Vote for the Best Mascot in the Nation

There are varying accounts of how Centralia High School was given their nickname, the Orphans. Most notably, a Chicago sportswriter said "they looked like a bunch of orphans but they sure could play basketball". During the great depression, Centralia High School and community was hit hard. The team was forced to wear uniforms that were reduced to rags. In the 1970's Centralia introduced girls athletics to the school and it was only fitting to name them the Orphan Annies.

The town's livelihood was built around sugarbeet production, but the sugarbeet doesn't exactly strike fear in many opponents. So the mascot's look has changed over the years, and now the school has arrived at a much more ferocious-looking vegetable.

The town of Bray was named for its first postmaster. The word bray is defined as the loud, harsh cry of a donkey, hence the animal serving as the school's athletic nickname.

St Marys was founded by German immigrants in 1842. Deutsch is the German language word for German. This word was pronounced by English speakers as "Dutch." In the 1920s, the school mascot was the Dutchmen. At some point in the school's history, the word flying was attached to the nickname for an unknown reason. As they say in Dutch country, "If it ain't Dutch, it ain't much."

It's many, many miles from Australia, but Terryville got its nickname from a cheerleader who brought her stuffed kangaroo to practices and games. It became a lucky charm and a tradition so strong that the original rests safely in a display case and an 8-foot kangaroo statue stands magestically in front of the school.

In keeping with the English architectural style of Gilmour's main building, Tudor House, the Lancer was selected as the mascot. In English tradition, the Lancer was the iconic image of a warrior. In the school's early years, the mascot was brought to life by a student dressed in armor on horseback until, on one occasion, the rider fell off and the horse escaped the campus boundaries, only to be found later in a wooded area of town. Since then, the mascot has been horseless. In 2013, a modern version of the Lancer debuted, and after a vote by the student body, was named Sir Lancelot.

Morse is located in Bath, which has a loooong history of building ships. The area has been known for its ship-building since 1607. And the heritage continues today - Bath is home to Bath Iron Works, a shipyard specializing in designing, building and supporting ships for the U.S. Navy. Bath Iron Works is also one of the state's top employers, making the Shipbuilders name appropriate.

The famous Northern Lights traditionally are seen in Alaska and are very predominant in this area of the state. The Northern Lights are part of the culture, and the University of Alaska Fairbanks even has a continuous Northern Lights forecast to check out.

Founded in 1847 and once known as Belles (as in Southern Belles), St. Mary's became the turkeys in 1975. Two seniors - Lisa Morrow Morten and Crissy Garrett Haslam, had brothers who attended Memphis University School (all boys) and the student body unofficially changed the school mascot from an owl to a buzzard. The girls decided it would be a great idea to have an unofficial mascot for St. Mary's, too. So they went the humorous route, and rallied to change the mascot to Turkeys. It started as a joke and ended up as the St. Mary's mascot - and it has been embraced in a big way ever since - they've even created a turkey tango that has been caught on video.

The Criminals might steal the ball, but not your lunch money. After Yuma's original school building burned down in 1910, classes were held in the cellblocks of the vacated Yuma Territorial Prison.