2025, Art, education, Kids, sports, Uncategorized

A New Logo

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The big local news here lately is that the public high school mascot/logo is being retired. We are known as the Dickinson Midgets. We have apparently been Midgets for 100 years.

What is even bigger news is that virtually no one is protesting the change. The school board tried to change the name in 1996, and the whole board was recalled in a special election by disgruntled citizens who wouldn’t stand for a new mascot. This time, things are different, and students talk openly about how embarrassing the mascot is. Another good reason for a new mascot now is that they are renovating the gymnasium, and they can incorporate the new mascot logo into the gym floor. It will save money in the long run, you see. It will be good to have this little guy put to rest.

The superintendent asked for ideas for a new mascot and had 850 entries. A committee of students and faculty settled on two: The Defenders or The Mavericks. Both ideas seem pretty palatable to me, and seem to go well with our Old West ethos out here.

What was your school mascot? What are some of the sillier mascots you have heard of? Make up some new school mascot names.

44 thoughts on “A New Logo”

  1. Ha! I had to look up the mascots for both my high school and college. Horton Watkins (Ladue) Rams and the Carleton Knights. Neither school had a sparkling athletic vibe.

    I can’t think of any silly mascots. I do enjoy seeing Crunch (Timerwolves) and Goldy (Gophers) during the State Fair daily parades.

    In looking up this stuff, I discovered that Minnesota State – Moorhead’s mascot is a dragon. I can get behind that.

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  2. Oh thank heavens! Earlier I couldn’t find a comment box…

    I’d be curious to know how they came up with Midgets for their team, Renee!

    Our high school was/is the Marshalltown Bobcats, and the middle schools were the Bobkits and the… can’t remember.
    Thinking…

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      1. Wasn’t you. I couldn’t get the comment box either. I’m still not sure what I did to get it back – just messed around on my phone for a bit.

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  4. HS Agates
    First college Maroons
    First school where I taught was merging with another district. Had to choose a new mascot and colors. Character of a PE teacher had students convinced the colors were to be silver and white and they were to be the minnows because of all the lakes in the area. Students got to vote. They chose green and white and Trojans. About then I resigned and went back to land of Agates.

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  5. I attended the American School in Manila, grades 1 through 12. The mascot had been an American Indian in feather headdress since 1920. It is now international School Manila, and the mascot is a bearcat.

    I cannot see how either decision was an improvement.

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      1. Palawan has their own variety of binturong, and for all I know that might be where the name originated. Never been there, but a lot of my classmates went.
        Now see, if the school board wanted to be regionally authentic, they should have named the mascot binturong. I know someone who can tell me if the subject ever came up. More later.

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  6. Not having paid any attention to sports or sports teams at any point in my life, I had to resort to Google. I was aware that, especially in the South, women’s teams frequently had “Lady” appended to the mascot names and that the result could get quite silly, like Lady Knights and Lady Stallions. The University of Delaware’s mascot is a hen. The men’s team thus is the Hens and the women are the Lady Hens.

    I wonder what the logo for the Defenders would look like. Maybe a barricade with a couple of eyes peeping out. On the other hand, if you wanted to keep the perfectly atrocious logo you already have, maybe you could just change it to the Runts or the Vertically Challenged. Or, in acknowledgement of the oilfields, you could become the Holes. What could go wrong with that?

    At my high school in Robbinsdale, we were the Robins. I like that our mascot didn’t assert anything in particular.

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    2. Oh my gosh, I was at Robbinsdale, too! The other teams in our district were the Armstrong Falcons and the Cooper Hawks, so our Robin looked pretty mild-mannered in comparison. The mascot when I was there was often a girl. She would hop and dance along the sidelines.

      In college it was the Gophers. They were also pretty nonthreatening until Lou Holtz got ahold of the mascot and insisted on turning it into a beefed-up rodent that looked nothing like an actual gopher.

      My kids went to Minnetonka High School, the Skippers. That was a fun mascot–friendly and not super-aggressive. From what I recall, the girls’ teams were also Skippers.

