Best high school mascot in Ohio: Top 10 candidates

From Ceramics to Potters to Tarblooders, meet the best high school mascots in Ohio

Author:
Mike Swanson, SBLive Sports
Updated:
Nov 14, 2023 10:27 AM EST
Original:
Nov 13, 2023

Did you know there are two so-called pottery capitals of the world, and that they're both in Ohio?

And did you know that those two towns' high schools (125 miles apart) both honor that kiln-heavy history with their mascots?

Ohio is loaded with interesting historical tidbits when it comes to high school mascots.

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 Ohio poll posted Nov. 14 on highschool.si.com and will stay open through Nov. 21:

Here are the top 10 high school mascots in Ohio:

Aurora Greenmen

From the History of the Greenmen section of auroraohioalumni.com, “Aurora was not always the Greenmen. Years ago, Aurora were the ‘Irish.’ During the late '40s, Aurora had a number of residents involved in the organization of the Cleveland Browns. Aurora was given permission to use the original ‘Brownie.’ As our colors were green, we became the ‘Greenies.’ A number of people did not like the ‘Greenies’ and around the late ‘50s, early ‘60s, Aurora became the ‘Greenmen.' The logo mascot remained. In 1972, an Aurora senior student-athlete, Mark Campana, redesigned the Greenman to the more masculine version we currently use.”

Brush Arcs

Geometry reference? Nope. Charles F. Brush was the inventor of the arc lamp, which revolutionized public lighting in the 1870s.

Cleveland Addams Executives

Named after the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, Jane Addams, these Executives mean business.

Crooksville Ceramics

The Crooksville China Company was established in 1902 in Crooksville, Ohio, which became known as the pottery capital of the world in the early 20th century. Hence, the Crooksville Ceramics.

East Liverpool Potters

Wait, another pottery capital of the world in Ohio? Yep. Potter Pete the mascot (part man, part kiln) came to be in 1962, and the school’s Patterson Field has an actual Potter Pete kiln on site that fires up during football games.

Glenville Tarblooders

From the “What is a Tarblooder” section of the Glenville website: “It is a school battle cry that started during the 1940s indicating that members of the Glenville athletic teams would whack the ‘tar’ and ‘blood’ from its opponents. Thus, our colors are red and black.” Yikes.

Lancaster Golden Gales

These are the only Gales of any color in U.S. high school sports, and the reason that name came to be is golden. Until the 1930s they were the Golden Tornadoes, but that name was too long for the local newspaper's press, so a sports writer came up with Golden Gales as a more fitting alternative. The school's physical mascot is Gusto.

Philo Electrics

Philo became the Electrics in 1931, inspired by the Philo Power Plant that had been built in 1924 and voted as the mascot choice by students. The school’s gym is called “The Power Plant.”

Shenandoah Zeps

The nation’s first U.S. Navy zeppelin crumbled near the site of Shenandoah High School. In 1925, the USS Shenandoah became caught up in violent thunderstorms, and the zeppelin crashed in Caldwell, Ohio, making international news. Shenandoah honors that history by going by the Zeps.

Unioto Shermans

Students in the 1930s chose Shermans as the school’s one-of-a-kind mascot in honor of Unioto’s location just opposite the former site of World War I Camp Sherman. They're also known as the Sherman Tanks.

(Unioto baseball photo by Robert McGraw/Gazette / USA Today Network)

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