Best high school mascot in Wisconsin: Top 10 candidates

From Hodags to Cheesemakers to Galloping Ghosts, meet the best high school mascots in Wisconsin

We've learned a lot about Wisconsin in our past contests.

One of the surest facts we've found is that the state loves its 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 past couple of months we've been going from Alabama through Wyoming featuring each state's best high school mascots, and then giving readers a chance to vote for their favorite. Our Wisconsin poll posted Dec. 3 on highschool.si.com and will stay open through Dec. 10:

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

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

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Here are the top 10 high school mascots in Wisconsin:

Ashland Oredockers

In the 1940s, there were still some ore docks left in Ashland — which is in northern Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Superior — so a grass-roots effort to change the school’s mascot from the Purgolders (yes, they're purple and gold) to the Oredockers stuck. And so it remains. Also interesting to note that the state still has two other high schools called the Purgolders.

Bayfield Trollers

As far north as Ashland is, Bayfield is another 23 miles farther north on Lake Superior. It's a community steeped in fishing tradition, and trolling is one way to fish. Bayfield honors that tradition by calling its teams the Trollers.

Cuba City Cubans

No, this has nothing to do with cigars. A Cuban is simply a person from Cuba City, which used to be called Yuba, but the name changed because the state already had a city called Yuba. So the high school nickname very well could have taken a more coffee-like turn as the Yubans if the city’s name didn’t change.

DeForest Norskies

And this nickname has nothing to do with the northern skies of Wisconsin. DeForest is a community of Norwegian ancestry, and Norskies is a term for "Little Norwegians.”

Horicon Marshmen

The city of Horicon is at the entrance to the 32,000-acre Horicon Marsh and the natural area that goes with it, so the high school went with Marshmen as its mascot.

Kaukauna Galloping Ghosts

In 1924, Kaukauna coach Bill Smith was so impressed with Red Grange, he called his small but quick group of running backs “galloping ghosts,” which stuck as a name for the school’s other teams. 

Mellen Granite Diggers

Mellen has a long history as.a mining town, especially for a special type of black granite, and its physical mascot is as colorful as they come. It's a blue chipmunk named Chipper who carries a pick-ax (see above).

Monroe Cheesemakers

Only 25 miles away from the aforementioned Freeport (Illinois) Pretzels, the Monroe Cheesemakers basketball teams take on the Pretzels every year in "The Snack Bowl." Monroe is known as "The Swiss Cheese Capital of the U.S."

New Glarus Glarner Knights

Less than 20 miles up the road from Monroe is New Glarus, which is also steeped in Swiss heritage. Residents of Glarus, Switzerland, immigrated to the U.S. and founded New Glarus in Wisconsin. Residents of Glarus are called Glarners, and Knights are cool. Thus, the Glarner Knights.

Rhinelander Hodags

The history of the hodag is strongly tied to the city of Rhinelander, where it was claimed to have been discovered. The hodag — a fearsome creature resembling a large bull-horned carnivore with a row of thick curved spines down its back — has figured prominently in early Paul Bunyan stories.

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