Best high school mascot in North Carolina: Top 10 candidates

A.L. Brown is in Kannapolis, which explains its K logo on uniforms (not potassium). Back when the school opened as Central High School in 1924, the football team had only 12 players and won zero games. One story goes that the nickname Wonders originated in 1925, when someone said, "It was a Wonder the team could win a game."

Don’t root against the Villains. They aren’t what they appear to be at first glance. From the Bishop McGuinness website: "Our school mascot, ‘The Villain,’ comes from our early roots at the Villa Marie Anna Academy. The school motto, ‘Praesis ut Prosis,’ is taken from the seal of the late Bishop Eugene J. McGuinness and serves as a challenge for all who would desire ‘to excel that they might better serve.’” 

These Imps have an interesting back story. Albert H. Werner, a football and baseball coach at the school in the 1930s, came up with the name as a nod to his alma mater, Duke. The JV teams at the time were called the Blue Imps rather than the Blue Devils, and a less colorful version has stuck at Cary.

Nicknamed Clinton U because of its Indianapolis Colts-like horseshoe logo, the Dark Horses have been anything but dark horses on the football field. The program’s five state championships help make its mascot one of the most ironic in the nation.

Elkin High School is in the city of Elkin and located on Elk Spur Street, and the school’s mascot isn’t just an Elk — it’s a Buckin’ Elk. The Battle of the Bridge pits Elkin’s Buckin’ Elk mascot against the Starmount Ram.

These are the only Furies in the country, and the school’s physical mascot is the Fury, a horse. Maybe a nod to the 1950s TV series Fury about a black stallion named Fury?

Grimsley’s mascot was originally the Purple Whirlwinds in 1921, but that stopped making much sense when they switched team colors from purple and gold to navy and white in 1951. The team’s nickname evolved to become the Whirlies, but its physical mascot is still a whirlwind.

This unique mascot is a combination of “Rams” and “Panthers,” which were the mascots of Greenville and C.M. Eppes high schools that combined to become J.H. Rose.

Lejeune students in 1944 took the moniker Devilpups, a reference to the Marine Corps nickname of Devil Dog and Camp Lejeune being a Marine Corps base.

Even if they were just the Rowdy Bulls or the Rebel Bulls, they’d have the nickname to themselves. But the Rowdy Rebel Bulls is even better, and their logo is fantastic — an SS with a bullhorn coming out each side.