MaxPreps Mascot Mondays: Nebraska 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 Nebraska, there are 322 schools with mascots listed in the MaxPreps database. Listed below are the Top 15 most popular mascot names in Nebraska, the mascot names that only one school owns and other mascot facts/stats.

LET"S GET CLEAR ON CHANTICLEERS
Tad Stryker's article on CoachesAid.com tells a story of a unique mascot and an even more unique origin. The story is that students at Ord earned their nickname in the early 1930s when a pair of students became enamored with the phrase "crowing chanticleers" from a William Shakespeare piece. They took advantage of a school vote to declare the school's first mascot name and grabbed the victory for Chanticleers. A Chanticleer is a rooster character that appears in some fables, and the school is the only high school in the nation to use it. Rutgers University used to be Chanticleers as well.

DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE VIQUEENS
Each gender has its own special name at Lakeview (Columbus). The boys are all too common as the Vikings, but the ladies get a special tag as the Viqueens. We're stretching a little bit here because the school's official mascot is Vikings. Turns out that some other schools also have female squads that go by Viqueens: Lamar (Arlington, Texas), Community (Unionville, Tenn.), Stanton (Iowa) and undoubtedly many more.

JEFFS - BUT WHY?
Here is what we can verify regarding the connection between Fairbury and its mascot, the Jeffs: Fairbury is the most populous city and the county seat of Jefferson County. Then if you want to look more into it, there is another connection. The CoachesAid.com story, and some other sources, also have found that the school's logo is Jeff, a character from an early 20th century comic strip called "Mutt and Jeff" that is known as the first daily comic strip. Jeff was short and stout, and was in an insane asylum when the strip's story began. He wore a top hat and a suit, sort of like the man on the Monopoly board game, and the school has stuck with the logo that has loads of history behind it.

NARY A HUSKER NOR A CORNHUSKER
When outsiders think of Nebraska, one of the first words that come to mind is Cornhusker. The flagship university goes by Cornhuskers, and Nebraska's official state nickname is the Cornhusker State. The name must be sacred, because out of more than 300 schools in the state, not one chose Cornhuskers. And that goes for all others states too. It's not a shock to hear that there aren't Cornhuskers in other states (though there are four Huskers in America), but it's shocking that nobody in Nebraska chose Cornhuskers. It could be a legal matter or maybe a display of respect to the university. Whatever the reason, it's surprising.

COOL COLUMBUS COMBO
You'll find plenty of theories about how Christopher Columbus didn't really discover the land that became America. Still, his role in discovering America is important. At Columbus they are the Discoverers, and no other Columbus-themed school has formed its campus-mascot combination better. There are Sailors, Explorers, Blue Steel and Dons - but no Discoverers. It's a tight competition between Discoverers and Explorers (from Miami), but you have to go with Discoverers because it's more of an American connection

TOP 15 MOST POPULAR MASCOT NAMES
# Eagles 18
# Tigers 17
# Bulldogs 16
Cardinals 14
# Wildcats 14
# Knights 13 (There is 1 Blue Knights)
# Warriors 13
# Mustangs 11
# Indians 10
# Panthers 9
Bluejays 8
# Trojans 8
Longhorns 8
# Raiders 7 (There are 2 Red Raiders)
Broncos 7
# Denotes mascot name is in America's Top 15

MASCOT NAMES USED BY ONLY 1 SCHOOL

Antlers Beavers Bees Blue Knights Bluehawks Braves Bunnies Cadets Cavaliers Centurions *Chanticleers Chiefs Clippers

*Crimson Pride Cyclones *Discoverers Dukes Dusters Gators Griffins Haymakers Hornets Islanders *Jeffs Jets *Junior Jays

*Links Minutemen Navigators Orangemen Orioles Packers *Pendragons Plainsmen Red Devils *Red Hornets Roadrunners Roughriders Sailors

Scouts Shamrocks Silver Hawks SkyHawks Stars *Swedes Terriers Thunderbirds Thunderbolts Timberwolves Whippets Wolverines

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

MASCOT STATS
Most popular mascot name is used by 5.6 percent of schools.
There are 97 different mascot names for 322 schools.
9 schools have mascot names that no other American school has.
Nebraska's Top 15 features 11 of America's Top 15 mascot names.