Soon, a brainstorming session was held with SGA officers and classroom representatives to determine guidelines for appropriate mascots. Students were cautioned to look at and respect the various ethnic groups that make-up Roberto Clemente Middle School, and to keep in mind that we should be particularly sensitive to any cultural biases certain images may have, since we bear the name of an Hispanic hero!

After much consideration of the various mascot entries, the students voted to honor the Golden Hawk as our official school mascot. The Golden Hawk is the national bird of Puerto Rico, which was the home of Roberto Clemente. At that time, the colors "black and gold" were also voted by our students to be used as our school colors: the colors worn by Roberto Clemente when he played baseball for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

After the selection was made, there remained the task of rendering a drawing of the Hawk in pen-and-ink. A school-wide contest was held, and a student was chosen to complete the actual line drawing.