What's In A Name?

What's In A Name?

Friday, August 4, 2006

By Casey Brown

Seeing the image of the golden horns that don each side of the Rams’ helmets slamming into the sternum of the opposition accurately represents the motion a prairie-dwelling ram performs against its grassland foes. 

To the Native Americans, the ram was a symbol of strength and determination. In the wild, the animal uses its keratin-rich horns to drive, batter, and crush its opponent with forceful impact.

The ram is a most-appropriate mascot for a football team. It’s probably the most appropriate mascot in the NFL; especially when it comes to the battles at the line of scrimmage, in the trenches, where players butt heads continually.

While the Rams’ name has been popular in the NFL, it also has been popular on the prep front.  Three Rams NFL players were on high school teams named the Rams. Another, running back Marshall Faulk, played for the Carver High Rams in New Orleans.

The NFL Rams came by their nickname because the original owners in Cleveland favored the Fordham University Rams.  This was 1937, when Fordham had the fabled “Seven Blocks of Granite” linemen and were one of the country’s strongest teams.  The original Cleveland Rams also wore the red and black of Fordham U.

Some Rams players come from high schools whose mascots have similar, unique origins or meanings:

Wide receiver Marques Hagans was a Crabber at Hampton High School in Hampton, Virginia.

“I know don’t know where it came from but the whole mentality is that you can’t crush a crab,” Hagans said. “The shell of a crab is pretty tough. People try to step on crabs and smash the shell. There was a tough mentality [at Hampton] that you can’t crush a crab; that was our fight song. We’re naturally tough.”

Defensive tackle La’Roi Glover was a Pointer at Point Loma High School in San Diego, California.

“A Pointer is a dog,” Glover said. “It’s a hunting dog. The hunter tells the dog where the rabbit is and the dog points, literally points to it.”

Point Loma High also is located on a so-named peninsula that points into the Pacific Ocean.

Safety O.J. Atogwe was a Green Griffin at W.F. Herman High School in Windsor, Ontario.

“I’m going to have to call my high school coach and ask him about that,” Atogwe said, in answer to a question. “I know it’s a mythical creature; half eagle, half lion almost. I guess just because we were very fierce and because we won so many games, so many championships that it was kind of unreal. We used to call ourselves the Green Machine.”

Offensive tackle Orlando Pace was a Blue Streak at Sandusky High School in Ohio.

“It’s a blue streak. Where it came from, I have no idea,” Pace said. “I don’t know if lightning came down and hit somebody one day or what. We had blue streaks on our helmets and the actual mascot was a bear with blue streaks on it.”

Wide receiver Clinton Solomon was a Highlander at Eastern Hills High School in Forth Worth, Texas.

“It was a muscle man in a skirt that was supposed to be tough. I think it was Scottish or something,” Solomon said. “We didn’t have a mascot on the sideline, it was just a picture.”

Guard Tony Palmer was a Bomber at Midwest City High School in Oklahoma.

“It was from World War II when a B-52 bomber landed on our football field,” Palmer said. “Our school was right next to Tinker Air Force Base and that’s where we got the name Bombers from.”

Wide receiver Shaun McDonald was a Matador at Shadow Mountain High School in Scottsdale, Arizona, near Phoenix.

“We had a matador dress up and it would go to the football games and into the crowd,” McDonald said. “Little kids would be scared of it because it did look a little weird. It would run around and do flips and stuff. The matador was actually a girl. She would help the cheerleaders. It had a mask and a whole suit, it was kind of weird.”

No worries, Shaun. At least you didn’t play at Blooming Prarie High School in Minnesota where supporters yell, ‘Go, Awesome Blossoms!’ Or at Cairo High School in Georgia where patrons chant, ‘Let’s go, Syrupmakers, Let’s go!’

A list of the high schools each member of the Rams played for and mascots:

