WHAT’S IN A NICKNAME? : Birds, Bees or Butterflies Don’t Always Make the Grade in the Serious Business of Creating an Image That Works

When Halley’s Comet made a spectacle of itself in 1986 by reappearing after a 77-year trip, a group of eager students at Kearny High School was holding its collective breath.

“The kids were so enthused when it came through,” said Leila Boeckel, a Kearny graduate in the 1950s and the school’s librarian for 11 years. “It was the year of the comet. They were so excited and proud. There were posters all over school.”

Forty-five years after Kearny opened with the nickname “Komets”--the school board voted down “Cowboys” in favor of something more cosmic--the school had its chance to show off. It was, after all, Kearny’s namesake speeding toward Earth.

“When they discovered that all that’s inside a comet is dirt and ice particles,” Boeckel said, “it was such a disappointment.”

Whether they’re for the birds, the bees or the butterflies--Eagles, Golden Eagles, Falcons, Cardinals, Hornets; whether they’re the cat’s meow--Wildcats, Cougars, Tigers, Panthers; whether the sea is their domain--Vikings, Pirates, Mariners, Buccaneers, Islanders, or whether fighting is their game--Warriors, Knights, Marauders, Raiders, Lancers, Crusaders, Trojans, Spartans, Warhawks, Conquistadors, Centurions, Pilots--nicknames are serious business for the 75 high schools that field athletic teams and are recognized as members of the San Diego Section of the California Interscholastic Federation.

Some schools take painstaking steps to pick just the right nickname and mascot.

From the oldest (San Diego) to the newest (West Hills), student bodies across the county have chosen names they felt best portrayed their schools and feelings about them. At the older schools, the stories handed down are recollections of early graduates, their offspring or bits and pieces of information from alumni associations.

At newer schools, the current personnel know exactly how names were picked.

Alan Johnson had been the principal at Vista for seven years when he was named principal of the county’s newest high school--which was to be called Buena Vista--in 1986.

Picking a school name, nickname and colors was a six-month labor of love.

Said Johnson: “We saw so many mascots that had nothing to do with the school name and colors that had nothing to do with the mascot. We decided to do it right, to get some unity.

“I saw some bad examples of schools that just picked a name out of a hat, and now they’re stuck with it. You have to be careful. So many names were taken. There weren’t a lot left.”

Buena Vista ultimately became Rancho Buena Vista, as students didn’t want to become “BV” and be confused with Bonita Vista in the South Bay.

“And they didn’t want to be called ‘Buena,’ ” Johnson said, “as that was too difficult for people to pronounce.”

Athletic Director Ric Bethel came up with the idea of the Pacific Southwest and a ranch theme.

“The kids loved it,” Johnson said. “Then we started thinking what kind of concept would work with it. We didn’t want Cowboys, it was too sexist. We had to be careful.”

Neighboring rival Vista, with its red, black and white colors and Panther mascot, had a powerful combination that RBV knew it had to match.

“We had to come up with something equal to that,” Johnson said. “We looked at the University of Texas, who are the Longhorns. They have an outstanding history in sports, in both their women’s and men’s programs, and they have a strong academic background.”

After extensive research, Johnson discovered that when California still belonged to Mexico and Spain, the state was full of longhorn cattle. RBV is the now only high school in the country with the name.

“It was perfect,” Johnson said. “Everything fit. I put a lot of energy into it, and as you can see, I’m still enthused. No one has done it quite this way.”

Nor has a new school experienced such a quick rise to the top as has RBV. The Longhorns, winners of the 2-A section football championship in 1988, are ranked No. 1 by The Times this year. RBV also has produced winning cross-country and water polo teams and Kira Jorgensen, a multiple state champion in track and cross-country.

“The success of the school is a measure of lots of little things,” Johnson said. “Sure (the name’s) a factor, but to what extent. How do you know?”

How do you know? A sports psychologist in Encinitas said that you don’t, fully.

Lucy Jo Palladino could find no specific research on how a nickname affects an athlete’s performance but said that sports psychologists widely agree that nicknames should help younger, developing athletes.

Palladino said a nickname is a personal affirmation.

“The idea is that you succinctly make a statement of yourself,” she said. “One word should focus it.”

It can also be a cue for visualization.

“The more vivid nickname, like ‘Tiger,’ ” she said, “would conjure emotional or intense feelings. It is all the more useful in that it would suggest the ability of the athlete or team.”

Palladino also said that since the name will likely be cheered or chanted from the sidelines, “an unsuitable name would be a detriment and should probably be changed.”

San Diego has been spared the ridiculous. Some places haven’t.

At Yuma High School in Arizona, classes were first held on the second floor of the Yuma Territorial Prison in 1909. Thus, the Yuma Criminals were born.

The school relocated four years later, but students voted to retain the original nickname. Its colors, navy blue (so dark it appears black) and white appear on team uniforms done in--what else?--a prison stripe motif.

In Idaho, Orofino High School is located a few miles from a state mental hospital. Their nickname? The Maniacs. Their mascot? A fuzzy-haired man, arms and mouth stretched wide.

According to Principal Skip Wilson, there are a several theories about how the namesake came about, the most widely accepted being told by graduates in the early 1920s.

