Interesting Player Names

[wally_wabash]

How about the Havre, Montana Blue Ponies.

Medford High Black Tornadoes. Tornadoes in Oregon?

More accurately they are the North Medford High Black Tornado.  NMHS was a rival of my high school back in the day in the ol' Southern Oregon Conference.

Never thought I'd see a southern Oregon high school pop up in conversation on this site! 

[tmerton]

Au contraire, Penn High School in Indiana are the Kingsmen!

My bad. Thanks for the correction.

Actually, there are at least five high schools known as the Kingsmen -

Christian Heritage - Trumbull CT 
Kings Park - Kings Park NY 
Nazareth - Brooklyn NY   
Penn - Mishawaka IN   
Putnam - Milwaukie OR   

You can do a search for school mascots on Maxpreps.com.


   

[repete]

Back in my Alaska days it was tough to beat the Aniak Halfbreds ...

The U of Alaska-Southeast (Juneau) has the Whales . . . not bad until you use Lady Whales for the women's teams.

Some great dogmushing nicknames based on hometowns: Herbie Nayukpuk, the Shishmaref Cannonball and another guy called the Loafer from Ophir.

In North Dakota, a crosstown rivalry is helped by the nicknames when the Dickinson Midgets play the Trinity Titans. I don't know if they ever play the Moorhead Spuds.

Best logo might go to the Richland, Wash., Bombers, where they honor the nuclear facility with a mushroom cloud on their helmets.

[Ron Boerger]

I believe Hutto (TX), a town near Austin/Round Rock, is the only school in the nation to be known as the "Hippos."

Supposedly in the early 1900s a hippopotamus escaped from a circus train and the rest is history.

[INQBScout]

Sorry if this was posted on a previous page...

Pekin (IL) H.S....the "Chinks"...although the politically incorrect nickname at the Peoria area school was changed some years ago, I think.

[smedindy]

I don't think "Politically Incorrect" is harsh enough for that one...

[Mr. Ypsi]

I discussed the Pekin Chinks on the previous page; not terribly surprising in a county which was 99.9+% white right up 'til the 70s (the constant rumor was that a majority of politicians and cops were KKK up to that time - I left Peoria in the 60s, so cannot confirm one way or the other).  They did change the name to Dragons quite some time ago (c. 1980?).

[BoBo]

The U of Alaska-Southeast (Juneau) has the Whales . . . not bad until you use Lady Whales for the women's teams.

Worse yet might be Pius XI H.S. in Milwaukee.  They are the Popes...ok until you use Lady Popes for the women's teams. 

http://www.piusxi.org/

[sac]

Any conversation about nicknames should begin and end with the Watersmeet(MI) Nimrods.


Some other favorites from Michigan

Detroit Southeastern Jungaleers
Detroit Pershing Doughboys
Bad Axe---Hatchets
Bessemer  Speedboys
Calumet Copper Kings
Dexter Dreadnaughts
Ishpeming Hematites
Kingsford Flivvers
Midland Chemics---Home of Dow Chemical, also have a High School named Midland Dow, they are the Chargers. 
West Iron County Wykons

Zeeland Chix----built a second HS renamed the original one Zeeland East Chix, named the second Zeeland West Dux.....naturally.

[BoBo]

This was on the Watersmeet web page:

Something of Interest

In the year of 1986, ESPN,"Sports America Show," compiled the 10 top nicknames for high school sports teams.  the "Nimrods" ranked third out of the 10 top nicknames.


1.) SYRUPMAKERS of Cairo,GA.
2.)BEETDIGGERS of Brush,Colo.
3.)*NIMRODS* of Watersmeet, MI.
4.)IMPS of Cary,N.C.
5.)ATOMSMASHERS of Jonhson Prep, Savannah,GA.
6.)ANGORAS of Clarkston,GA.
7.)FLIVVERS of Kingsford,MI.
8.)SQUIRRELS of Winslow,AZ.
9.)PEGLEGS of Stuyvesant in New York City
10.)DOTS of Poca,W. VA.

http://www.watersmeet.k12.mi.us/nimrod.html

I had to look because I didn't know the definition of Nimrod.  When I was younger our family had a camping trailer called a nimrod and I thought it had something to do with camping...considering Watersmeet is in the sticks of the MI UP, that might have worked.  But, I was wrong.

[Knightstalker]

The Belfry Bats in MT.

[K-Mack]

Any conversation about nicknames should begin and end with the Watersmeet(MI) Nimrods.

Guy at my job wears that T-shirt once a week.

This thread is humming now, great job today by all. Plenty of laughs here.

I definitely agree that local history inspired a lot of these names, and in fact their uniqueness is something that makes them stand out.

I finally found a web page devoted to this. I knew there would be one:

http://www.halcyon.com/marcs/mascoths4.html (this is page 4 of 5, change the URL to go back to the start, as in http://www.halcyon.com/marcs/mascoths.html )

Recently updated and includes many of the names we've already mentioned.

Poca Dots is funny to me ... as is Bad Axe Hatchets.

Lady Whales is pretty good too.

My favorite one I've seen along the way is Fluvanna (Va.) County Flying Flucos.

My old editor started a campaign for the new Hanover County (Va.) HS to be nicknamed the Tomatoes, based on the county's famous agricultural export. It gained some steam, but eventually they picked Hawks (*cough* lame)

[K-Mack]

Oh, at the bottom of the page on that site it has links to a college version of the same list.

Several of our D3 teams are highlighted there.

[K-Mack]

You can also see them sorted by state. For instance:

Pennsylvania (PA): William Bodine Ambassadors (HS), Lock Haven Bald Eagles (Coll), St. Hubert Bambies (HS), Penn State-Behrend Behrend Lions (Coll), Canon-McMillan Big Macs (HS), Ambridge Bridgers (HS), Boiling Springs Bubblers (HS), West Philadelphia Catholic Burrs (HS), Roman Catholic Cahillites (HS), William Allen Canaries (HS), Biglerville Canners (HS), Punxsutawney Chucks (HS), Episcopal Academy Churchmen (HS), Franklin and Marshall Diplomats (Coll), Franklin Electrons (HS), LaSalle Explorers (Coll), Haverford Fords (Coll), Abington Galloping Ghosts (HS), Swarthmore Garnet (Coll), North East Grape Pickers (HS), Karns City Gremlins (HS), Smethport Hubbers (HS), Northampton Area Konkrete Kids (HS), Annville-Cleona Little Dutchmen (HS), State College Area Little Lions (HS), Washington Little Prexies (HS), Williamson Mechanics (Coll), Carmichaels Mighty Mikes (HS), Williamsport Millionaires (HS), Muhlenberg Muhls (HS), Penn State Nittany Lions (Coll), Mars Planets (HS), Washington and Jefferson Presidents (Coll), Bishop O'Reilly Queensmen (HS), Aliquippa Quips (HS), Easton Red Rovers (HS), Penn State-Fayette Roaring Lions (Coll), Steelton-Highspire Steamrollers (HS), Hampton Talbots (HS), Carnegie Mellon Tartans (Coll), Slippery Rock "The Rock," (Coll), Villa Maria Academy Victors (HS)
42 Total (30 HS, 12 Coll)

Little Prexies? Queensmen? Mighty Mikes? Electrons?

Those rule.

Someone remind me to order my Canon-McMillan sweatshirt this fall.

[K-Mack]

(was kidding)

http://www.prepsportswear.com/Product.aspx?qs=1&rnd=633221209456980738&schoolid=187858&productid=52