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7 high school mascots even more absurdly offensive than America's educational system.
MASCOTS
posted 01/20/2012
Tags: Mascots, High School, High School Basketball, High School Football

7. Arkansas School for the Def Leppards. Oops. Sorry. Deaf Leopards.

Picking a decent high school mascot is difficult, especially when the classic school name + racial epithet formula faces increasing hostility. Some teams overcome the challenge of picking a likable symbol behind which to rally and some do not. Here's our list of 7 schools which sadly do not.

 

6. Laurel Hill Hoboes

""Give me a "C!" Give me an "H!" Give me an "A!" Give me an "N!" Give me a "G!" Give me an "E!" What's that spell? CHANGE! Now seriously, give me some change please!"

 

5. Williamsport Millionaires

Picking a mascot that strikes fear into your opponents is always smart. And what could be scarier than the people who control 99% of the nation's wealth?

 

4. Hoopeston High Cornjerkers

With all the sports euphimisms for sex ("second base," "hole in one," "vagina touchdown," etc.) it's a wonder more schools haven't thought to name their team after one. 

 

3. Teutopolis Wooden Shoes

"Throwback" jerseys are a big these days, so we guess it makes sense that "throwback" Dutch cultural phenomenons work as a team name.

 

2. Centralia High School Orphans (Boys teams) and Annies (Girls teams)

Naming an adolescent sports team after adolescents no one wants has got to do wonders for high schoolers with an already non-existent self-esteem.

 

1. Butte Pirates

Yea. When racial slurs don't work for your team name, it's proably best to just move on to homophobic ones.

More in unintentional sports hilarity
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  • Millionaire Alum | 02/17/2012 flag

    Millionaire is only offensive to those who choose not to work hard enough to be one....

  • Frank | 02/11/2012 flag

    Butte Pirates. Already enough comments discussing the pronunciation so I won't get into that.

    But there is a Butte County, Idaho. Butte High School is in Idaho, along with all the Butte Pirates.

  • Me | 02/09/2012 flag

    The Student Government Association at Williamsport Area High School is selling "We are the 1%" shirts online. Visit http://www.MrFlint.com to order yours!

  • Liz | 02/04/2012 flag

    My mother worked at the Arkansas school for the Deaf for years, so I spent a lot of time there growing up. Those kids picked that mascot. Because it was funny, not offensive. The great thing? They still think it's funny. Just because their hearing is impaired doesn't mean that their sense of humor is... Unfortunately, I don't think I can say the same for the person who compiled these photos...

  • Charles | 02/03/2012 flag

    For your information these are rather unique signs. Where is the offensiveness about them contained? Get a life and leave them alone.

  • State School | 01/31/2012 flag

    Agreed, your number one isn't funny when you know the pronunciation, but even the unbiased observer wouldn't guess that it's pronounced "but".

    Bigger problem here though: these aren't that offensive, if at all. Most are just funny.

  • Caleb | 01/31/2012 flag

    I grew up down the road from the Blooming Prairie Awesome Blossoms. Surprised they didn't turn up...

  • Church | 01/31/2012 flag

    Absurdly offensive? Hardly. How about the Nathan Bedford Forest High School Rebels? It's banned after a Civil War General and a KKK founder. Funny thing, it's mostly black kids now.

  • Deven | 01/31/2012 flag

    I live in Butte, Montana. The school posted at number 1 is not from this city, as the mascots are the Butte High Bulldogs and the Butte Central Maroons.

  • Jarrod | 01/27/2012 flag

    For your information, it says "Butte Pirates" as in Butte, Montana. The pronunciation would be "b-ute" as in the letter B and Ute (Utah Utes). It DOES NOT SAY "Butt Pirates".

  • DC | 01/27/2012 flag

    Dickinson Midgets in North Dakota, which was one also home to the Devils Lake Satans. But some uppity Christians got their granny panties in a bunch and made em change it to Firebirds.

  • Roo | 01/27/2012 flag

    Northern Michigan has the Watersmeet Nimrods (Featured in documentary "Nimrod Nation"), and nearby Hurley, Wisconsin is home to the Hurley Midgets.

  • brody | 01/26/2012 flag

    Butte is pronounced "beaut" so that one isn't funny

  • karla | 01/26/2012 flag

    I grew up in Idaho, and the state mental hospital was in Orofino. Their high school mascot was the Maniacs. seriously.

  • John | 01/26/2012 flag

    I'm glad Crystal shed some light on the correct pronunciation of "Butte," however she was incorrect regarding the origin of the "Ophans" nickname. It came from a Chicago sportswriter around 1936 after commenting that the kids from Centralia playing basketball in their tattered uniforms, "looked like a bunch of orphans." The name stuck, and people from there, including me, are very proud to call themselves "Ophans."

  • Ellen | 01/26/2012 flag

    Southern Illinois has some of the strangest names. We also have the Freeburg Midgets. Classy.

  • evan | 01/25/2012 flag

    @crystal there are two t's in butte so it is the same pronunciation as butt. like BUTTErfly

  • Hambone | 01/25/2012 flag

    I am not sure which is worse: the wimpy political correctness of this post or the glaringly unfunny commentary below each picture. You are a miserable failure for having this material at your disposal and not being able to come up anything but transparent political commentary and dimwit remarks.

