MaxPreps Mascot Mondays: Utah 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 Utah, there are 132 schools with mascots listed in the MaxPreps database. Listed below are the Top 13 most popular mascot names in Utah, the mascot names that only one school owns and other mascot facts/stats.

MYSTERIOUS MOQUIS
The Moqui people are a mysterious bunch. The Moquis of Escalante are not. One is an ancient tribe that archaeologists don't know a whole lot about and the other are students at the small high school surrounded by some amazing natural scenery. A story in the Salt Lake Tribune stated that Moqui is likely a word that comes from the Hopi language that means "the dead" and is associated with religious beliefs. You can find the Moqui Cave in Southern Utah as well. It's definitely another example of an American high school paying tribute to the native tribes that inhabited their areas centuries ago. You definitely won't find another school called the Moquis anywhere.

DON'T CALL THEM GRIFFINS
A Griffin is a mythical creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle. So that must mean that Rowland Hall-St. Marks (Salt Lake City) wants its mascot to retain the lion's head but keep the eagle wings. The oldest co-educational college prep school in the state is the Winged Lions and is the only group of Winged Lions in the nation. It's a great way to stay unique, as there are 22 Griffins and three Golden Griffins. The most likely reason is that Saint Mark the Evangelist's feast day is April 25 and his symbol is the winged lion.

TEMPLARS TAKE IT WAY BACK
You will have to go way back to find out why Manti goes by Templars. The Templars were a Western Christian military order for about two centuries during the Middle Ages and were endorsed by the Catholic Church around 1100. Templar Knights wore white surcoats with a red cross and a white mantle. Not surprisingly the school colors are red and white at the small school located in the middle of the state. Templar could also mean "A lawyer or student of law having chambers in the Temple in London" but it's obvious the school eschewed that in favor of the Templar Knights. You won't find Templars anywhere else in America, so Manti can keep two claims to fame: The mascot name and one of Utah's first Mormon temples.

EXTINCT MASCOT NAME
And you thought they went way back to get the mascot name at Manti. Carbon (Price) takes it to another level by naming its sports teams the Dinos, well before humans roamed the Earth. You can find the Utah State University College of Eastern Utah Prehistoric Museum in Price, and Utah is perhaps the best state in the nation when it comes to leftover prehistoric dinosaur bones. You won't find any dinosaurs on the list of American mascot names, and Carbon is the only Dinos.

A BULLS-EYE OF A MASCOT NAME
Talk about a name that stuck. Like a dart sticking into a dartboard on the wall, the Darts nickname stuck at Davis (Kaysville) almost 100 years ago. The origins and details are hardly set in stone, but a call to the school's receptionist confirmed that many decades a ago, a star running back was known to "dart" around the field. It maybe even came from a newspaper writer, as many unique mascot names had their origins from writers' descriptions.

TOP 13 MOST POPULAR MASCOT NAMES
# Eagles 6 (There is 1 Golden Eagles and 1 Soaring Eagles)
# Tigers 6
# Mustangs 6
# Warriors 5
# Wildcats 4
# Panthers 3
Rams 3
Hawks 3
# Lions 3 (There is 1 Winged Lions)
Miners 3
Bobcats 3
# Bulldogs 3
# Cougars 3
# Denotes mascot name is in America's Top 15

MASCOT NAMES USED BY ONLY 1 SCHOOL

Badgers Bears Beavers Bees Beetdiggers Bengals Broncos Bruins Buckaroos Cavemen Colts Crusaders

*Darts Diamondbacks *Dinos Dons Farmers Flyers Golden Eagles Huskies Jayhawks Lakers Leopards Longhorns

Lynx Marshals *Moquis Patriots Pioneers Rabbits Raiders Ravens Rebels Redmen Royals Scots

*Silver Wolves *Silverwolves Skyhawks Soaring Eagles Stallions *Templars Timberwolves Trojans Utes *Winged Lions Wolverines

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

MASCOT STATS
Most popular mascot name is used by 4.5 percent of schools.
There are 77 different mascot names for 132 schools.
7 schools have mascot names that no other American school has.
Utah's Top 13 features 9 of America's Top 15 mascot names.