MaxPreps Mascot Mondays: Kansas high school mascots

Just as important as a school's name and its location is its mascot. Options abound, and some teams go with the commonplace while others go with the truly unique.

In Kansas, there are 393 schools with mascots listed in the MaxPreps database. Listed below are the Top 15 most popular mascot names in Kansas, the mascot names that only one school owns and other mascot facts/stats.

HALF MASCOT, HALF MACHINE
The high school in Hesston turned the town's biggest claim to fame into its high school mascot. That claim to fame? A big machine that cuts grain or hay and leaves it in rows so it can be baled or packed into some other neat form. The Hesston Swather is one of the more popular pieces of farm equipment in America, and the logo for the Hesston Swathers athletic teams should be one of the more popular in America. It's spectacular. The logo resembles the machine pretty much identically, and adds in gnashing teeth with some mean-spirited eyes.

BUFFALO OR BUTTERFLY?
The mascot name Monarch, when it's derived from the most common usage, refers to a ruler who heads a monarchy. And if that's not the case, most would then go to the Monarch Butterfly. Then there's the "Monarch of the Plains" that More Prep-Marian (Hays) pays homage to. The school's mascot name is the Monarchs but the logo is a bison (exactly like the NFL's Buffalo Bills). That probably doesn't make much sense to many. The reasoning is that the bison (and some think, the buffalo) is sometimes called the Monarch of the Plains, and Hays is the home to a limestone sculpture by Pete Felten that owns the same title.

IF ONLY THEY WERE NAMED AFTER $100 BILLS
When you hear about Greenbacks, what comes to mind first: Money or frogs? Guess it depends on where you're from, because if you were or are a student at Pratt, then you know it's a frog. The Greenbacks love their Fightin' Frog mascot, and they know that the mascot name choice has nothing to do with the fact that American currency during the Civil War was called Greenbacks.

SOUNDS BARBARIC, BUT IT'S REALLY NOT
Muleskinners sounds like a gory mascot name, glorifying people who take the hides of an animal with some sort of sharp object. It's really not. The students at St. John's Military (Salina) are Muleskinners, though the name pretty much comes from muleteer, another name for someone uses mules to move goods or services. The school features a bronze statue on its campus of the muleskinner, a military icon, and the statue is featured on the Smithsonian Art Museum Art Inventories Catalog.



THE ONLY RINGNECKS AROUND
You won't find Ringnecks anywhere else in the country except for Hill City. And you won't find an exact explanation of why Ringnecks was chosen or which specific Ringnecks are referenced. The school's logo makes the Ringneck Pheasant the most likely answer to the question, though there are ringneck varietals of other birds, and there is a Ringneck Snake that lives in Kansas. Interestingly, it appears that the whole community embraces the mascot, as the Hill City Area Chamber of Commerce offers a Ringneck Bucks program that encourages locals to shop at local businesses.

TOP 15 MOST POPULAR MASCOT NAMES
# Eagles 24 (There are 2 Golden Eagles)
# Bulldogs 23 (There are 2 Bullpups)
# Wildcats 23
# Indians 15
# Panthers 15
# Tigers 13
# Trojans 13
# Lions 12
# Mustangs 12
Cardinals 10
# Vikings 9
# Warriors 9
Chargers 8
# Cougars 8
Buffaloes 8 (There is 1 Golden Buffalo)
# Denotes mascot name is in America's Top 15

MASCOT NAMES USED BY ONLY 1 SCHOOL

Aces Beavers Black Bears * Blu-Jays Blue Comets Blue Jays Blue Streaks Bluebirds Blues Bombers Broncs Celtics Cobras Colts Cubs Defenders

Demons Devils Elks Fighting Irish Fire Firebirds Flyers Golden Bears * Golden Buffalo Golden Tornado Gorillas * Greenbacks Jayhawks Jets * Junior Ravens

Kats * Kaws * Larks Monarchs * Muleskinners Oilers Orioles Owls Plainsmen Rebels * Red Aces Red Hawks * Ringnecks Roadrunners Rockets

Roosters * Salt Hawks Scots Seahawks Stags Stallions Storm Suns * Swathers * Teutons Thunder Thunderhawks Tornadoes Trailblazers Wolves Yellowjackets

* Denotes that no other school in America has that mascot name

MASCOT STATS
Most popular mascot name is used by 6.1 percent of schools.
There are 120 different mascot names for 393 schools.
12 schools have mascot names that no other American school has.
Kansas' Top 15 features 12 of America's Top 15 mascot names.