“At one particular basketball game, there was a fan who yelled out, ‘The Orofino boys are playing like maniacs.’ They didn’t seem to think that it had anything to do with the state mental hospital, but I’m sure there’s a connection.”

Longtime rivalries abound across the county. Vista-Oceanside, Sweetwater-Chula Vista, San Diego-Hoover, Point Loma-La Jolla and St. Augustine-USDHS are some of the best and oldest.

But East County’s Grossmont Foothillers and Helix Highlanders extend that rivalry to the point that their nicknames are the antithesis of one another.

Grossmont, opened in the fall of 1922, is one of the oldest high schools in the county.

“It was named ‘Foothillers’ because it used to be located in the Fletcher Hills foothills,” said Bill Davis, a 1948 graduate and Grossmont principal from 1976-1986.

In 1951, Helix opened, and the student body voted to be called the Highlanders.

Brian Andersen, the current Associated Student Body adviser at Helix, talked to several graduates in the 1950s and said the name wasn’t a coincidence.

“We were split from Grossmont, and it’s not recorded anywhere, but we’re sure the name was meant to be contradictory. Hey, if you’re in the lowlands, then we’re in the highlands,” Andersen said.

Helix’s crest goes along with the Highlander theme, but its athletic teams favor the Scotty dog. A mural fills the cafeteria at Helix, depicting a Scotty engaged in several sports.

West Hills had fun with the selection of its nickname, the Wolf Pack.

According to Principal Bob Guess, incoming ninth graders went on a two-day retreat at Camp Palomar in the fall of 1986 to choose a nickname, colors and school philosophy.

“We had solicited names from the community and sportings goods stores,” Guess said. “Mainly it was a process of elimination. We like this, we didn’t like that. This was taken. We eliminated beach names, being that we’re 20 miles from the beach, things like that.”

A play off John Wooden, “The Wizards of West Hills,” was a finalist, but the Wolf Pack won approval and Guess solicited brochures from North Carolina State (the Wolfpack) and Nevada Reno (the Wolf Pack) for ideas.

“But we ended up with our own colors and logo anyway,” he said.

Although San Diego’s nicknames are generally tame, the Sweetwater Red Devils and Mt. Carmel Sundevils have stirred up mild controversies.

Sweetwater opened in 1922 and was known as the “Sweeties” until 1933.

“The school was tired of being belittled by the name,” said Al Jacobus, a 1953 graduate and former football coach (1965-1978). “Our athletic teams were having some success, and the kids voted to change it.”

Jacobus recalled that in 1947, there was a board meeting called specifically to discuss changing “Red Devils.”

“People said it wasn’t a good Christian name, but nothing ever came of it,” he said.

Said Principal Alan Goycochea, in his 12th year at Sweetwater: “Every once in a while there are some folks who’ve expressed some concern, but there’s none of this devil worship nonsense. A few years ago, a fundamentalist minister wanted to buy (and destroy) the beautiful marble statue we have out in the main hallway. He got distressed when I told him it wasn’t mine to sell.”

The Red Devils played their only football game against the St. Augustine Saints in 1967. Fittingly, the Saints won, 27-18.

“I guess that was appropriate,” Jacobus said.

At Mt. Carmel, “Sundevils” just edged “Mounties,” according to Vi McCleary, an attendance clerk who was on staff when the school opened in 1974.

“Eight years ago, a family pulled their daughter out because they felt the school was worshipping the devil,” McCleary said. “There was some controversy over the little Sundevil that was drawn by one of our art students, but the image softened over the years.

One of San Diego’s more distinctive nicknames, the Cavemen, was softened somewhat with the destruction of San Diego High School’s “Gray Castle,” a reference to the original building’s castle-like structure.

The county’s oldest school, and state’s oldest facility still on its original site, opened in 1882 and went without a nickname until 1922. According to the school’s centennial history book, the sports editor of the school newspaper preferred the name “Lumbermen,” but in the next issue, the team was referred to as the Cavemen.

No one seems to know where it originated. It wasn’t until 1976, when the Gray Castle was destroyed, that San Diego became simply the Cavers.

NAME GAME Top San Diego Section nicknames (of 75 schools):

Eagles: 5

Patriots: 4

Lancers: 3

Vikings: 3

Knights: 3

Warriors: 2

Hornets: 2

Crusaders: 2

Tigers: 2

Raiders: 2

Wildcats: 2

Top nicknames nationwide (of 19,088 schools as of July, from Coaches Directory Inc.):

Eagles: 1,083

Tigers: 960

Bulldogs: 789

Panthers: 740

Wildcats: 640

Warriors: 558

Trojans: 407

Cougars: 396

Lions: 393

Vikings: 377

Fan favorites:

Cattlefeeders--Everly (Iowa)

Cavers--San Diego High

Cheesemakers--Monroe (Wis.)

Criminals--Yuma (Ariz.)

Maniacs--Orofino (Idaho)

Marcos--Polo (Ill.)

Orabs--Sheldon (Iowa)

Pretzels--Freeport (Ill.)

Sir Billies--Johnstown (N.Y.)

Soos--Sioux Valley (Iowa)