Balladeer's Blog

Because you demanded it, it’s another Top 20 List. I was afraid it might seem like a tired gimmick at this point but my e-mailers have said otherwise so here it is. And as always you can contact me at Thtcom15@aol.com . Since Balladeer’s Blog’s motto is “Singing the praises of things that slip through the cultural cracks” it should come as no surprise that I’ve decided to address the neglected topic of Junior or Community College sports. You can cast your vote for which team you think has the coolest name over the next 20 days by contacting me at the above e-mail address. Like all levels of college sports, the JUCO ranks have waaaay too many teams called Tigers, Eagles, Bulldogs and Wildcats, but here are the 20 Coolest Names.  

20. BAKERSFIELD RENEGADES

 Location: Bakersfield, CA 

Comment: If you “walk the streets of Bakersfield” you’re bound to hear about the Renegades, who have a nickname cool enough to be a rock group or a band of mercenaries in the notoriously bad post-apocalypse movie 2020 Texas Gladiators. Hard to believe in just 10 years the country will be full of those marauding gangs, isn’t it?

19. HIGHLAND SCOTTIES 

Location: Highland, KS

Comment: You just knew a dog lover like me would include this team! And there’s no truth to the rumor that their original mascot was Star Trek’s James Doohan standing on the sidelines and saying “I need more time, Cap’n!”  

18. ASA AVENGERS

Location: New York, NY 

Comment: Insert your own Emma Peal or “Why is the Avengers movie taking so long?” joke here. This school has one seriously cool nickname and logo, don’t they? T-shirt sales must be through the roof! And I’m sure their call to practice is either “We’re needed” or “Avengers Assemble!”

17. GARDEN CITY BRONCBUSTERS

Location: Garden City, KS

Comments: No, that’s not a typo, they go by Broncbusters, not BroncObusters. Under any name and in any sport they kick major butts. And you just haven’t busted until you’ve Broncbusted, y’know?

16. COFFEYVILLE RED RAVENS

Location: Coffeyville, KS

Comment: Red Ravens really rock! You’d expect the town that kicked the Dalton Gang’s butts back in 1892 to have sports teams with an incredibly cool nickname like this! What I really want to know is why isn’t the corporate headquarters for Starbucks located in Coffeyville?

15. CHABOT GLADIATORS

 

Location: Hayward, CA

Comment: Gladiators is one of those nicknames so cool you can’t help but wonder why more schools don’t use it! If you had a choice between Gladiators and something as overused as Eagles, Tigers, Bulldogs and Wildcats you’d think it would be no contest.  

14. MOUNT SAN ANTONIO MOUNTIES

Location: Walnut, CA

Comment: Their mascot is a cross between a Grizzly Adams style Mountain Man and a Dudley Do-Right style Canadian Mountie. Cool nickname that can’t help but remind me of my all-time favorite Republic Serial: Canadian Mounties VS Atomic Invaders!

13. IOWA WESTERN REIVERS

 Location: Council Bluffs, IA

Comment: The Reivers: Wasn’t That A Time!? Okay, maybe that’s too obscure a reference for such a memorable nickname and logo. The Reivers swashbuckle their way through the JUCO ranks even more impressively than Johnny Depp does in the Pirates of the Caribbean films.

12. NE OKLAHOMA A&M GOLDEN NORSEMEN

Location: Miami, OK

Comment: How can you not love a nickname this cool? I love teams with a Nordic theme that don’t fall back on the overused nickname Vikings.  Such teams might also consider a nickname like The Asgardians if not for the way that would set themselves up for snarky jokes like “Popo Protectors”.  

11. SANTA ANA DONS

Location: Santa Ana, CA

Comment: That’s Dons as in Old California Dons like Don Diego, not Mafia Dons like Don Corleone. Their football helmet sports the only version of their logo I could find on-line and it’s so cool I wanted to make sure I included it.

10. ANTELOPE VALLEY MARAUDERS

Location: Lancaster, CA

Comment: It sometimes seems like I think any mascot or logo with a sword is cool but I can’t help it! Marauders IS an incredibly cool nickname and that logo is very eye-catching! I can’t help but feel such things are an advantage in recruiting, even if players might think it sounds too “unmanly” to admit it.

9. SANTA BARBARA CITY COLLEGE VAQUEROS

Location: Santa Barbara, CA

Comment: Not to be confused with the UC-Santa Barbara Gauchos from NCAA Division 1. Not only is this an incredibly cool nickname for sports teams but their football team also has cool helmets and possibly the coolest football stadium in the world, or at least the stadium with the coolest view in the world! Just picture taking in a game while having that view as background! If you doubt me just look it up on Yippy or Google and see for yourself. 

