• by John Belaska
• – on Apr 04th
• in Basketball

March Madness is nearing it's apex. Sports news channels have been talking about some very strange team names. Most sports teams tend to take on names of powerful animals like the Wildcats or the Eagles. However, some schools have some of the weirdest mascots conceivable.

If you are a fan of college sports, you have more than likely found yourself at the local bar asking your buddies “why are they the…” or “who thought of calling them the…” It is sometimes even more amazing how thousands of people are proud to call themselves a (insert strange name here). Believe it or not, a lot of these wackier team mascots are rooted deep into their school’s history and even go back to when their states or even the country was first being formed. Of course, some creatures that have become famous team names are completely imaginary.

To compile a list of the craziest team names is not an easy feat. There are so many hilarious ones that had to be left off the list. If you find these amazing, it is highly suggested to try to find some other good ones and figure out how those names came to be adopted as team mascots. If nothing else, it will be a good way to burn some time at work.

10 South Carolina Gamecocks

9 Penn State Nittany Lions

8 Purdue Boilermakers

7 Manhattan College Jaspers

6 Ohio State Buckeyes

5 Nebraska Cornhuskers

4 St. Louis University Billikens

3 Presbyterian College Blue Hose

2 Delaware Blue Hens

1 Minnesota Golden Gophers

Do not lie; you know you love the name. The Minnesota Golden Gophers take their name from the state’s nickname from the 1800s. In 1857, a satirical newspaper comic portrayed three Minnesota politicians pulling a locomotive steam engine in response to a proposal for a railroad passing through the state. The railroad would end up costing tax payers an estimated $5 million, a very hefty sum of money at the time. The cartoonist decided to portray the politicians with gopher heads. The state then became The Gopher State. The school then adopted this animal as their mascot. It was not until the 1930s that they would become the Golden Gophers. A radio DJ for KSTP referred to the team as the Golden Gophers because their uniforms were entirely gold at the time. This addition to the name would quickly be adopted and is still with us to this very day.

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