Best high school mascot in Delaware: Joe Biden's alma mater among Top 5 candidates

From Auks to Sallies, meet the best high school mascots in Delaware

Delaware is the first U.S. state, the second-smallest in area and has the fewest high schools of any state in the country.

But we found five Delaware high schools with mascots that stack up with the best in the nation — including the alma mater of President Joe Biden.

SBLive Sports' love for unique mascots with interesting back stories has been well documented.

We've crowned Hodags and Imps the past couple of years in national high school mascot contests, and now we're taking a spin through every state.

Over the next couple of months we'll go from Alabama through Wyoming featuring each state's best high school mascots, and then give readers a chance to vote for their favorite. Our Delaware poll posted Oct. 10 on highschool.si.com and will stay open through Oct. 17:

Vote: Which is the best high school mascot in Delaware?

Vote: Which is the best high school mascot in Arkansas?

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Vote: Which is the best high school mascot in Colorado?

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Vote: Which is the best high school mascot in Colorado?

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Here are the top 5 high school mascots in Delaware:

Archmere Academy Auks

Auks spend all their time on the open seas and head to shore only to breed. They never do so in Claymont, Delaware, home of Archmere Academy, so why did the school — alma mater of President Joe Biden — choose the Auk in 1932? No one knows for sure, but it's an expertly designed logo, with the auk's beak forming the stem of the A.

Caesar Rodney Riders

There are three other "Riders" among U.S. high schools (and a whole bunch of Roughriders and Rough Riders), but these Riders have the most interesting back story. U.S. Founding Father Caesar Rodney rode 70 miles through a thunderstorm in 1776 to Philadelphia so he could break a deadlock at the Continental Congress when it was debating American independence. The wording of the Declaration of Independence was approved two days later.

Conrad Science Red Wolves

Washington's NFL team ceased to be the Redskins in 2020, but about 100 miles away from D.C. in Wilmington, Delaware, Conrad Science dropped "Redskins" a few years earlier. The menacing Red Wolf garnered 782 student votes (more than 84 percent of the overall vote) to become the new mascot, resoundingly beating out the Phoenix and the Clippers.

Salesianum Sallies

Sallies is simply a shortened version of the school's name, and no other high school in the country goes by that nickname. But Salesianum does have two unofficial mascots — school dogs Dewey and Louie.

Tower Hill Hillers

Tower Hill School turned 100 in 2019, and though its sports teams are called the Hillers, the school goes with a white tiger as its mascot.

(Feature photo by William Bretzger/Delaware News Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK)

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-- Mike Swanson | swanson@scorebooklive.com | @sblivesports