Many people own a R-P Power pin but might not know the story of how the pin came into existence. The story is an important part of the history of our sports program.
On November 6th in the year 1992, the Rocket Varsity football team had just finished a perfect 9-0 season, winning another Seaway Conference title and were set to play the Eskymos of Escanaba High School at Northmen stadium on the campus of Petoskey High School in a regional opener. The game-time temperature was 22 degrees with a wind chill near zero. It was cold! Many fans from R-P and Escanaba had made the trek to the Petoskey site to watch this football game. The stands were packed on the Escanaba side with the R-P side mostly full except for our five student fan buses that were delayed due to a road accident.
As the game progressed, both teams found it difficult to score on one another until late in the second half of the game. The Escanaba fans had a cheer that engaged their entire fan base in the stands across from our Rocket supporters. It was loud and it went like this: U-P Power, U-P Power, U-P Power. As our Rocket fans heard this, we responded with, for the first time, R-P Power, R-P Power, R-P Power. The cheering from our side of the field was surely heard by our players and coaches as many of them looked to the stands to hear and see the overwhelming support they sensed from this newly minted cheer. With renewed energy, the Rockets went on to defeat the Eskymos of Escanaba High School and would end their season with a 13-0 state championship. The R-P Power pin was made in honor of the season that brought this cheer to our community. Now you know the “rest of the story”.