Have you ever wondered how Saucon Valley athletes became ‘the Panthers?’

Joseph Charles Sopko was born and raised in Hellertown, where he attended high school and was inspired by a wood carving that was part of the auditorium stage to choose the Panther as the school mascot. He died Jan. 28 at the age of 96 at his home in Lower Saucon Township.

It wasn’t mentioned in his obituary, published on Saucon Source on Jan. 29, but in addition to his World War II heroism, his career at Western Electric and many other accomplishments, the late Joseph “Joe” Charles Sopko had another claim to fame.

Sopko, 96, died Jan. 28 at his home in Lower Saucon Township, and was a graduate of the former Hellertown High School.

It was during his days as a high school student in the late 1930s that Sopko was responsible for suggesting that the school’s first mascot be a Panther; an animal that’s since become synonymous with Saucon Valley community spirit and fierce athletic prowess.

Here’s the story, as retold by Sopko’s daughter Carol Sopko Schade, HLSHS ’68, to the Saucon Valley Alumni Association:

“In 1938 or 1939, a school meeting was held in the Hellertown High School auditorium to name the school’s sports teams, particularly the baseball team. The school did not have a football team at that time, due to the expense of fielding a team. Various names were suggested. One student, Joe Sopko, noticed what appeared to him as two panther heads carved in the wood on each side of the stage. Joe pointed them out to the class president, Bobby Potts. Bobby raised his hand and suggested the name ‘Panthers.’ It was voted on and passed by the student body.”

In the 1950s, the auditorium was demolished, but the wood carvings that inspired Sopko’s choice of the “Panther” were saved and repurposed as bookends, according to information published on the SVAA website.

The photo below is of one of the treasured bookends, and was shared with Saucon Source by Sopko’s family.