# Strangest High School Team Mascots **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 21, 2000, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-high-school-team-mascots/46757 "2000-12-21T21:14:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Flypsyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@Flypsyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flypsyde)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2000, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-high-school-team-mascots/46757/41 "2000-12-22T06:20:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Nymysys \* > \*\*My college mascot was the Saluki. GO SIU-C! \*\* YEAH!! Don’t mess with the badass Egyptian thoroughbred dogs… Well, what, there’s like 4 SIU-C grads here on the MB. We gotta stick together. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2000, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-high-school-team-mascots/46757/42 "2000-12-22T06:27:08Z")
: Pekin, IL’s high school team name used to be the Chinks! Slightly off-topic, but New Mexico State University had a yearbook called **The Swastika**. It was published into the late 1980s. Oh, back to Hutchinson-Central Technical High School in Buffalo – the fightin’ Engineers. For a while, the mascot was a train. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, it was a cute bird – the “Technical Fowl,” also the name of the school newspaper. ---
**Author:** ![Fanny\_May](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3be4f8/32.png) [@Fanny\_May](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fanny_May)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2000, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-high-school-team-mascots/46757/43 "2000-12-22T07:17:47Z")
At one k-9 school I worked at, the girls’ teams were the Butterflies. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2000, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-high-school-team-mascots/46757/44 "2000-12-22T07:45:06Z")
: YEAH!! Don’t mess with the badass Egyptian thoroughbred : dogs… Dogs that would make good mascots: Dobermans Rottweilers Bulldogs Pit Bulls Boxers Mastiffs Dogs that would make not-so-good mascots Whippets Bichon Frises Shih Tzus Cocker Spaniels Chihuahuas Petit Basset Griffon Vendeens ---
**Author:** ![Short](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b38774/32.png) [@Short](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Short)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2000, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-high-school-team-mascots/46757/45 "2000-12-22T08:05:54Z")
Several of my relatives went to [Whitman College](http://www.whitman.edu/). They instill a sense of intercollegiate fear as the Fighting Missionaries. (Please note the missionaries after whom the college was named, were in fact killed in 1847) ---
**Author:** ![justwannano](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7ab992/32.png) [@justwannano](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justwannano)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2000, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-high-school-team-mascots/46757/46 "2000-12-22T08:08:31Z")
flypside My son goes to SIUC Notre Dame hs in Burlington Ia are the Nikes Not after the footware but after an ICBM from the 50s. About the technical equivalent of a scud ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2000, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-high-school-team-mascots/46757/47 "2000-12-22T10:21:13Z")
Norskie high schools don’t do teams, but often have mascots anyway. Fella bilong missus flodnak’s high school mascot was… a snail. No special type, just a generic snail. I went to Katlick high school, and our teams were called the Crusaders. Not so unusual, but mighty strange anyway. First, it leaves the girls’ teams to be the Lady Crusaders. (I, um, don’t believe there’s a historical precedent for any **Lady** Crusaders.) Secondly, the Crusaders ultimately lost. Badly. They were crushed, humiliated, turned into mincemeat. Come to think of it, that wasn’t such a bad name for our football team, which when I graduated had racked up two back-to-back 0-10 seasons. But us band fags were stuck with it, too. Hmph. ---
**Author:** ![screech-owl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@screech-owl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/screech-owl)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2000, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-high-school-team-mascots/46757/48 "2000-12-22T14:46:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Hometownboy \* > **Oh, and I attended Willamette University in Salem, OR, whose teams were the Bearcats, originally named for the Stutz automobile of the 20s.