Cornjerkers, Pretzels and Timberducks: The stories behind Illinois’ most interesting high school nicknames

There are more than 1,000 high schools in Illinois, and while the Land of Lincoln has its share of Bulldogs, Eagles, Tigers and other standards, there are also some more unusual prep mascots.

Here, in no particular order, are a dozen of Illinois’ more interesting high school nicknames and the stories behind them.

1. Hoopeston Area Cornjerkers

Located in Hoopeston, a city of 4,915 in east-central Illinois surrounded by smaller farming communities, Hoopeston Area High School leans into its agricultural importance as the “Sweetcorn Capital of the World.” According to an IHSA article about the origins of the nickname, in the 1920s sports reporter Bob Poisall was riding the team bus, which was running late due to players being in the field harvesting, and commented they’d never get where they’re going because they were “just a bunch of cornjerkers.” It stuck. “Yes, we do get a lot of comments and questions about our mascot‚ the Cornjerkers,” Hoopeston Area athletic director Nathan Burkowski said. “We actually have an outfit that students dress up in for games and its name is ‘Jerky’. There are usually a lot of pictures taken with him. They also have Jerky in our annual Labor Day parade.”

Fun fact: Jerky is also a popular attraction at Hoopeston’s Sweetheart Pageant held during the community’s annual Sweetcorn Festival.

2. Monticello Sages

A central Illinois city of 5,941 located between Champaign and Decatur, per the school pamphlet “We Are the Sages,” Monticello was given its unique nickname in the 1920s by Champaign News-Gazette editor Edwin Jacquin. It was a reference to American Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, known as “the Sage of Monticello,” his famous Virginia estate that shares a name with the small Illinois city. “It is my understanding,” Monticello athletic director Daniel Sheehan said, “that we are the only school with the mascot ‘Sages’ nationwide.”

Fun fact: The Sages logo and student-worn mascot costume depict what is widely considered to be a wise, or sage, member of the animal kingdom – an owl.

3. Rochelle Hubs

A city of 9,446 some 80 miles west of Chicago, Rochelle has long been known as “the Hub City” due to its historically being the site of intersecting transportation lines – the Union Pacific and BNSF railroad lines, the historic Lincoln Highway and US-51, Interstates 88 and 39, etc. “We always get asked, ‘What is a Hub?’ Rochelle principal Chris Lewis said. On a map, the city looks almost like the Hubs logo with spokes being the highways and railroad lines crisscrossing it.

Fun fact: Per a recent column in the Rochelle News-Leader, next year (2026) will mark the 100-year anniversary of the first documented time Rochelle was referred to as “the Hub City,” by an editor at the local newspaper.

4. Freeport Pretzels

A city of 23,973 located less than a half hour south of the Wisconsin border, Freeport in the late 1800s became known as “Pretzel City” due to its large German immigrant population and corresponding German-style bakeries. The school and community have fun with their nickname, including a mascot named Mr. Twister, a pretzel hand signal taught to incoming freshmen and a slogan, “You can eat us, but you can’t beat us.” “Yes, we get a lot of comments ... and it’s crazy the number of times that I have met new people who have known someone from Freeport ... and they know that the Pretzel is our mascot,” Freeport principal Sarah Hasken said. Freeport is actually one of two Illinois high schools with Pretzels as a mascot, the other being New Berlin, a village of 1,346 near the state capital.

Fun fact: Freeport’s boys and girls basketball teams compete in a day-long, all-levels event with the Monroe (Wisconsin) Cheesemakers annually. They call it the Snack Bowl.

5. Polo Marcos

A city of 2,291 in northwestern Illinois, Polo’s nickname is a play on the given name of famous 13th century Italian explorer Marco Polo, known for his well-chronicled 24-year journey to Asia. While locals have built up a tolerance for the clever word play, it still draws puzzled glances and laughs when the Marcos travel far from home. “Polo athletes and coaches get some strange looks when we are wearing our Polo gear in other parts of the state or country,” Marcos athletic director Ted Alston said. “And we seem to get a great deal of the “Marco ... Polo” chant like the swimming pool game.”

Fun fact: Polo has a mascot called the Marco Man. Oddly, instead of being dressed like the explorer, he instead resembles a Mongol warrior, one of the peoples Marco Polo wrote about in his travels.

6. Serena Huskers

An unincorporated northeastern La Salle County community of 129, Serena has a “Hoosiers”-like feel and a nickname to match. “We get occasional comments about our nickname. Most of them are positive saying they like it,” Huskers AD Chad Baker said. “Our opponents and rivals find it fun to make fun of our farm-related mascot by dressing like ‘hillbillies’ when they play us, but that’s just silly and fun, not offensive.” Baker did note there is a movement in the community to update the Huskers imagery away from an anthropomorphic ear of corn toward the farmers who, well, husk the corn.

Fun fact: Serena’s mascot is a walking ear of corn named Bob the Cob, their fan section is named the Corn Crew, and at home basketball games the school has replaced the standard “chuck a duck” halftime fundraiser with “lob the cob,” throwing rubber corn cobs at a target for prizes.

7. Teutopolis Wooden Shoes

A small village of 1,618 located in south-central Illinois a few miles east of the next entrant on this list, Teutopolis’ Wooden Shoes nickname goes back to the town’s founding as a largely German-Catholic immigrant village. “We have a lot of name recognition due to our unique mascot name and overall athletic success,” T-Town athletic director Derrick Zerrusen said. “From vendors I deal with, I get a lot more of the standard, ‘Is your town Dutch/German?’ and, ‘Where did the mascot name come from?’

