MaxPreps Mascot Mondays: New Jersey 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 New Jersey, there are 422 schools with mascots listed in the MaxPreps database. Listed below are the Top 15 most popular mascot names in New Jersey, the mascot names that only one school owns and other mascot facts/stats.

HONORING OUR NEIGHBORS TO THE NORTH
Maybe the school fight song is "O Canada" at North Plainfield. They are the Canucks there, and it's certainly plausible that there is a heavy Canadian presence at the school located in northeast New Jersey. Canadians are commonly referred to as Canucks, though some could say it is derogatory, and it is especially applicable to French Canadians, according to a dictionary definition. The origin is unknown, and the logo features a tough-looking lumberjack of a man with two axes in the background. We're all for the unique name, though we also know it would fit better with schools like West Canada Valley (Newport, N.Y.) and La Canada (Calif.).

JUST ON THE LINE
The athletes at Phillipsburg aren't the ones out there painting lines on roads and freeways, nor are their baseball and softball players always smacking line-drives. But they are Liners - actually Stateliners. The official name is Stateliners and that has to do with the school's location on the edge of the Delaware River, across from Pennsylvania, but the sports teams are commonly referred to as the Liners. You won't find any other Stateliners, and the only other Liners in America are the Diomede (Alaska) Dateliners and the Valley City Hi-Liners in North Dakota. Interestingly, the Stateliners logo is a Wildcat, or some other type of cat.

THESE ATHLETES WON'T TRIM YOUR GRASS
If you read the school-mascot name combination for Fair Lawn, it sounds like equitable lawnmowers. The story behind the mascot name, according to Marc's Distinctive High School Mascot Collection, has to do with truancy. The story goes that some football players cut class and were disciplined to the effect of missing the first half of a game. Once they got into the game in the second half, Fair Lawn rallied for a victory and so the local newspapers said that "Cutters" willed the team to a win. Looks like it stuck.

YOU BUY IT, YOU GET HONORED FOR IT
If you ever want a high school to name its athletic mascot after your last name, think about donating your pension to purchase uniforms and equipment. That's what worked for Monsignor Joseph T. Casey. The teams at Red Bank Catholic are the Caseys, and on the school's website, there is a thorough explanation of how it came to be. After a distinguished military life, Casey believed it was important to support youth activities, and so he donated his military pension to fund sports, band and an orchestra. The school takes pride in being unique, as it states "We remind (freshmen) that there are Eagles and Colts and Bulldogs in town but we are the 'Caseys' and that is special."

TRENTON CATHOLIC MIKE TYSONS?
No. Trenton Catholic Academy did not name its mascot after the former boxer and infamous figure. Yes, it is true they are the Iron Mikes, but it has a much bigger meaning. The man who kept Catholic education alive in Trenton, Monsignor Michael McCorristin, is the specific Iron Mike that the mascot name refers to, and you can add a little more patriotic meaning to it too. The Iron Mike is an all-encompassing term that goes with any sort of monument that commemorates American soldiers. Many statues in America are referred to as Iron Mike, and it doesn't have to be the same pose or the same material. There are no other Iron Mikes in the nation.

TOP 15 MOST POPULAR MASCOT NAMES
# Panthers 17 (There is 1 Golden Panthers)
# Lions 14
Rams 14
# Bulldogs 13 (There is 1 Bulldawgs)
# Eagles 13 (There are 3 Golden Eagles and 1 Soaring Eagles)
# Cougars 11
# Tigers 11
# Falcons 10
# Indians 9
# Vikings 9
# Knights 9 (There is 1 Blue Knights, 1 Golden Knights, 1 Green Knights, 1 Lady Knights, 1 Royal Knights and 1 Silver Knights)
# Raiders 9 (There are 2 Maroon Raiders and 3 Red Raiders)
Blue Devils 8 (There are 4 Red Devils and 1 Devils)
# Mustangs 8
Crusaders 8
# Denotes mascot name is in America's Top 15

MASCOT NAMES USED BY ONLY 1 SCHOOL

Admirals Argonauts Aviators *Barrons Bees Big Red *Blue Bears Blue Jays Blue Knights Blue Streaks Blue Tide *Blue Wolves Bluejays Boilermakers *Bridgemen Bruins Bulldawgs Cutters *Canucks *Caseys Cavaliers Celtics *Chimeras Clippers Cobras *County Seaters Cowboys

Crimson Crimson Knights Crushers *Cutters Defenders *Destroyers Devils Dodgers Farmers *Fighting Clan Flashes Foxes Friars *Garnet Gulls Garnets Gators Ghosts Golden Bears Golden Griffins Golden Hawks Golden Knights Golden Panthers Governors *Graduates *Gray Bees *Green Bees Green Dragons

Green Knights Green Waves Griffins Hermits *Highwaymen Hillbillies Hillers Hurricanes Ironmen Kardinals Lady Knights Lakers Lazers Mariners Maroons Millers Mounties Norsemen Northstars Paladins Phoenix *Piners *Purple Roses Quakers Rangers Ravens Redbirds

Redhawks Redwings Renegades *Ridgers Rockets Roughriders Royal Knights *Scarlet Fliers Scarlets Scotties Seraphs *Setters Silver Knights Soaring Eagles Stallions *Stateliners Tartans Thunderbirds Thunderbolts Thundering Herd Titans Trojans *Villagers Wolfpack Wolverines Zebras

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

MASCOT STATS
Most popular mascot name is used by 4 percent of schools.
There are 167 different mascot names for 422 schools.
23 schools have mascot names that no other American school has.
New Jersey's Top 15 features 12 of America's Top 15 mascot names.