Top 10 high school mascots in Missouri: Vote for the best

From Kewpies to Spoofhounds to Vivettes, meet the best high school mascots in Missouri

Columbia Hickman Kewpies logo. / SBLive archives

A Kewpie on a basketball court? Only in Missouri.

High school mascot fans love a good back story, and the Show Me State is loaded with them.

Over the next couple of months, High School on SI will be featuring the best high school mascots in every state, giving readers a chance to vote for No. 1 in all 50.

The winners and highest vote-getters will make up the field for our NCAA Tournament-style March Mascot Madness bracket in 2025. The Coalinga Horned Toads (California) are the defending national champions.

Here are High School on SI's top 10 high school mascots in Missouri (vote in the poll below to pick your favorite):

The poll will close at 11:59 p.m. ET Tuesday, Jan. 7.

1. Gremlins (Sacred Heart HS)

Type “gremlin” in Google images and you’ll mostly get images from the ‘80s movie “Gremlins.” Sacred Heart’s unique mascot, looking like a spindly-legged gnome, predates the movie by a lot. When World War II pilots experienced mishaps in their airplanes, they blamed the “gremlins” on board. Inspired by their mischievous and endearing character, the Gremlin mascot came to be a treasured part of Sacred Heart’s identity.

2. Hawklets (Rockhurst HS)

Rockhurst High School is seven miles down the road from Rockhurst University in Kansas City. The latter is the home of the Hawks, so the former chose to become the only Hawklets in U.S. high school sports. A historic powerhouse in athletics, Rockhurst High is in Missouri, but if you cross the street west you'll be in Kansas.

3. Houn' Dawgs (Aurora HS)

Aurora’s mascot has military roots, and its logo is something to behold: A proud-looking hound stands on an inscription that reads, “Don’t kick our dog.” Here’s the back story, according to the Aurora Advertiser: “For us, the Houn’ Dawg mascot has military roots that pre-date World War I and go all the way back to Teddy Roosevelt and the Border War with the Mexican Revolution. Don’t Kick Our Dog is a military slogan used by the various Houn’ Dawg Units from southwest Missouri, including the 203rd National Guard Unit.”

4. Kewpies (Columbia Hickman HS)

Here’s how this one-of-a-kind mascot came to be in 1914, according to kewpie.net: “Apparently, the school secretary owned a Kewpie doll, as they were popular figurines then, and she kept it on her desk. At one of the basketball games, she placed the Kewpie in the center of the court (I guess for good luck), and the entire game was played around it without its being broken. This was somewhat remarkable since the dolls were very fragile. Because it survived the game and brought a victory, it was thereafter considered the good luck mascot.”

5. Liberators (Bolivar HS)

Bolivar, Missouri, got its name from Bolivar, Tennessee, in the 1830s. Both were named based on “Bolivar” being associated with liberation because of Venezuelan military leader Simon Bolivar, also known as “the Liberator of America.” Bolivar High School probably has an outstanding world history curriculum.

6. Marksmen (Sherwood HS)

Marksmen is a great nickname on its own, but put them in Sherwood and it’s just perfect. Everybody loves a good “Robin Hood” reference. The girls teams are called the Lady Marksmen.

7. Spoofhounds (Maryville)

The Spoofhound was a Plaster of Paris carnival toy from the 1920s that was supposedly a lazy, neutered dog. Although originally two words, Maryville uses a one-word Spoofhound for its mascot.

8. Vivettes (Visitation Academy)

The all-girls school’s motto is the Latin “Vive Jesus,” or “Live Jesus,” and Vivettes is the school’s mascotification of that motto. But the school’s physical mascot is an owl.

9. Whirlwinds (Archie HS)

The origin of the Whirlwinds goes back to 1927-28, when the Archie boys basketball team finished 20-3 and was described by a local paper as being "whirlwinds" on the court. Archie has been the Whirlwinds ever since.

10. Zizzers (West Plains HS)

From the school website: “How did the school mascot name originate? It all started in 1907 when the senior class planned a small booklet of eight pages as a surprise to the juniors on Class Day. This pamphlet contained a picture of the high school, the Class Day and commencement programs, several essays, the names of the senior class, their yells and motto, and two or three stories of the juniors.The juniors decided to publish one the next year, and when this, the 1908 volume, was shown to Mrs. Phoebe Davidson, one of the faculty, exclaimed, ‘Oh, what a Zizzer!’” More than 100 years later, they’re still Zizzers. 

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-- Mike Swanson | swanson@scorebooklive.com | @sblivesports