Player	HS Name and Mascot
Victor Adeyanju	Currie High (Chicago) Condors
Jon Alston	Loyola College Prep (Shreveport, La.) Flyers
Dwight Anderson	Bloomfield High (Conn.) Warhawks
Oshiomogho Atogwe	W.F. Herman (Windsor) Green Griffins
Antoine Bagwell	East Lansing (Mich.) High Trojans
Alex Barron	Wilkinson High (S.C.) Bruins
Ron Bartell	Renaissance High (Detroit) Phoenix
Jamal Brooks	Grenada Hills (Calif.) Highlanders
Fakhir Brown	Mansfield High (La.) Wolverines
Isaac Bruce	Dillard High (Fla.) Panthers
Marc Bulger	Central Catholic High (Pittsburgh) Vikings
Jerametrius Butler	Carter High (Dallas) Cowboys
Dominique Byrd	The Breck School (Minneapolis, Minn.) Mustangs
Jeremy Calahan	West Montgomery High (N.C.) Warriors
Jeremy Carter	Leesville Road High (N.C.) Pride
Jerome Carter	Columbia High (Fla.) Tigers
Corey Chavous	Silver Bluff High (S.C.) Bulldogs
Brandon Chillar	Carlsbad High (Calif.) Lancers
Dexter Coakley	Wando High (S.C.) Warriors
Jerome Collins	Wheaton-Warrenville South (Ill.) Tigers
Kevin Curtis	Bingham High (Utah) Miners
Deandre Eiland	Tupelo High (Miss.) Golden Wave
Tony Fisher	Euclid High (Ohio) Panthers
Travis Fisher	Godby High (Tallahassee, Fla.) Cougars
Jason Fisk	Davis High (Calif.) Blue Devils
Ryan Fitzpatrick	Highland High (Ariz.) Hawks
Gus Frerotte	Ford City (Pa.) Sabers
La’Roi Glover	Point Loma High (San Diego, Calif.) Pointers
Mike Goolsby	Joliet Catholic Academy (Ill.) Hilltoppers
Brandon Green	Industrial High (Tex.) Cobras
DeJuan Groce	St. Edward High (Lakewood, Ohio) Eagles
Andy Groom	Bishop Hartley High (Columbus, Ohio) Hawks
Marques Hagans	Hampton High (Va.) Crabbers
Remy Hamilton	Spanish River High (Fla.) Sharks
Anthony Hargrove	Port Charlotte High (Fla.) Pirates
Madison Hedgecock	Ledford High (N.C.) Panthers
Tye Hill	Woodland High (S.C.) Wolverines
Jason Hilliard	Jeffersonville High (Ind.) Red Devils
Alex Holmes	Harvard-Westlake High (Hollywood, Calif.) Wolverines
Torry Holt	Eastern Guilford High (N.C.) Wildcats
Brian Howard	Kent-Meridian High (Wash.) Royals
Richie Incognito	Mountain Ridge High (Ariz.) Mountain Lions
Steven Jackson	Eldorado High (Las Vegas) Sun Devils
Jimmy Kennedy	Theodore Roosevelt High (Yonkers, N.Y.) Indians
Joe Klopfenstein	Grandview High (Colo.) Wolves
Leonard Little	Asheville High (N.C.) Cougars
Dane Looker	Puyallup High (Wash.) Vikings
Chris Massey	East Bank High (W.Va.) Pioneers
Andy McCollum	Revere High (Ohio) Minutemen
Shaun McDonald	Shadow Mountain High (Scottsdale, Ariz.) Matadors
Tim McGarigle	St. Patrick High (Chicago) Shamrocks
Brandon Middleton	Alief Elsik High (Houston) Rams
Ben Noll	Priory High (St. Louis) Rebels
Orlando Pace	Sandusky High (Ohio) Blue Streaks
Tony Palmer	Midwest City High (Okla.) Bombers
Brad Pyatt	Arvada West High (Colo.) Wildcats
Dave Ragone	St. Ignatius High (Cleveland) Wildcats
Donovan Raiola	Kamehameha High (Honolulu) Warriors
Matthew Rice	Eleanor Roosevelt High (Md.) Raiders
Fred Russell	Romulus High (Mich.) Eagles
Blaine Saipaia	Channel Islands High (Calif.) Raiders
Tim Sandidge	Amherst High (Va.) Lancers
Mark Setterstrom	Northfield High (Minn.) Raiders
Paul Smith	Andress High (Tex.) Eagles
Raonall Smith	Peninsula High (Wash.) Seahawks
Clinton Solomon	Eastern Hills High (Fort Worth, Tex.) Highlanders
Todd Steussie	Agoura High (Calif.) Chargers
Drew Strojny	King Philip Regional (Mass.) Warriors
Taylor Stubblefield	Davis High (Wash.) Pirates
Claude Terrell	LaMarque High (Tex.) Cougars
Dominique Thompson	Riverside High (N.C.) Pirates
Adam Timmerman	Washington High (Iowa) Demons
Kevin Timothee	Plantation High (Fla.) Colonels
Pisa Tinoisamoa	Vista High (Calif.) Panthers
Rod Trafford	Delbarton High (N.J.) Green Waves
Matt Turk	Greenfield High (Wis.) Hawks
Larry Turner	Wayne High (Ohio) Warriors
Drew Wahlroos	Poway High (Calif.) Titans
Aaron Walker	Astronaut High (Titusville, Fla.) War Eagles
John David Washington	Campbell Hall High (Los Angeles) Vikings
Jeff Wilkins	Austintown Fitch High (Ohio) Falcons
Moe Williams	Spencer High (Ga.) Green Waves
Will Witherspoon	Rutherford High (Fla.) Rams
Claude Wroten	Bastrop High (La.) Rams