Best high school mascot in Missouri: Top 10 candidates

From Hawklets to Houn' Dawgs to Zizzers, meet the best high school mascots in Missouri

Author:
Mike Swanson, SBLive Sports
Updated:
Oct 31, 2023 11:48 AM EDT
Original:
Oct 30, 2023

About 300 miles apart from north to south, Missouri offers a unique opportunity to pit Spoofhounds (Maryville) against Houn' Dawgs (Aurora).

A couple hours southeast of Aurora High School you'll find some Zizzers in West Plains, and a road trip north from there can take you to the Kewpies in Columbia.

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 Missouri poll posted Oct. 31 on highschool.si.com and will stay open through Nov. 7:

A kewpie doll on the basketball court has serious historical relevance at Columbia Hickman.

Here are the top 10 high school mascots in Missouri:

Archie Whirlwinds

The origin of the Whirlwinds goes back to 1927-28, when the Archie boys basketball team finished 20-3 and was described by a local paper as being "whirlwinds" on the court. Archie has been the Whirlwinds ever since.

Aurora Houn’ Dawgs

Aurora’s mascot has military roots, and its logo is something to behold: A proud-looking hound stands on an inscription that reads, “Don’t kick our dog.” Here’s the back story, according to the Aurora Advertiser: “For us, the Houn’ Dawg mascot has military roots that pre-date World War I and go all the way back to Teddy Roosevelt and the Border War with the Mexican Revolution. Don’t Kick Our Dog is a military slogan used by the various Houn’ Dawg Units from southwest Missouri, including the 203rd National Guard Unit.”

Bolivar Liberators

Bolivar, Missouri, got its name from Bolivar, Tennessee, in the 1830s. Both were named based on “Bolivar” being associated with liberation because of Venezuelan military leader Simon Bolivar, also known as “the Liberator of America.” Based on this information, it seems likely that Bolivar High School has an outstanding world history department.

Columbia Hickman Kewpies

Here’s how this one-of-a-kind mascot came to be in 1914, according to kewpie.net: “Apparently, the school secretary owned a Kewpie doll, as they were popular figurines then, and she kept it on her desk. At one of the basketball games, she placed the Kewpie in the center of the court (I guess for good luck), and the entire game was played around it without its being broken. This was somewhat remarkable since the dolls were very fragile. Because it survived the game and brought a victory, it was thereafter considered the good luck mascot.”

Maryville Spoofhounds

The Spoofhound was a Plaster of Paris carnival toy from the 1920s that was supposedly a lazy, neutered dog. Although originally two words, Maryville uses a one-word Spoofhound for its mascot.

Rockhurst Hawklets

Rockhurst High School is seven miles down the road from Rockhurst University in Kansas City. The latter is the home of the Hawks, so the former chose to become the only Hawklets in U.S. high school sports. A historic powerhouse in athletics, Rockhurst High is in Missouri, but if you cross the street west you'll be in Kansas. Across political aisles, U.S. Sens. Josh Hawley (R) and Tim Kaine (D) are former Hawklets.

Sacred Heart Gremlins

Type “gremlin” in Google images and you’ll mostly get images from the ‘80s movie “Gremlins.” Sacred Heart’s unique mascot, looking like a spindly-legged gnome, predates the movie by a lot. When World War II pilots experienced mishaps in their airplanes, they blamed the “gremlins” on board. Inspired by their mischievous and endearing character, the Gremlin mascot came to be a treasured part of Sacred Heart’s identity.

Sherwood Marksmen

Marksmen is a great nickname on its own, but put them in Sherwood and it’s just perfect. Everybody loves a good “Robin Hood” reference. The girls teams are called the Lady Marksmen.

Visitation Academy Vivettes

The all-girls school’s motto is the Latin “Vive Jesus,” or “Live Jesus,” and Vivettes is the school’s mascotification of that motto. But the school’s physical mascot is an owl.

West Plains Zizzers

From the school website: “How did the school mascot name originate? It all started in 1907 when the senior class planned a small booklet of eight pages as a surprise to the juniors on Class Day. This pamphlet contained a picture of the high school, the Class Day and commencement programs, several essays, the names of the senior class, their yells and motto, and two or three stories of the juniors.The juniors decided to publish one the next year, and when this, the 1908 volume, was shown to Mrs. Phoebe Davidson, one of the faculty, exclaimed, ‘Oh, what a Zizzer!’” More than 100 years later, they’re still Zizzers.