When my parents moved our family to the Black Hills nearly three decades ago, I remember thinking what an odd nickname the high school had: the Lead Golddiggers.
Of course, in context, it isn't entirely unusual, and I soon came to appreciate it's uniqueness, especially when my post-secondary adventures brought me to a pair of schools whose mascots - Tigers and Panthers - were significantly less adventurous.
The true surprise in the Golddigger nickname, though, is that it held only a midlevel quotient of unusualness in these parts. For an area with such a sparse population base, the founders of area schools apparently were working overtime in the nickname department.
Some great ones were transparent. The Pine Ridge Thorpes, named after Native American Olympian and star athlete Jim Thorpe, is perhaps the best tribute nickname ever. And it's not difficult to imagine where the ag-based nickname Irrigators came from for Newell High School, although without shortening it down to Gators, must be real hard for cheerleading squads to work around.
But the source of other unique nicknames in and around the Hills are a little less transparent. So, in honor of the fall sports season hitting full stride, here's five of the more unusual backgrounds on five of the more unusual nicknames in the Hills.
It's great that the largest high school in the state has one of the most unique nicknames, but one might be surprised - if they aren't that familiar with the area - from whence it came.
One of the reasons they might be surprised is that the school's mascot is exactly what you would expect, a big chinned shoemaker. (I suspect the big chin is to make him look tough, as even rabbits and rodents are made to look tough in the world of school mascots.)
But the origins trace back to South Dakota Sports Hall of Famer Euclin "Euc" Cobb, a coach and athletic director at Rapid City High School for more than four decades.
It remains the only South Dakota school named after a former coach.
One of the real head scratchers from "folks not from around here" is the Philip Scotties.
The first question many will ask is what happened to the second "l". The second question asked is why would a town on the rugged high plains of South Dakota name their school after one of those cute little doggies?
The answer to both is roughly the same.
The town and the mascot follow a similar naming convention that the folks at Central did in that they are named after James "Scotty" Philip. The frontiersman turned gold miner turned rancher founded the town in the late 19th century.
That's a real-life cheer the cheerleaders used to chant during high school basketball games. But, unfortunately, the double entendres don't end there.
The fact the Sturgis Brown High School's mascot name is the Scoopers certainly tends to lead one down a less than savory path. And the fact that even the banners that their old Black Hills Conference opponents hung in gymnasiums in the hills depicted their mascot as a shovel doesn't do them a lot of favors.
That begin said, the term Scooper is a direct reference to the town's nickname from the late 1800s when it was known as Scooptown.
Located near Fort Meade, the frontier soldiers called Sturgis "Scooptown" because bars and businesses there laid claim to the soldiers paychecks by the shovel load. Of course, with all those horses around, it could have earned the name in other ways, but enough of that.
Keep on rockin' in the free world
A few years back, I was surprised to read that Sports Illustrated had listed the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology on its list of worst nicknames for U.S. colleges.
But once again, that's because I'm from around these parts.
In context, the term Hardrockers seems not only plausible, but downright practical. Named after a mining term, one must understand the place the School of Mines once held in the region and its close association with the local, regional, national and international mining industry.
Taken out of context, it evokes an image of Garth from the Saturday Night Live skit "Wayne's World."
I'm not sure which one would be more likely to attract students, but they seem to be doing fine, regardless.
From ski slopes to a great leader to a train
Merriam Webster defines mogul as an Indian Muslim of or descended from one of several conquering groups of Mongol, Turkish, and Persian origin. It also defines the term as a great personage, a magnate.
That isn't why Edgemont schools nicknamed their teams the Moguls.
In snow skiing, moguls are a series of buumps on a trail formed when skiers push the snow into mounds or piles as they do short-radius turns. But that, too, isn't what the fine folks at Edgemont had in mind when creating mascot.
Instead, the schools mascot is a train, which makes perfect sense, considering the town's long association with the railroad that it continues to preserve today.
The best thing about the Mogul nickname? You don't have to look to far to find its meaning. The school kindly posted it on its Web site.
