There’s something distinctive about the way the Lion walks in the jungle. Quietly, confidently, never questioning his right to be there, the Lion walks through the underbrush while other creature’s screech, chatter, and run to hide from the jungle king. No other animal walks quite like a Lion. Elephants lumber down the paths, thumping their way through the underbrush; tigers glide smoothly along, their stripes blending into the foliage. They’re all fine animals, to be sure….
But they aren’t Lions.
This law of the jungle operates on the playing fields, too. No one else walks quite like a Lion. They may swagger and boast, they may screech and chatter all they like; they still aren’t Lions. Other teams may be very nice kids, very nice coaches, very nice cheerleaders, but somehow they just aren’t Lions. They don’t have Lion spirit, they don’t have Lion determination, and they don’t have Lion excellence…. They don’t walk like Lions, and they don’t have Lion pride.
What makes the Lions walk the way we do? It starts with that special thing called “Team Spirit”. We mean something different by these words than most other organizations do. Others mean something like “loyalty” or “excitement” or even “loud cheering”; that’s not the Lion definition of TEAM SPIRIT. We refer to that bond that keeps us together, that tells each one of us that we’re part of something special; part of a smoothly functioning machine, or part of a living body. Just as no part of a machine is unimportant, just as no part of the body is more valuable than any other, EVERY member of this team — players, cheerleaders, coaches, support personnel, parents, friends — is a valuable part of the whole thing called the….
SANTA CLARA LIONS.