Best high school mascot in Alabama: Top 10 candidates

From Silent Warriors to Flying Squadron to Redtops, meet the best high school mascots in Alabama

SBLive Sports' love for unique mascots with interesting back stories has been well documented.

We've crowned Hodags and Imps the past couple of years in national high school mascot contests, and now we're taking a spin through every state.

Over the next couple of months we'll go from Alabama through Wyoming featuring each state's best high school mascots, and then give readers a chance to vote for their favorite. The Alabama poll will post Oct. 3 on highschool.si.com and stay open through Oct. 10.

Here are the top 10 high school mascots in Alabama:

Alabama School for the Deaf Silent Warriors

“Warriors” is one of the most common high school mascots in the country, but Alabama School for the Deaf is a one-of-a-kind as the Silent Warriors. The school has a long history of excellence in athletics, winning 32 total national championships across multiple sports.

Ariton Purple Cats

Ariton has fewer than 1,000 people, but the town gets Purple Cat Fever over its high school sports teams. There are no purple cats known to man (other than dyed ones), and Ariton boasts the only Purple Cats in the nation in the high school sports world.

Paul W. Bryant Stampede

The school is named after legendary Alabama coach Bear Bryant, and its nickname is a nod to Crimson Tide mascot Big Al the elephant. The Paul W. Bryant logo shows a herd of stampeding elephants, and its mascot is Stampy the Elephant.

Highland Home Flying Squadron

In 1941, all 11 members of the Highland Home football team were called to serve in World War II, and all 11 entered the airborne division of the U.S. military. From there, the nickname “Flying Squadron” was born, and it’s stuck ever since.

Holt Ironmen

Holt emerged as a town around the Central Iron and Coal Company in the early 1900s. The company recruited “ironmen” from bigger cities who knew how to operate a blast furnace, and the high school honored that history by making Ironmen its mascot. Today’s incarnation of that mascot is a formidable-looking knight that looks capable of taking on Marvel’s Iron Man.

Orange Beach Makos

The shortfin mako is the fastest-swimming shark, and Orange Beach has been a fast riser in high school sports since the high school opened in 2020. The Makos’ softball team won its third straight state championship in May 2023 despite bumping up in classification to 4A.

Sidney Lanier Poets

Poet Sidney Lanier served in the Confederate army and later lived in Montgomery, home of Sidney Lanier High School. The school is named for him, and the mascot is named for one of his many vocations (other Lanier-based mascot options could have been Teachers, Lawyers and Musicians).

Slocomb Redtops

From the Slocomb website: “According to Mr. James Bass, a Slocomb alumnus, John B. Davidson came to Slocomb High School as head coach after graduating from college. Coach Davidson painted his team's helmets red to distinguish them from the rest of the area teams' leather helmets. He called his team the Redtops, and the name stuck.”

Spanish Fort Toros

Seven high schools boast “Toros” as their mascot across the country, but no one nailed the logo like Spanish Fort. Beneath a pair of bullhorns are a coolly designed “SF” that look like a bull’s face.

Tabernacle Torches

Tabernacle boasts the only “Torches” in U.S. high school sports, and they’ve been successful across multiple sports since 1974. The Torches have won state championships in eight-man football, boys and girls basketball and volleyball.

(Feature photo by Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports)

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-- Mike Swanson | swanson@scorebooklive | @sblivesports