For students, athletes and alumni, they can evoke feelings of pride, passion, nostalgia and school spirit.

They can unite a community, and in some cases tear it apart (Warren G. Harding Panthers/Raiders).

They can be fierce-looking (an East High Panther) or just plain silly (an East Liverpool ceramic pot-shaped helmet).

They are the nicknames and mascots which represent our favorite high school athletic teams.

Plenty of high school sports fans root for the Tigers, Eagles, Wildcats, Panthers and Bulldogs. Those five nicknames are the most popular in Ohio, and they combine to represent 30 percent of the school districts in the Mahoning Valley.

Yet even some of the area’s common nicknames and mascots boast uncommon origins. Others aren’t exactly as they appear, while there are still others which are self-explanatory (Go Beaver Local Beavers!)

Historical

Salem is one of just two Ohio schools which uses the Quaker as its mascot. The nickname was intended as a way of recognizing Salem’s historical connection to the Religious Society of Friends. Members of Friends congregations were among the city’s founders in the early 1800s.

Salem’s nickname is as unique as its mascot — Quaker Sam. In the mid-1950s, Salem High student Joe Hajcak sketched out the current-day Quaker mascot while at the kitchen table staring at a box of Quaker Oats cereal.

At Crestview, the student body roots for the Rebels. It might seem like an odd choice of nicknames in Northeast Ohio, but the reason behind it is even more unusual.

Crestview was without a nickname when the movie “Rebel Without A Cause” was making James Dean a household name. The student body was asked to vote on a school nickname, and with the movie in mind, the Rebels were born.

In Columbiana, the Clippers’ logo is a clipper-style aircraft. However, the school’s athletic teams were actually named for a former student, Dick Fisher. Following a distinguished athletic career at Columbiana, Fisher went on to become a two-sport standout at Ohio State. While with the Buckeyes, he was given the nickname “The Columbiana Clipper.” The school became the home of the Clippers in honor of Fisher.

Mathews uses a mustang horse as its logo, but the nickname has its origins in an airplane. The Mathews School District is the result of a 1961 merger of the Vienna Township Rural School District and the Fowler Township Rural School District. Vienna was known as the Flyers while Fowler was the Wolverines.

The Mathews school board in 1961 wanted to create a new identity, but eliminating the airplane emblems from uniforms and buildings would be a costly endeavor. As a result, the district chose to call its athletic teams the Mustangs in honor of the P-51 Mustang bomber plane. It wasn’t until 1968 that the mustang eventually evolved into a horse.

LaBrae can thank the Minnesota Vikings for its mascot. It was chosen in 1970 when the Purple People Eaters were the most dominant defensive line in the National Football League.

Mineral Ridge was known as the Ramblers as far back as the late 1920s. The nickname was given to the sports teams because of the long distances they often had to travel for road games. Fans often called the teams “Rams” for short, so eventually the animal became the school mascot.

Lowellville’s school nickname came about in 1946 when the Lowellville Journal held a Name The Team contest. Students William Robinson and Irene Nero won the $20 cash prize when they submitted “Rockets,” supposedly because of their love for the space adventures of comic book hero Flash Gordon.

Meanwhile, the launch of Sputnik and the United States-Soviet Union Space Race was the inspiration behind the Maplewood Rockets.

Jackson-Milton athletes were distinguished by the blue J’s which they wore on their white lettermen jackets. At the time, schools were routinely known by their colors and weren’t represented by mascots. However, as mascots and nicknames became the norm, those blue J’s evolved into the Bluejays.

Unusual & One-of-a-Kind

East Liverpool may boast the area’s most unusual nickname. However, it’s not a one-of-a-kind. Potters can also be found in Morton, Ill. In both instances, the nickname recognizes the historic importance of the pottery industry to the community.

The origin of some nicknames — even the unusual — are lost to history. Red Dragons is a one-of-a-kind in Ohio, and is used by just five schools nationally. However, the folks in Niles aren’t sure why they are among those five.

The most popular theory suggests that the Red Dragon symbol salutes the many Welsh settlers that once made Niles their home. However, there is nothing that documents the claim.

Who knows, perhaps a dragon in Niles simply seemed as natural as a lion in Columbiana (Hearland Christian), a tiger in Howland and a bear in Leetonia.

Oh my!

Contact Steve Ruman at The Vindicator at sports@vindy.com