MaxPreps Mascot Mondays: Indiana 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 Indiana, there are 425 schools with mascots listed in the MaxPreps database. Listed below are the Top 15 most popular mascot names in Indiana, the mascot names that only one school owns and other mascot facts/stats.

A CAR PART AS A HIGH SCHOOL MASCOT?
If a school was going to choose a car part as its mascot, the Indianapolis area is probably the first you would think of, considering that it calls itself the Racing Capital of the World. Speedway is proud to be the Sparkplugs, and you can find the campus less than a mile to the west of one of the nation's most famous auto racing venues, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which is home to the Indy 500, the Brickyard 400 and other famous races. Speedway High just might be the only one in the nation to use a car part as its mascot, although a few schools use car names as mascots. Fellow Indiana school Northeast Dubois (Dubois) and South Webster (Ohio) are the Jeeps, and a pair of schools in Haverford, Pa., are Fords. Another interesting aspect is that South Webster is not named after the automobile called a Jeep, click here to see the real origin.

THEY'RE NOT THE OLD LADIES - JUST THE ALICES
The origins of the mascot name for Lincoln (Vincennes) is unclear. What is clear is that the school's nickname is one mostly associated with two things: sweet little old ladies and the famous film Alice in Wonderland. According to the school's website, there are two popular theories: 1. A historical story called "Alice of Vincennes" by Maurice Thompson in 1788 was the inspiration. 2. When Lincoln won the 1923 state basketball title, it was a monumental out-of-nowhere rise to the top and therefore it was a fantasy just like Alice in Wonderland. Either way, don't call them old ladies.

JUG ROX AREN'T ROCKS IN JUGS
The words "Jug Rox" just look strange, and maybe you're thinking of a jug full of rocks. Not exactly a meaningful mascot if that was the case. Once you look into it, though, the mascot name for Shoals actually makes pretty good sense. Jug Rock is a popular rock outcropping near Shoals, and visitmartincounty.com says it is the largest free-standing table rock formation east of the Mississippi River. What does it look like exactly? Well, the mascot is pretty realistic. Jug Rock is a large flat slab of rock perched atop a sandstone column, and the head of the mascot is the slab.

AN INGOT IS A...
It's a mold in which metal is cast. And it happens to be the mascot name for River Forest (Hobart). River Forest is proud to say that it's the only school in the nation that chose Ingots as its mascot, but the reasoning is tough to find. The far northwestern corner of Indiana, specifically the nearby city of Gary, has a high number of steel mills, so it seems likely that the Ingots name was inspired by the steel industry. Check out the IHSAA site for more on Indiana mascots



SOMETIMES A HOT DOG ISN'T A SHOW-OFF
The kids at Frankfort are guilty as charged when it comes to accusations of being Hot Dogs. They can't help it. The founders of the town in the central part of the state wanted to honor their parents' hometown of Frankfurt am Main (Germany) and yes, Frankfurt is famous for a food similar to the American hot dog. You won't find another school in America that chose to be the Hot Dogs - just Lincoln High in Nebraska, which is the Links. We're guessing it's not sausage links that inspired that mascot name.

TOP 16 MOST POPULAR MASCOT NAMES
# Eagles 22 (There are 2 Golden Eagles and 1 Fighting Eagles)
# Warriors 22
# Panthers 19
# Tigers 15 (There is 1 Tiger Cubs)
# Bulldogs 14
# Trojans 12
# Cougars 11 (There is 1 Kougars)
# Wildcats 11 (There is 1 Wildkats and 1 Cadet Wildcats)
# Knights 11 (There is 1 Golden Knights)
Patriots 10
# Lions 9
Braves 9
Hornets 8
# Raiders 8
# Vikings 8
# Indians 8
# Denotes mascot name is in America's Top 15

MASCOT NAMES USED BY ONLY 1 SCHOOL

* Alices Angels Apaches * Arabians Archers * Argylls * Artesians * Athenians Barons Berries Bison Bluejackets Bluejays Bobcats Bombers * Brickies Bronchos Broncos * Cadet Wildcats Cavemen * Chargin' Chargers Cherokees * Clovers Colonials Commodores * Continentals

* Couriers Cubs * Deaf Hoosiers * Fighting 59ers Fighting Eagles Fighting Irish Flashes * Flying Jets Gladiators Golden Arrows Golden Falcons Golden Knights Gophers Governors Greyhounds * Grizzly Cubs Gryphons Guards Hatchets * Higher Praise Highlanders Hilltoppers Horsemen * Hot Dogs Hurricanes * Ingots

Jeeps Jets * Jimmies * Jug Rox Kings Kingsmen Kougars Marauders Marines Marksmen Marlins Mavericks Millers Miners Minutemen Mohawks Mounties Musketeers Norsemen Oilers Olympians * Oracles Orioles Pacers Pilgrims Quakers

Railroaders Rangers * Rappites Red Ramblers * Rox * Satellites Scots Shamrocks * Shiners * Slicers * Space Pioneers * Sparkplugs Squires * Starfires Swordsmen * Tiger Cubs * Tornados Trailblazers * Twisters Wildkats Wolfpack Wolverines * Woodmen Yellow Jackets Zebras

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

MASCOT STATS
Most popular mascot name is used by 5.2 percent of schools.
There are 159 different mascot names for 425 schools.
33 schools have mascot names that no other American school has.
Indiana's Top 16 features 13 of America's Top 15 mascot names.