Butch Recalls the Old School Mascots . . .

   Everyone knows the names of the school mascots here in Montgomery County . . . the Crawfordsville Athenians, Southmont Mounties and North Montgomery Chargers. But how many of you remember the mascot names from the schools before consolidation? Of course, since I qualify as an “old-timer” now, I remember all of them . . . Alamo Warriors, Bowers Blackshirts, Coal Creek Bearcats, Ladoga Canners, Linden Bulldogs, New Market Purple Flyers, New Ross Blue Jays, Waveland Hornets, Waynetown Gladiators and my school, the Darlington Indians. Before the Coal Creek consolidation, there was the Wingate Spartans and New Richmond Cardinals. Ladoga’s mascot was originally called Spartans, but they changed it to Canners in the 1930s, or so I’m told.

   Now let’s take a look at a few schools outside our county. Boone county had the Perry Central Midgets, Pinnell Purple Dragons, Thorntown Kewasakees, Dover Blue Devils, Jamestown Little Giants, Whitestown Panthers and Granville Wells Rockets. Putnam County sported teams such as the Bainbridge Pointers, Roachdale Hawks, Cloverdale Clovers and Russellville Bees. In Hendricks County there was the Lizton Blue Blazers, North Salem Blue Devils and Pittsboro Burros.

   Fountain County had the Hillsboro Wildcats, Wallace Peppers, Kingman Black Aces, Mellott Derbies, Richland Township Red Devils and Veedersburg Green Devils. Parke County schools included the Bridgeton Raccoons, Bloomingdale Bulldogs, Tangier Tigers, Marshall Bobcats, Rosedale Hotshots, Montezuma Aztecs, Turkey Run Warriors and Greene Township Green Aces. In Warren County were the Pine Village Pine Knots, Williamsport Binngy Bombers and West Lebanon Clippers.

   Up north in Tippecanoe County were the Clarks Hill Hillers, Battle Ground Tomahawks, West Point Cadets, Klondike Nuggets, Dayton Bulldogs, Shadeland Peppers, Buck Creek Cobras, Stockwell Warriors, East Tipp Trojans, Romney Pirates and Wainwright Mustangs. Clinton County was home to the Mulberry Berries, Kirklin Travelers, Forest Bobcats, Scircleville Ringers, Sugar Creek Township Crickets, Michigantown Ganders and Colfax Hickories.

   How did these schools come up with their mascot names? It was usually a combination of student, faculty and community input…and voted on before being adopted by the school. Sometimes it reflected the history of the locality, as in Thorntown’s name Kewasakees, since that town was a Miami Indian village. Darlington called their team the Indians after a beloved teacher and coach, Ed Miller, who was part Indian. Many schools chose a fierce sounding name to intimidate their opponents. Would you rather play against the Richland Township Red Devils or the Perry Central Midgets?

   Having graduated in 1966, I played against many of these small schools, so it was easy for me to recall their mascot names. I had to do a little digging to come up with the others. There are hundreds of other mascot names in Indiana from the past and present, but the most famous high school mascot name in the entire nation came from right here in Montgomery County…take a drive up to New Richmond, the movie hometown of the Hickory Hucksters.

John “Butch” Dale is a retired teacher and County Sheriff. He has also been the librarian at Darlington the past 36 years, and is a well-known artist and author of local history.