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

From Chanticleers to Dusters to Discoverers, meet the best high school mascots in Nebraska

Omaha Benson High School in Nebraska is full of Mighty Bunnies. / SBLive archives

Get a group of Pendragons, Dusters, Swedes and Mighty Bunnies together in a high school gym, and you've got a serious tournament in store.

High school mascot fans in Nebraska know that better than anyone.

Over the next couple of months, SBLive/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 Nebraska (vote in the poll below to pick your favorite):

The poll will close at 11:59 p.m. ET Thursday, Jan. 9.

1. Chanticleers (Ord HS)

There’s only one Chanticleers in the college ranks (Coastal Carolina), and Ord has the nickname to itself among U.S. high schools. “Chanticleer” is an old English word for “chicken” and a name commonly appearing in old fables.

2. Crimson Pride (Roncalli Catholic)

Not to be confused with the Crimson Tide, Roncalli Catholic has the only Crimson Pride in the nation among U.S. high schools. Its mascot is Rocky the Lion.

3. Discoverers (Columbus HS)

“Discoverers” isn’t a word you see every day, and it’s a perfect choice for Columbus High School even though it’s a couple-thousand miles away from where Columbus did his discovering.

4. Dusters (Holdrege HS)

Holdrege had no nickname until 1924, when a momentous football game happened against rival Lexington. The low-scoring game was played in the middle of a dust storm, and the school yearbook referred to the football team as the Dusters the following year. All the school’s other sports teams eventually followed.

5. Jeffs (Fairbury HS)

Fairbury is in Jefferson County, but that’s the smaller part of the story behind the Jeffs. The reference to a mostly forgotten comic strip called "Mutt and Jeff" that the school adopted when having a human mascot became popular.

6. Junior Jays (Creighton Prep)

Nebraska has lots of high school Bluejays, but Creighton Prep gets a little creative to take a next-in-line position behind the Creighton Bluejays in the college ranks. They’re the only Junior Jays in the country. 

7. Links (Lincoln HS)

No, Legend of Zelda fans, not that Link. These Links form a symbolic figure used to bring Lincoln teams good luck in their pursuit of success. The four Links on a statue outside the school, donated in 1970, stand for Tradition, Diversity, Excellence and Unity.

8. Mighty Bunnies (Omaha Benson HS)

Omaha Benson High School moved in the 1920s to a field formerly loaded with bunnies, and its mascot choice would foreshadow a 1975 Monty Python scene showing just how mighty bunnies can be.

9. Pendragons (Pender HS)

The Pendragon refers to a dragon leader of other dragons in Celtic mythology. And in medieval times, there were leaders of clans. The leaders of clans were dragons, and the leaders of all the clans were called pendragons. “The pendragon was kind of like the leader of leaders,” Jason Dolliver, the Pender Public Schools superintendent, told the Norfolk Daily News in 2014.

10. Swedes (Gothenburg HS)

Gothenburg, Sweden, and Gothenburg, Nebraska, are the only two Gothenburgs in the world. But Gothenburg, Sweden, does not seem to have a high school that calls themselves the Gothenburg Nebraskans.

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