Fun fact: Per the city’s website, the tools of the man behind Teutopolis’ famous wooden shoes – shoemaker and early citizen George Deyman – are now housed in the Illinois State Museum in Springfield.

8. Effingham Flaming Hearts

A city of 12,252 in south-central Illinois, Effingham’s unusual nickname dates back to the 1930s when the city was recognized as the population center of the United States, hence the “Heart of the USA.” Effingham principal Kurt Roberts said he believes the nickname seems odd today because of the changing use of language, but was much less head-turning when it was created. “When the name was first given, the ‘Heart of America’ made sense, and adding the wording ‘flaming’ and ‘heart’ together meant to have passion and intensity, both qualities you would want in a sports team. The term ‘flaming heart’ now probably doesn’t instill the same image that it did in 1938, so we sometimes do catch a little grief in that a flaming heart does not portray the most fierce mascot.”

Fun fact: According to Roberts, there were “unofficial attempts” in the late 1980s to change the nickname to the Fighting Hearts. Luckily, they never caught fire.

9. Henry/Midland Timberducks

The Timberducks nickname is actually a little-known, running-sports-only amalgamation of the mascots of two small, rival schools located less than a dozen miles apart on opposite banks of the Illinois River – Henry-Senachwine and Midland (the latter situated between Varna and Lacon). Midland’s nickname is the Timberwolves. Henry-Senachwine’s is the Mallards. Put them together, and they’re the Timberducks.

Fun fact: The co-op and Timberducks nickname have been alive and well for decades now and due to their success are regular sights at the IHSA’s state cross country and track meets.

10. Genoa-Kingston Cogs

A pair of nearby villages in DeKalb County who consolidated their high schools in the late 1940s, Genoa and Kingston elected to keep Genoa’s unique “Cogs” nickname and to this day still have Cogsley – a human-sized gear – appear at events. (A coach from the school even used the costume as a disguise to surprise propose to his future wife before a Cogs basketball game.) “Most people who are unfamiliar with our mascot and/or its origin usually assume that the Genoa area is affiliated with a lot of factories or mechanical businesses of some sort. This is definitely not the case,” Genoa-Kingston AD Philip Jerbi said.

Fun fact: So why the Cogs? It’s simply an acronym for “Community of Genoa Schools” come up with by student Vernon Hasty in 1946, which is why it is sometimes stylized “COGS.”

11. Illinois Valley Central Grey Ghosts

Illinois Valley Central High School – known more commonly as IVC – is located in Chillicothe, a city of 6,097 located just north of Peoria, and carried over the Grey Ghosts nickname from the former Chillicothe Township High School. There are competing theories as to why the Chillicothe Maroons transformed into the Chillicothe (and later IVC) Grey Ghosts in the 1940s. Per a story in the Chillicothe Independent Newsletter, some believe the origin of the nickname comes from a comment about the gray uniforms the basketball team began wearing in the late 1930s. Others have said the nickname may have been unintentionally coined by a local businessman who said the city would turn into “a ghost town” when nearby Lacon was awarded a bridge over the Illinois River instead of Chillicothe.

Fun fact: The Grey Ghosts nickname was inducted into the ESPN Nickname Hall of Fame in 1987.

12. Southwestern Piasa Birds

Located some 50 miles north of St. Louis, the mascot of Southwestern High School in unincorporated Piasa is the mythical Native American creature the community is named for – a terrifying creature painted on the Mississippi River cliffs a few miles west of modern-day Piasa discovered by European explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet. “Many people have never heard of it before,” Southwestern history teacher and coach Matt Hasquin said, “so it becomes a fun conversation starter and a chance to share a piece of Illinois history that connects our school to the local community and the bluffs along the Mississippi River.”

Fun fact: The school not only has a sculpture of the Piasa Bird that once hung on the bluffs near the Mississippi, but also a billboard-like Piasa Bird sign that breathes fire after touchdowns at home football games.

A few more just for fun

And here are a handful of other great Illinois high school mascots ...

13. Plano Reapers – There’s no grim tale here; Plano’s nickname comes from its agricultural history, once known as “the Home of the Harvester.”

14. Fisher Bunnies – Legend has it the Bunnies name was coined when players from the 1933-34 boys basketball team began wearing rabbits feet for good luck.

15. Rockford East E-Rabs – When Rockford High School split into East and West campuses in 1940, Rockford East’s new schools colors were red and black. The “E” is for “East,” and “Rab” is for “red and black.”

16. Elk Grove Grenadiers – The winner of a 2016 statewide vote for best mascot, two primary reasons Elk Grove chose a soldier who carries grenades as its mascot when the school opened in the mid-1960s was because it A) was unique; and B) offered satisfying alliteration with “Elk Grove.”

17. Hampshire Whip-Purs – According to an IHSA account, Hamphire‘s unique Whip-Purs was the result of a school contest in the 1940s and is simply a combination of syllables from the school’s colors – white and purple.

18. Cobden Appleknockers – There’s no complicated history here. Cobden lies in the region of southern Illinois filled with fruit orchards, where locals would knock down apples with long sticks.

19. DeKalb Barbs – Named for DeKalb’s being the site of modern barbed wire’s invention in the 1870s. The mascot, a black bird, is known as Spike the Barbie Crow.

20. Centralia Orphans/Annies – Per the Basketball Museum of Illinois, the 1933 Centralia boys basketball team once wore overalls onto the court to demonstrate its need for new warmups, prompting legendary coach Arthur Trout to compare the team’s clothes to those of orphans. The Annies nickname for girls teams came a few decades later.