ceremony took place just in time for the Red Devils to take part in another favorite tradition, the Red and White scrimmage, which will be held Friday night at Dickinson Field.

After a summer of practices, the Red Devils are enthusiastic about taking the field.

"I think we're going to perform very well," Pircon said. "We've got great underclassmen, a great offensive line; I think we can perform past what people expect us to do."

Tarka is also optimistic about the 2011 season, telling parents that his team will work hard to get as far into the playoffs as possible.

"The greatest compliment I've had ... is that the players are having a lot more fun this year, and they're working a lot harder," he said. "The state title is not unattainable."