Best high school mascot in Massachusetts: Top 10 candidates

From Spy Ponders to Canalmen to Millionaires, meet the best high school mascots in Massachusetts

Attleboro and North Attleboro high schools will play football against each other for the 102nd time on Thanksgiving Day.

But before that, the schools' colorful mascots — the Blue Bombardiers and the Red Rocketeers — will compete with eight other Massachusetts schools for mascot supremacy. 

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 Massachusetts poll will post Oct. 26 on highschool.si.com and stay open through Nov. 2.

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

Here are the top 10 high school mascots in Massachusetts:

Arlington Spy Ponders

Arlington's unique nickname is derived from Spy Pond in Arlington, and it goes back a long way. From the school website: "The name 'Spy Ponders' was first recorded in 1867 when the town changed its name from West Cambridge to Arlington following the Civil War to honor the soldiers buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Spy Ponders referred to the ice cutters and farmers who lived in the area."

Ashland Clockers

Ashland teams sport cartoon clocks on their uniforms in honor of the Warren Clock Company, a big job provider in town in the early to mid-1900s that was founded by MIT grad Henry Ellis Warren, inventor of the electric clock.

Attleboro Blue Bombardiers

Attleboro's Blue Bombardier mascot originated during World War II to honor those who served in the war. The school's new and improved Blue Eagle mascot received boisterous approval in November 2022.

Bourne Canalmen

Named in honor of the canal that separates Cape Cod with the rest of Massachusetts, Bourne for years shared its mascot with a Cape Cod League baseball team. But now that that team is called the Bourne Braves, Bourne High School has the Canalmen all to itself.

Bristol-Plymouth Craftsmen

Bristol-Plymouth's sports teams are the Craftsmen, but its physical mascot is Crafty the Craftsman, a thick-mustache-sporting, hard-hat-wearing fellow who looks well past high school age.

Lenox Memorial Millionaires

Lenox Memorial's nickname dates to the late 1800s, when the area served as a summer colony for some of the country's wealthiest families. Their mascot is a sporting Monopoly Man.

Maimonides M-Cats

You’ll be hard-pressed to find a more academic back story than this one in explaining a high school’s mascot. The school’s teams took on the nickname in the mid-1980s because several varsity basketball players were planning to take the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT).

Millbury Woolies

Longtime Worcester Telegram cartoonist Al Banx named the Millbury High School teams the Woolies because the town housed a number of mills, including spinning mills used to produce woolen clothing.

North Attleboro Red Rocketeers

One of the most colorful high school football rivalries in history takes place on Thanksgiving when the Red Rocketeers take on the Blue Bombardiers. The only Rocketeers in the country of any color, they often go simply by Big Red.

Salem Witches

Two other U.S. high schools use the Witches as their mascot, but no one can pull it off with such historical authenticity like Salem, Massachusetts.

(Feature photo by Brian Blueskye/The Desert Sun / USA Today Network)

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