Best high school mascot in Arkansas: Top 10 candidates

From Sand Lizards to Go-Devils to Curley Wolves, meet the best high school mascots in Arkansas

You hear so much about Razorbacks that it's easy to forget what a unique mascot it is.

But they're just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Arkansas' colorful history of mascots when delving into the high school ranks.

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. Our Arkansas poll will post Oct. 5 on highschool.si.com and stay open through Oct. 12.

Vote: Which is the best high school mascot in Alabama?

Vote: Which is the best high school mascot in Alaska?

Here are the top 10 high school mascots in Arkansas:

Alma Airedales

Alma is arguably the most marketing-savvy high school in the country. By taking on “Airedales” as its mascot, the school has become an international destination for lovers of that dog breed. The student-managed school store, the aire-looms, is part of the curriculum through the Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) and sells its Airedale-themed wares from Australia to Western Europe.

Arkansas School for the Deaf Leopards

There are lots of Leopards in high school sports, but no campus makes it work nearly as well as the Arkansas School for the Deaf. But according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the school's teams have been called the Leopards since at least 1941, about 40 years before Def Leppard's debut album. No f-f-f-foolin'.

Danville Little Johns

Danville’s "Little Johns" mascot is a translation of the French “Petit Jean,” words synonymous with the local legend of a heroic young French girl. The name “Petit Jean” went to a nearby river, mountain and Arkansas' first state park, and the high school chose the English translation.

Dardanelle Sand Lizards

We met the Sand Devils in Arizona earlier, and now here are the Sand Lizards of Arkansas. Besides sand, something the two schools have in common is an unstoppably cool logo. Dardenelle’s Sand Lizard is a red beast that you don’t ever want to encounter in the wild. Dardanelle loves its mascot so much that its Sand Lizard Foundation celebrates World Lizard Day every year on Aug. 14.

Fordyce Redbugs

Workers clearing the land to build a new football field in the 1920s were tormented by chiggers, aka redbugs. The name stuck for a Fordyce football program rich in history (future Alabama coach Paul “Bear” Bryant played there).

Gurdon Go-Devils

Gurdon’s mascot is a purple and yellow devil, but a Go-Devil is a piece of logging equipment from a bygone era. The go-devil was a simple one-horse sled used by loggers to haul trees in the early 1900s.

Harrison Goblins

Harrison became the Goblins in 1926, when the school newspaper started being called the Goblin. The mascot has taken on all kinds of different looks over the past 90-plus years, with a blue-haired, mean-looking version prevailing today.

Prescott Curley Wolves

In the 1920s, after the Prescott football team delivered a thrashing of Little Rock, an Arkansas Gazette news editor wrote the headline, “WE THINK THAT THE BOYS ARE CURLEY WOLVES.” The team loved it, and they’ve been the Curley Wolves ever since.

Stuttgart Ricebirds

From the city of Stuttgart website: “Ricebirds are small grey birds that are very fast and are found in rice fields. They survive on the rice crops. This is the perfect mascot for Stuttgart since it is the Rice and Duck Capital of the World. It was said that Ricebirds used to serenade the farmers while they worked. Some kids even used to catch them for pets during the early 1900s. Now the Ricebirds are mostly found on the football field—protecting the tradition that they hold so dear to their hearts.”

Thaden Barnstormers

Thaden, named in honor of Iris Louise McPhetridge Thaden, opened in 2017. The community chose Barnstormers as the school’s mascot to honor Thaden’s pioneering spirit as one of the greatest aviators of her time. Even better, an Arkansas barn owl is Thaden’s logo.

(Feature photo by Jeff Faughender/Courier Journal)

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