  • Chassidy | 01/25/2012 flag

    OOmg! I used to live right near Laurel Hill and used to make fun of that all the time! Is that even spelled correctly? I thought it was hobos...

  • Acidmoxy | 01/25/2012 flag

    Is number 2 the same Centralia that Silent hill is based on? That town has a population of about 6. Wouldn't have thought there were any healthy kids there to form a sports team. hehe

  • yahmon | 01/25/2012 flag

    Southern Illinois definitely has some interesting mascots name.

  • Skip | 01/25/2012 flag

    Oops the rock band is "Def Leppard." Silly me.

  • Skip | 01/25/2012 flag

    The "Leopards" is a play on the rock band "Def Leopard." The school for which the Leopards are a mascot is a school for the deaf and blind, so they are the "Deaf Leopards," get it? It isn't actually offensive, they are a wonderful school.

  • Palomino | 01/25/2012 flag

    Moorhead, Minnesota Spuds

  • Joe Buck Sucks | 01/25/2012 flag

    Freeburg Midgets, every once in a while they play Centralia in sports so it's the Midgets vs. the Orphans

  • Confused | 01/24/2012 flag

    Could someone please explain why the "Leopards" mascot is considered offensive in America? (I only know that word as the common name for the "Panthera Pardus" feline.) Please forgive my ignorance.

  • Chad | 01/24/2012 flag

    Yeah, but the Orphans were obviously named after the mining disaster left many youth orphaned. I always thought that the Vandalia Vandals was an interesting take on things. Let's start all the children out with a moniker sure to incite them to be criminals at a young age!

  • Crystal | 01/24/2012 flag

    Butte is not "butt"...anyone who took elementary school English knows the "e" at the end of the word makes the "u" a long "u" sound. That's why "hate" isn't pronounced "hat" and "cane" isn't pronounced "can."

  • Chris | 01/24/2012 flag

    Cobden, IL Appleknockers

  • JMH72 | 01/24/2012 flag

    To really terrify: the Marshall Lawyers!

  • THS Knight | 01/24/2012 flag

    As someone who played the Orphans in high school, I must throw in another great opponent in central Illinois: the Effingham Flaming Hearts.

  • BMS | 01/24/2012 flag

    Hooker, Oklahoma - the Hooker Horny Toads

    http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotos-g51420-Hooker_Oklahoma.html

  • Bryan | 01/24/2012 flag

    "Millionaires" was a rather common team name in the early 1900s. It's not surprising that a school would choose such a traditional name. Vancouver Millionaires, anyone?

  • AKM | 01/24/2012 flag

    Yeah, I live in southern/central Illinois, and I totally know the T-Town and Centralia ones. Go figure how they came up with that. Only in Illinois...is it any wonder that I'm moving as soon as I'm done with school?!

  • Sarah | 01/24/2012 flag

    Actually, to correct the comment about Williamsport made by Dan, the millionaire reference is not from Pittsburg Steele money - that would have stayed in Pittsburg, a place over 4 hours away. The reference for millionaires came from the lumber boom from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s. There were more millionaires per capita in this town than in any other city of the world at one time. Trees were cut from miles around and transported along the local river. People made fortunes. Yes there is a "Millionaires Row" of mansions built in that era, but it's a piece of history that local residents are quite proud of.

  • dkm | 01/23/2012 flag

    We were the Downers Grove North Trojans. I graduated in 1969. Enough said.

  • Kari | 01/23/2012 flag

    My highschool's rival was Teutopolis aka T-town. I love seeing people make fun of them on the internet because they routinely beat the shit out of every other school in every sport ever. Gorram Dutch bastards.

    But you missed the best Illinois mascot--the Fisher Bunnies: http://fisherbunnies.us/

  • marvin nubwaxer | 01/22/2012 flag

    1. Butte Pirates
    ea. When racial slurs don't work for your team name, it's proably best to just move on to homophobic ones.
    What an idiot. Don't you know how Butte is pronounced? What's odd is having pirates in a landlocked state.

  • Smurfe | 01/22/2012 flag

    LOL, I grew up in the area of two these schools. Centralia and Teutopolis. We played both of them when I was in high school.

  • dan | 01/21/2012 flag

    Williamsport had all the bigwig steel people from pittsburgh in the big steel era. There is a set of mansion downtown called Millionairs Row. Considering what Williamsport is now, the people in this area always get a chuckle about it.

  • Drew | 01/21/2012 flag

    What about the Trojans? It looks best with the XXL next to it...

    http://www.zazzle.com/upper_dauphin_trojans_high_elizabethville_tshirt-235718346843983416

  • Annie | 01/21/2012 flag

    In West Virginia, they have the Poka High School Dots. Poka Dots...smh

  • Sydnie | 01/20/2012 flag

    Richland High School Bombers.The mascot used to be a mushroom cloud.

  • Matt | 01/20/2012 flag

    Abington Galloping Ghosts - The picture is of a KKK guy riding a horse

  • Daniel | 01/20/2012 flag

    Please add in the Point Pleasant High School Mascot! Go Big Blacks! or the team just down the road, the white falcons (GO WHITES)

  • LFaye | 01/20/2012 flag

    The worst one I ever saw was for Yuma High School in Arizona. The Criminals.

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