MaxPreps Mascot Mondays: Minnesota 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 Minnesota, there are 467 schools with mascots listed in the MaxPreps database. Listed below are the Top 17 most popular mascot names in Minnesota, the mascot names that only one school owns and other mascot facts/stats.

GREAT MASCOT NAME, MAYBE NOT-SO-GREAT FOOD
The rhyming is awesome, the logo is awesome and the correlation with the school's name is awesome as well. So what if the mascot name for Blooming Prairie is a loved and hated food item at Chili's restaurants? The Awesome Blossoms come from a small town in southern Minnesota and they have gained nationwide acclaim due to the name and logo. How did they come up with it? Well, that is hard to find. Here is what is known: The Awesome Blossom is an appetizer from Chili's restaurants, essentially a deep-fried battered onion, and while those who love it sing its praises, the Awesome Blossom also is the No. 2 Worst Food in America as named by Men's Health.

BETTER THAN STARS
Stars are a wonderful choice for a mascot name. They're bright, they're powerful and they're huge. But Southwest Star Concept (Okabena) went bigger and better than Stars. They went with Quasars. A quasar resembles a star but has more energy output and the brightness implies extreme distance. It's hard to dwarf a star, but they've done it at Southwest Star Concept.

NOT LARKS. SUPERLARKS
They upgraded their mascot name at Grand Meadow. They could have been Larks, but they went bigger with Superlarks. Where does the Superlark mascot name come from? Could be from a car that Studebaker manufactured in the early 1960s. Could be an adaptation of the bird that appears on the City of Grand Meadow seal. Could be because the Lark Sparrow is found in Minnesota and southern Canada. Whatever the reason, Grand Meadow is the only school in the MaxPreps database that uses Super in the beginning of its mascot name.

A MASCOT NAME FIT FOR THE WHITE HOUSE
Think American history when it comes to Roosevelt (Minneapolis), don't think of stuffed animals or nightwear for women. The school is named after the 26th president of the United States, Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt, and made sure to include the mascot name in the theme. The Teddy bear (teddies if plural) was named after Roosevelt, and the Teddy nightgown obviously is not something a school would want its mascot name to be.

ALL THEY DO IS WIN
This is another Minnesota mascot whose origins are largely unpublished on the Internet. Kids from Winona are the Winhawks, and it definitely has a double meaning. It can be a combination of Winona and Hawks, or it could simply be putting the ultimate goal in front of Hawks. Whichever is true, nobody else in America chose Winhawks.

TOP 17 MOST POPULAR MASCOT NAMES
# Eagles 27 (There are 2 Golden Eagles and 1 Silver Eagles)
# Tigers 22
# Panthers 17
Cardinals 14
Huskies 13
# Knights 13 (There is 1 Dark Knights and 1 Red Knights)
# Trojans 12
# Warriors 11
# Falcons 11
# Raiders 11
# Wildcats 10
Rebels 10
# Cougars 10
# Mustangs 10
Spartans 9
# Lions 9
# Bulldogs 9
# Denotes mascot name is in America's Top 15

MASCOT NAMES USED BY ONLY 1 SCHOOL

*Agates Aggies Athletics *Awesome Blossoms Battlers *Beacons Bengals Bison Blackhawks *Blackjacks Blaze Blue Devils Bluestreaks Bobcats Broncos Burros Cadets Centaurs Clippers Cobras Comets Cowboys Crimson

Cubs Cyclones *Dark Knights Drakes Dutchmen Elks *Eskomos Fire Flying Dutchmen Gators Gobblers Golden Bears Governors Green Wave Hilltoppers *Hubmen Hurricanes Huskers *Hylanders Islanders Johnnies Komets Lightning

*Little Gophers Magic *Maiingan *Mainstreeters Mariners Mavericks *Mercuries Millers Minutemen Nordics *Nuggets *Ogichida Otters Owls Phoenix Polar Bears *Prowlers *Quasars Rabbits Rails Ramblers Rams Raptors

Red Hawks Red Knights Redbirds *River Hawks Sabers Scarlets Scots Silver Eagles *Silverstreaks Skippers Spuds *Superlarks *Teddies Thunderbirds Timberwolves Tommies Tornadoes Watchmen *White Hawks *Wingers *Winhawks *Wrens Yellowjackets Zephyrs

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

MASCOT STATS
Most popular mascot name is used by 5.8 percent of schools.
There are 157 different mascot names for 467 schools.
24 schools have mascot names that no other American school has.
Minnesota's Top 17 features 13 of America's Top 15 mascot names.