(attendees cheering and whistling) - [Narrator] Hoosier hysteria and March Madness.

What comes to mind when you hear these phrases?

Basketball.

And on the hardwood courts around Indiana, such names as Panthers, Eagles, and Tigers are the most popular mascots.

But what of the schools that put a little more thought into their nicknames?

How did their names come about and what significance do they have for the schools they represent?

- Well, every high school in the state, for all intents and purposes, has a basketball team, and that's about 380 schools today.

At one time, the late 1930s, there are about 780 schools that had basketball teams.

And if you take all the schools that were closed by consolidation and add them to the new schools that were created when those consolidations took place, we count over 1,100 different schools that at one time or another had a local high school basketball team.

(playful vintage music) What was lost with consolidation was not only the small school in the small town, but in a lot of cases, the basketball team had a nickname that had something to do with local history or the local economy.

A lot of the schools that don't exist anymore, the Ladoga Canners from a vegetable canning plant in Ladoga, Indiana.

The Stinesville Quarry Lads down near Bedford.

The Farmersburg Plowboys, that's an obvious choice.

The Mauckport Pilots on the Ohio River, and their logo was a riverboat pilot's wheel.

We've collect a lot of the traditional Lions and Tigers and other mascots at the Hall of Fame, but some of my favorite pieces are some of the mascots that represent some of the unusual nicknames in schools around the state.

And of course, Logansport, known as the Berries, but for many years has been, their mascot's been Felix the Cat.

And this is one of several different Felix the Cats that has stood at mid court overseeing warmups for the Logansport Berries over the years.

Tippecanoe High School up in Marshall County, not part of Triton High School, a case where the mascot preceded the nickname.

The coach back in the '30s, apparently, according to the stories, began bringing his German Shepherd to practice and Tippecanoe was known as the Police Dogs for years thereafter.

The Urbana Speedkings, many years up in Wabash County, they would start practice with this school-colored Corvette rolled out onto the floor before the games.

When I first heard of the Jeeps as a school nickname, what I pictured was, it was the Army vehicle.

But no, in fact, the Dubois Jeeps were named after the Popeye cartoon character, and this is the Dubois Jeep.

(attendees clamoring) - [Narrator] Although many unique nicknames have disappeared with their schools, you can still find unusual nicknames today all across Indiana - Frankfort is known as the Hot Dogs.

We won four state championships.

I've talked to a number of gentlemen that are on that team, they said that they were known mainly as the Fighting Five here in town, but the state started calling them the Hot Dogs because of the relationship with Frankfort, frankfurter, and a fellow named Bill Fox out of Indianapolis, a sports writer.

He came up, he was referring to us as Frankfurt, Frankfurters, then later he shortened it to the Hot Dogs.

Most people's reaction is, "What do you mean you're the Hot Dogs?"

Because, like it was in the past, you think of a wiener on a bun, and then we explain to them that we're a dachshund, that's a fighting dachshund now.

It's unique, you know, there's bears and there's tigers, we're the only one in the state.

So when you identify as a Hot Dog, oh, you're from Frankfort.

- [Cheerleaders] Don't mess with the Jug Rox, don't mess with the team!

Don't mess with the Jug Rox, we're tough, we're mean.

- On the west side of town, there's a rock shaped in the form of a jug and it has a lid on it, and that's what they call the Jug Rock.

It's been called that ever since I can remember.

And the high school here took that for their token to use it for a nickname that they've had it ever since I can remember.

Even us old grads are proud of it.

(rousing music) - [Cheerleaders] Jug Rox!

- It's unique.

You know, we're not a panther and we're not a lion, we have our own identity, if you will.

We've been here so long, I think Jug Rox has been a part of our name, it's just something that everyone has accepted.

And they might as well accept it because we take a lot of pride in the community as a whole and we're not going to change.

- [Cheerleaders] Lincoln Alices!

Lincoln Alices!

- The name Alices came about in 1926 when Vincennes Lincoln went to the state championship game of the IHSAA tournament and won.

And at that time, they were called Buccaneers.

And a sports writer at the Washington newspaper wrote a story where he talked about the Alice in Wonderland.

And it was simply a combination of the story of Alice of Old Vincennes and Alice in Wonderland.

I don't know if anything would look like an Alice.

Originally, our decal up until the 1960s was a lady sitting inside a block V. We went to this particular object, and since there's nothing that's really an Alice, similar like a cougar or a patriot or a lion or a tiger, somehow this came up and we've had it ever since.

- [Cheerleaders] Oh yes, we are Argylls, the best by far!

A-R-G-Y-L-L-S, Argylls we are!

- A gentlemen by the name of Campbell here in the community, they were the Argylls in Scotland, was part of his clan name, and he suggested that.

And someplace along the line, it just sort of stuck.

- First time people hear it, they scratch their head, "What's an Argyll?"

Probably think a sock.

They're pretty proud of it, just like, you know, there's all kind of animals, tigers and panthers and eagles and whatever.

I think they're just as proud of the Argyll as those people are of their mascot.

And maybe a little more so because it's so unique.

- [Narrator] It seems that some schools chose their nickname just to be different than the norm, to stand out in a crowd.

But with the passage of time, we may have missed the opportunity to witness two of the more unusual teams meet head to head.

- Valparaiso Vikings, at one time, they went to the state finals with the nickname the Valparaiso Pedagogues.

So, they didn't get to match up, unfortunately, with the Bloomingdale Academy Immortals, that would've been a great game, I think.

♪ And let your colors fly ♪ ♪ Be true to your school ♪ ♪ I got a letterman's sweater ♪ (lively music) - [Announcer] For more Across Indiana stories go to wfyi.org/acrossindiana (lively music ends)