Best high school mascot in Pennsylvania: Top 10 candidates

From Bubblers to Big Macs to Berries, meet the best high school mascots in Pennsylvania

Food and science are themes that bubble up from the surface often when it comes to high school mascots in Pennsylvania.

And some others are just plain colorful. 

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 Pennsylvania poll posted Nov. 16 on highschool.si.com and will stay open through Nov. 23:

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

Here are the top 10 high school mascots in Pennsylvania:

Benjamin Franklin Electrons

Benjamin Franklin High School in Philadelphia is the only home of the Electrons in the country in high school sports. Fortunately, there are no Protons out there to face them.

Biglerville Canners

The canned goods industry has long been a staple of Biglerville, and the high school honors that history by calling themselves the Canners. It works especially well in basketball when outside shooters are canning their jumpers, and the Canner mascot has some especially strong dance moves.

Boiling Springs Bubblers

Boiling Springs gets its name from the natural hot springs located in and around the town, and "the Bubble" is the biggest of them. And the Boiling Springs High School Bubblers' mascot is a purple and gold bubble.

Canon-McMillan Big Macs

No, the mascot isn’t a hamburger that’s way smaller in real life than the commercials depict, but a soldier of a Scottish regiment. They could have gone with Big Highlander, but we’re glad Big Mac was the choice.

Cranberry Berries

Cranberry Township was known for its abundant wild cranberries in the 1700s and early 1800s. By the late 1800s, however, farming and drought combined to eliminate the fruit from the area. But the Berries live on at Cranberry High School, as does its outstanding mascot that looks part berry, part red ant and fully ready to hit the boxing ring. 

Mars Fightin’ Planets

Theories vary on how the north Pittsburgh town of Mars got its name, but it seems pretty obvious why the high school went with Fightin' Planets as its mascot.

Northampton Konkrete Kids

In 1922, Northampton was the center of the world’s cement industry, and the high school sports teams were referred to as the Konkrete Kids. In honor of the area’s high population of German immigrants, the spelling of concrete was changed to konkrete, the spelling as it appears in the German language.

North East Grape Pickers

Vineyards abound in the area around this northeast Pennsylvania school near Lake Erie and the New York border. Grapes are a huge part of the local economy, and picking them is of tremendous importance.

Punxsutawney Chucks

Choosing to steer clear of the obvious Punxsutawney Phils, Punxsutawney High School went with the Chucks, which is short for woodchucks, which is another name for groundhogs. Maybe Bill Murray wakes up every morning at the same time listening to "I Got You Babe" and thinking about the Punxsutawney Chucks.

William Allen Canaries

From the Our History section of the William Allen website: “In 1916, when the present main building opened, the Allentown High School colors were yellow and blue. The faculty and students interested in producing literary journals developed a magazine entitled, ‘The Canary and Blue.’ Somehow, the word ‘Canary,’ denoting one of the school colors, caught on and the bird became the mascot for the high school. The brave canary is known locally as the only bird to fly safely through a hurricane in its hope to beat perennial rival Bethlehem Area School District Liberty High’s Hurricanes.”

(Photo courtesy of Cranberry Area School District)

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