** Um, Solvay (NY) High School’s mascot is the bearcat (also called the binturong) - a hairy mammal that smells like buttered popcorn when agitated or excited. Except the taxidermied animal in the school showcase is a lynx, IIRC. Christian Brothers Academy (Syracuse, NY - the “CBA Brothers” or “the Brothers”) was an all-male school until they went co-ed several years ago. For awhile, the women’s teams were the “Lady Brothers”; not sure if they still are. ---
**Author:** ![SoMoMom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@SoMoMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SoMoMom)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2000, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-high-school-team-mascots/46757/49 "2000-12-22T14:54:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by nineiron \* > \*\*Well, I always found it a bit odd that Burlington H.S. in Vermont (where I spent some time a few years back) was the “Seahorses” when they are not anywhere near the sea. (Unless, of course, there are seahorses in Lake Champlain; I never checked…) \*\* It could have seahorses. Maybe that’s what the Lake Champlain Monster eats. 😉 I just remembered another one. I don’t know how it slipped my mind earlier. The town my cousins grew up in, West Plains, Missouri have the mascot of the Zizzers. No one knows what the heck a Zizzer is, so they use a lightening bolt on their school items and athletic/band uniforms. Really, I don’t know if someone DOES know what a Zizzer is, but it’s a fun thing to go to West Plains and ask people, “What’s a Zizzer?” You’ll get as many different answers as people you ask probably accompanied with the eye-roll and sigh. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Hometownboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5e9695/32.png) [@Hometownboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hometownboy)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2000, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-high-school-team-mascots/46757/50 "2000-12-22T15:23:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by screech-owl \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by Hometownboy \* > > **Oh, and I attended Willamette University in Salem, OR, whose teams were the Bearcats, originally named for the Stutz automobile of the 20s.** > > Um, Solvay (NY) High School’s mascot is the bearcat (also called the binturong) - a hairy mammal that smells like buttered popcorn when agitated or excited. Except the taxidermied animal in the school showcase is a lynx, IIRC. > \*\* Shows what comes of slipshod thinking on my part. IIRC, the implication at WU was that it was named for the car, but the car was no doubt named for the animal. Any car buffs out there have the SD? ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2000, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-high-school-team-mascots/46757/51 "2000-12-22T16:05:12Z")
**Comfort Texas** (PETA sympaticos might want to skip this) Decades ago, before they were the Bobcats, they were the Comfort Deer. This would not be that big of a deal except that the game against Blanco was always the night before deer season opened and the game warden lived in Blanco. After years of having their mascot tied across half the trucks in the parking lot, they changed the mascot. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7feea3/32.png) [@PatrickM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickM)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2000, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-high-school-team-mascots/46757/52 "2000-12-22T16:21:12Z")
The Avon Lake (Ohio) Shoremen! I graduated from dear old ALHS, and still have no idea what a ‘Shoreman’ is. Our mascot, “Shorty the Shoreman” was a crew-cut guy holding an anchor over his head. Then I went to Kent State University, home of the mighty “Golden Flashes”. Our mascot was a little old man in a raincoat. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2000, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-high-school-team-mascots/46757/53 "2000-12-22T18:08:23Z")
Off the top of my head (college division): U. of Akron Zips Heidelberg College Student Princes Wittenberg Battling Bishops Amherst Lord Jeffs Scottsdale Community College Fightin’ Artichokes UC-Irvine Anteaters Manhattan Violets Pittsburg (KS) State Gorillas (dammit, can’t remember) Tarzans and Janes (some Southern school) Gentlemen … and Lady Gentlemen When Stanford dumped “Indians”, the student body voted for “Robber Barons” after their founder’s source of wealth. The administration picked “Cardinal” (the color, not the bird - how lame is that?) Massachusetts High School division: Salem Witches Marblehead Magicians (their Quidditch rivals) Peabody Tanners (used to make a lot of shoes there) Arlington Spy Ponders Brockton Blockbusters (that was Rocky Marciano’s nickname) - since changed to Boxers, when Marvin Hagler won the title ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2000, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-high-school-team-mascots/46757/54 "2000-12-22T18:21:06Z")
The Madeira Snails. I kid you not. ---
