INDIANAPOLIS — Roncalli High School has chosen a new nickname – Royals.
In June 2020, it announced a new task force to find a nickname for the school, formerly known as the Rebels. The decision to start the task force came after alumni and community members expressed concerns about how people could misunderstand the Rebels nickname.
The task force met regularly over the past six months, with Roncalli students choosing Royals from two other choices.
The Roncalli gymnasium, built in 1962, will also get a name change. It will now be known as the Bishop Chartrand Gymnasium, to honor one of the two schools that merged in 1969 to become Roncalli High School. The other was Sacred Heart High School.
It was named after Bishop Joseph Chartrand, the sixth bishop of Indianapolis who served the diocese from 1918 until his death in 1933.