8. VERMILLION COLLEGE IRONMEN

Location: Ely, MN 

Comment: There are so many ways we could go here. We could do a Black Sabbath reference (and I’m betting that song is done ad infinitum by their marching band) or maybe a Marvel Comics superhero reference. Experienced readers of Balladeer’s Blog will remember that I go for the more obscure so I’ll try to come up with a Tetsuo The Iron Man reference instead. While I’m working on it ponder the glory of getting to root for teams called the Ironmen!

7. COMPTON COLLEGE TARTARS

Location: Compton, CA

Comment: Love that nickname and logo! Michigans’s Wayne State Warriors from D2 used to be called the Tartar Warriors so I’m glad to have found this Tartars team since I always thought it was a really cool and underused angle. The arch-rival of the Tartars must be The Cavity Creeps. (Sorry)

6. DODGE CITY CONQUISTADORS

Location: Dodge City, KS

Comment: When someone mentions Dodge City I always think of Conquistadors like Cortez, Doc Holliday, Bat Masterson…hey, wait a minute! All kidding aside Conquistadors is definitely another one for the list of nicknames so kickass I can’t believe more teams don’t use it! Since all roads lead to bad movies with me I’ll throw out a reference to the film Giant From The Unknown, in which a giant (well, really big, anyway) Conquistador comes out of suspended animation and runs amok in modern-day California. And that cool logo above adorns the Conquistadors’ football helmets, too!   

5. TYLER JUNIOR COLLEGE APACHES

Location: Tyler, TX 

Comment: Apaches is undeniably one of the coolest names that sports teams (or helicopters for that matter) could have! It must be doubly exciting to get to play in Texas, where even high school football games will draw crowds in the thousands!     

4. SAN DIEGO MESA OLYMPIANS

 

Location: San Diego, CA

Comment: As usual I’m a sucker for a nickname that combines my passion for college sports with my passion for mythology. Although I grant you the name is more likely a reference to participants in the Olympic games rather than to the godly inhabitants of Mt Olympus. As with Santa Ana College above, the coolest depiction of their logo I could find on-line was on their football helmets.

3. HUTCHINSON BLUE DRAGONS

 Location: Hutchinson, KS

Comment: It’s hard to top a nickname and logo this cool. Hutchinson’s football team sports that logo on their helmets and I can’t imagine there isn’t a young man in the country who wouldn’t love strapping that helmet on on Saturday afternoons!  

2. EASTERN ARIZONA GILA MONSTERS

 

Location: Thatcher, AZ

Comment: That Gila monster pic is from the school’s athletics site. I love the uniqueness of the nickname plus its Southwest flavor but most of all I love the way it reminds me of the bad movie gem The Giant Gila Monster! When the football team scores a touchdown does the band play the song “I sing whenever I sing whenever I siiiiiiiiiiing”? (Bad movie buffs will get it). At least I didn’t pick the song Laugh, Children, Laugh. (shudder)  from that movie!

1. SCOTTSDALE FIGHTING ARTICHOKES

Location: Scottsdale, AZ

Comment: If you know Juco sports you just knew I would probably have this school at number one! Memorable nickname aside it takes onions to call your teams the Artichokes (sorry) knowing full well people will call them the “Chokes” for short! Talk about spitting in the face of sports superstition! And since they’re number one I’ll throw in a bonus and show you their incredibly cool football helmets, courtesy of The Helmet Project at  http://www.nationalchamps.net/Helmet_Project/

MORE COOL STUFF

For the 20 Coolest-Named College Sports Teams In the USCAA and NCCAA click here  – http://glitternight.com/2010/11/24/the-20-coolest-named-uscaa-and-nccaa-sports-teams/

For past Cool Helmets that weren’t on the Top 20 List click here: http://glitternight.com/category/cool-helmets/

For Cool-Named Teams that weren’t on that Top 20 List click here: http://glitternight.com/category/cool-names-and-cool-logos/

For the NCAA Division 3′s Coolest-Named Teams click here: http://glitternight.com/d3-20-coolest/

For the NAIA edition of The 20 Coolest College Sports Teams You May Never Have Heard Of click here: http://glitternight.com/2010/06/21/the-20-coolest-named-college-sports-teams-you-may-have-never-heard-of-naia-edition/

For The 20 Coolest College Sports Logos click here: http://glitternight.com/2010/07/20/the-20-coolest-college-sports-logos/

For The 20 Coolest Football Helmets In NCAA Division 3 click here: http://glitternight.com/2010/08/23/the-20-coolest-football-helmets-in-ncaa-division-3/

For the 20 Coolest-Named Sports Teams In NCAA Division 2 click here: http://glitternight.com/d2-20-coolest/

Balladeer’s Blog is not affiliated with or operated by the NAIA or the NCAA or any of their member institutions.

© Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog, 2010. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.