**Author:** ![aztec](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@aztec](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aztec)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2000, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-high-school-team-mascots/46757/55 "2000-12-22T18:47:41Z")
At my high school, our team name is the Lakers, but our mascot, until the early 80s, was the swamprat. Philmore the Swamprat. My parents went to the same high school in Philmore’s hayday, and claim that it was the most disgusting looking suit they had ever seen. He has been reincarnated as of late in spirit, but no one can seem to find his old suit. I’m pretty sure they burned it. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2000, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-high-school-team-mascots/46757/56 "2000-12-22T19:28:37Z")
Umm, our High School mascot was…umm…a “Burr”. Our school was on a tree-lined street (Chestnut st.) in West Philadelphia, and the trees would shed these “burrs” (look it up), which are the prickly things that well…fall off trees. I think they are technically a fruit. Anyway, as you’ve probably concluded by now, our school mascot derived it’s name from the burrs which lined the streets. Hence “West Catholic Burrs”. Other teams would run, not walk, from the dreaded West Catholic Burrs. If someone else has a name with a form of life lower than a prickly seed pod from old Chestnut tree, please let me know. If someone had a mascot named the “Washington High School Fighting Tree Barks”, I might concede. 🙂 Happy “Burr” alumn, Phil. ---
**Author:** ![Zappo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b3f665/32.png) [@Zappo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zappo)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2000, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-high-school-team-mascots/46757/57 "2000-12-22T19:45:29Z")
> [@](#): > > If someone else has a name with a form of life lower than a prickly seed pod from old Chestnut tree, please let me know. If someone had a mascot named the “Washington High School Fighting Tree Barks”, I might concede. 🙂 Hi Phil, I can beat this one. This life form is so low it’s not even alive! One town over from my current home in Central PA, the Boiling Springs HS teams are called the “Bubblers.” Their mascot is (I think) a cloud of bubbles- it’s been so long since I’ve seen one of their t-shirts that I don’t remember any more. Another favorite is the Slippery Rock ¶ State College Rocks. They actually used to have a guy in a rock costume on the field at their football games. Given the general state of the student body there (it has a rep as a big party school) maybe they just wanted to keep it simple. Regards, Zappo ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2000, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-high-school-team-mascots/46757/58 "2000-12-22T19:55:00Z")
In the Los Angeles area you can find The Venice High Gondoliers The John Marshall High Barristers The Poly High Parrots The Compton High Tarbabes The Long Beach Poly High Jackrabbits Compton High’s nickname may be surprising since it is a predominantly African-American city. However, Compton College (aka Compton JC) calls it’s team the Tartars. The high school used to be part of the JC, so its teams were the Tarbabes, who would grow up to be Tartars. ---
**Author:** ![troub](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troub/32/14802_2.png) [@troub](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/troub)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2000, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-high-school-team-mascots/46757/59 "2000-12-22T20:10:49Z")
We must never forget the lovable mascot from Cobden, IL, the Appleknocker! ---
**Author:** ![Burrito\_Boy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Burrito\_Boy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Burrito_Boy)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2000, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-high-school-team-mascots/46757/60 "2000-12-22T21:59:55Z")
I used to teach at Aurora High School in Aurora, Missouri, a little town about an hour west of Springfield. Aurora’s mascot: the Houn’ Dawgs. Yes, that’s how they spelled it. This was the Ozarks, remember. The girls’ teams were the “Lady Dawgs”. I guess that’s better than the technical term for a lady dog. 😉 School cheer heard at athletic contests: “Arf! Arf! Houn’ Dawgs!” And they would hold their hands up like paws, scratching the air like a dog begging at the dinner table. I’m not kidding. What makes it worse is that the school’s fight song was this old Ozark folk song called the “Hound Dog Song” or something like that. They just played the melody; they didn’t sing the words, which is probably for the best. Here is the chorus to to the song: Ev’ry time I come to town The boys keep kickin’ my dawg aroun’; Makes no diff’rence if he is a houn’, They gotta quit kickin’ my dawg aroun’. See [http://crydee.sai.msu.ru/ftproot/pub/rec/music/lyrics/cs-uwp/folk/h/hound\_dog\_song](http://crydee.sai.msu.ru/ftproot/pub/rec/music/lyrics/cs-uwp/folk/h/hound_dog_song) for the rest of this masterpiece’s lyrics. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-high-school-team-mascots/46757.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-high-school-team-mascots/46757.md?page=4)