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      1. I was at Robbinsdale when Cooper first opened and Armstrong was not even a notion. At the time I don’t think there was a costumed robin, but then again I wasn’t paying close attention. My older daughter went to Armstrong and then college at Eau Claire (the Blugolds). My younger daughter went to Hopkins (the Royals) for high school and then to Wooster, Ohio (the Fighting Scots) for college.

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  11. I was in elementary school when they decided we needed a name. I think we got to vote. We became the Jefferson Jaguars. I even got a book bag with a jaguar on it.
    Jr High was the Kellogg Comets. And then High School was the John Marshall Rockets. The image has changed a bit over the years but GO ROCKETS!

    The college is the Yellow Jackets. ‘Sting’ is them mascot. Because I work with Student Life a bit, and they’re the ones coordinating Sting, I would hear some of the stories. Sting had to be a certain height to fit the mascot outfit, and it was a tough gig. Last fall I saw we had a new outfit, and Sting was shorter than me. Huh! I’d never seen a mascot that short before. It seems to have different heads. I know they had a giant graduation cap for it.

    Years ago working as a stagehand, Sesame Street tours would rehearse at our civic center for a couple weeks before going out on tour. Wearing a big fur costume is REALLY a tough gig. Especially if you all went out and got drunk the night before. I have a mental picture of several characters sitting backstage with their heads off, in front of fans, and really looking very poorly. It still makes me laugh though.
    Or Big Bird hanging by the loop at the back of his neck. We always joked, don’t let the little kids see this!

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  12. Rise and Shine, Baboons

    WP is a mess today. I was going to comment early this morning, but I could not get a reply box, and now it spins and spins when I post, then I have bring up the entire website again to comment at all.

    My high school was the Bulldogs. Everyone was happy with that until the Title 19 actions which added girls sports. Uh Oh. For some reason at first the female Bulldogs could not be Bulldogs. The powers that were decided to reflect the female nature of the teams by naming them the “Bulldogettes.” This was a mistake because spawned the “Bull-B****s” nick name, which I suppose was inevitable. Who could not see THAT coming. So finally the next set of powers that were decided that “Bulldogs” was also fine for the girls’ teams, and it is so today. But no one will discuss that earlier decision.

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    1. I had the same experience. I became disgusted and shut down my iPad. I wasn’t able to return until now. I’m glad things seem to be relatively sorted out.

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  13. The mascot naming in North Dakota was a yuuuge issue.
    University Of North Dakota in Grand Forks were the Fighting Souix. Supreme Donor, Ralph Engelstad, insisted that the name and logo would never be changed on the arena he built. Literally hundreds of logos were incorporated into the finishes of the building. The North Dakota Tribes, legislature and voters got heavily involved. The name eventually was changed to Fighting Hawks. Crazy stuff

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  15. Does anyone remember you high school song? or fight song?
    Here’s ours:
    Go Bobcats go, no matter who the foe may be (Fight, fight fight)
    Go Bobcats go, we’re gonna win so be it…. on to victory, let’s
    Roll Bobcats roll, and run the score up to the sky….
    Red and blue will never do or die
    GO Bobcats from Marshalltown High

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  17. Dickinson Dick‘s has a nice ring. I think you could use Dick Tracy and Dick Nixon as the first two dicks that would be shown in the logo and maybe think of a third famous dick that doesn’t come to mind for me immediately, but I think Nixon and Dick Tracie would both be wonderful. Maybe Dick butkis if you play football

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  18. High School was the Hunters.
    then I was in the Army, so I guess we were the Soldiers.
    Junior College, an Ag school, had the Brahmas.
    Then to a little Bible college, where we were the Cougars.

    I’m fairly certain that certain alumnae “of a certain age” don’t identify with that.

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  19. I don’t have any memory of high school sports. I think I may have gone to a football game once, but I am hopelessly ignorant about what happened for what the mascot might have been.

    I enjoyed yeterday’s animal-themed musical selections. I “liked” quite a few of them but I liked them all.

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  21. Mascots weren’t a thing in Denmark when I grew up, and I don’t know if they are now.

    SIU’s mascot was the Saluki, and Egyptian hunting dog, a nod to that area of Illinois being known as “Little Egypt.

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