Students Steal Moose Head

1985

A day after sneaking into Westtown and capturing its celebrated moose head, George School students present it to an embarrassed David Bourns, who only hours earlier had mistakenly assured his counterpart at Westtown that the moose head was not at George School.

The moose head is emblematic of the annual athletic competition between the two schools known as the Patterson Cup. The cup, inaugurated in 1969 by the Patterson family, who sent children to both schools, is awarded at the end of the year to the school that has won the most varsity and JV competitions.

“The Moose,” the Cup’s nickname, gets its name early on from the aforementioned moose head, which is used to keep score. After each contest, a tea bag is placed on the side of the moose of the victorious school. At the end of the year, the tea bags are tallied and the school with the most tea bags wins the Patterson Cup. To this day, athletic victories against Westtown are referred to as Moose Points.