Weird, comical, unusual team nicks/mascots

We may have had this topic some time back, but it's summertime & therefore rerun season.

Also, if anyone knows the history of some of these nicks or mascots, please share.

Let's start with Wake Forest DEMON DEACONS...an oxymoron if I ever heard one!

The Georgetown HOYA nick comes from the college newspaper, "The Hoya", begun in 1920. "Hoya" is the name of a genus of flowering plants such as the wax plant, which are often vines of climbing, spreading growth characteristics. The writers of the paper looked for a name which could be common for the whole university, but would be both unusual and non-offensive to anyone. Since several species of hoyas grew on the campus, those students decided to call the paper "The Hoya", and soon, the school decided upon that handle for their athletic teams. I don't know when or how they decided upon the bulldog as the team logo, but the hoya certainly isn't a bulldog!

The name "hoya" comes from botanist/scientist Robert Brown, who named the newly-discovered genus after fellow botanist Thomas Hoy(D.1821), his close friend, who was famous in his day for his gardening projects for the Duke of Northumberland.

We have the Crooksville, Oh."Ceramics",(high school) named after a large factory once located there.

Ohio Wesleyan BATTLIN' BISHOPS...Must play lotsa chess or replay the Crusades.

St. Louis BILLIKENS...Early in the 20th century, an illustrator, Florence Pretz, drew a caricature of an ancient Asian "god" of good luck, which was seen by someone from the Billiken Company of Chicago in 1908. They acquired the rights from her to manufacture pocket-size figures of her drawing, which soon started a fad of "good-luck charms" akin to the rabbit's foot fad in our lifetimes. The figures were called billikens after the maker.

In 1910, some St. Louis sportswriters thought St. Louis U. football coach John Bender resembled a billiken, noted, "Why, Bender's a regular Billiken!" An illustrator drew Bender as a billiken, calling the team "Bender's Billikens". that pic & story became so popular on campus that soon "Billiken" became the official name for all St. Louis U. athletic teams. The billiken lives on in the face of the St. Louis mascot.

U.C. Santa Cruz BANANA SLUGS???????????

My local university, Marshall Thundering Herd(Bison logo), played the University at(NOT "of")Buffalo Bulls. Kewl, right? Many teams are called "Bulls". But during a ladies' basketball game, the BUFFALO announcer repeatedly referred to his team as the "LADY BULLS"!!!!!!!! (Lololol!)

 

4His_glory: Lansing Lugnuts- who wants a piece of hardware to be their mascot?

Why, the DETROIT WHEELS, of course!