by Mike Blagg
It’s no secret that high school sports are very popular in Texas, and the school mascots are a big part of school spirit. So we decided to do an informal survey of Texas high school mascots, as listed in Texas Football Magazine. We came up with a list of the 12 most popular mascot names in Texas, but there were two ties, so the list has 14 mascots. The most popular mascots in Texas are:
- Eagles 88 schools
- Bulldogs 87
- Tigers 66
- Panthers 58
- Wildcats 55
- Mustangs 46
- Lions 37
- Bobcats 30
And Cougars 30
- Indians 28
- Pirates 26
- Hornets 25
- Longhorns 22
And Yellow Jackets 22
These 14 mascots total 620 teams. We counted approximately 1225 high schools listed in the Texas Football Magazine, 1A through 6A. So these 14 mascots represent about one-half of all the mascots in Texas. Also, the top five mascots total 354, so over one-fourth of all Texas high school mascots are represented by just five names.
Also note that some teams are called Golden Eagles, War Eagles, etc. We counted all those as “Eagles.” If you exclude those as a separate mascot name, however, Bulldogs becomes the Number One mascot in Texas.
And of course some high schools in Texas get creative and come up with some unique and cool mascot names. In our Central Texas area we are familiar with names like:
Coleman Bluecats
Santa Anna Mountaineers
San Saba Armadillos
Winters Blizzards.
Roscoe Plowboys
Mason Punchers
Hamlin Pied Pipers
From around the state we found other unique and cool mascot names:
Texas City Stingarees
Hutto Hippos
Frisco Raccoons
Pampa Harvesters
Lake Worth Bullfrogs
El Campo Ricebirds
Fredericksburg Battlin’ Billies
Robstown Cotton Pickers
Progresso Red Ants
Itasca Wampus Cats
Trent Gorillas
Floydada Whirlwinds
Some schools did a good job of getting their mascot name right:
Mesquite Skeeters
Deer Park Deer
San Antonio Roosevelt Rough Riders
Highland Park Scots
Hereford White Faces
Van Vandals
Farmersville Farmers
Cameron Yoe Yoemen
Crane Golden Cranes
Frost Polar Bears
Tom Bean Tomcats
Wolfe City Wolves
Aldine MacArthur Generals
Eagle Pass Eagles
Muleshoe Mules
But, we found other schools that missed on their mascot name. Allow us to have a little fun here:
Beeville Jones Trojans. Clearly they should be the Bees.
Byron Nelson Bobcats. They should be the Golfers. What were they thinking?
Nimitz Vikings. This school named after the World War-II hero Admiral Nimitz, from Fredericksburg, clearly they should be the Admirals.
Granbury Pirates. Both the city and the county (Hood) are named after Civil War figures, their name should be the Rebels.
Llano Yellow Jackets. Let’s keep that double-L thing going (along with some alliteration) and call them the Llamas.
Pflugerville Panthers. Everything in that town starts with a Pf. Even their football field is called the Pfield. So they should be the Pflamingoes.
Ferris Yellow Jackets. Should be the Ferris Wheels. Duh!
Panhandle Panthers. Panthers is not bad, at least it starts with Pan, like the town. But the Panhandle Panhandlers is just too delicious to not to use.
Post Antelopes. If I am not mistaken, the town of Post does have a connection with the man who founded the breakfast cereal company. So come on, Post Toasties please!
Frenship Tigers. Could easily be the Friends.
Bowie Volunteers. Should be the Knives.
Marlin Bulldogs. There are 86 other Bulldogs in Texas. Why not the Marlin Marlins?
Wink Wildcats. The home of Roy Orbison, gotta be the Wink Roy Orbisons!