On eBay right now, you can buy this custom license plate supporting the Powell Panthers.
If you happen to live in eastern Park County, it would be a pretty cool move to have one of these hanging in your office or den.
It’s just that your dollars would be going to Tennessee, not Wyoming.
And that is because Wyoming’s orange-and-black Powell High School Panthers are not the only orange-and-black Powell High School Panthers in America.
In fact, Wyoming’s cats share a name, a mascot and a set of colors with Powell High School in Tennessee.
Powell is one of two Wyoming high schools to share a name, a mascot and a color scheme with another American high school. Campbell County’s Camels have doppelgangers in Alexandria, Kentucky. I mean, come on — none of these shirts would look out of place in Gillette. But your dollars would support the Bluegrass State.
Using MascotDB.com’s search capabilities, I found that Campbell County and Powell are the only two Wyoming high schools to have their name and colors replicated by another high school program somewhere else in America. That said, three others have had their name and mascot repeated — just not their colors.
- The “Buffalo Bison” are repeated five times — in Texas, Missouri, West Virginia, Oklahoma and Minnesota, in addition to Wyoming’s Buffalo Bison.
- The Riverside Rebels make an appearance in Arkansas as well as at Riverside Academy in Louisiana.
- The Rocky Mountain Grizzlies are also spotted in Idaho.
The United States is a big country. Those kinds of repeats are understandable.
But I still think it would be fun to settle it, once and for all, on the field.
I’d like to see the two Powell teams and the two Campbell County teams on each other’s schedules next year. And, heck, let’s make the stakes high: Winner gets to keep their mascot and colors. Loser has to change at least one of them.
Logistics aside — distance, cost, 4A round-robin schedule, the fact that no one at any of these four schools would actually want to risk giving up their identity on the result of one game — it’s a fun thought. If the visual identity of your entire school or community was on the line, how hard would you play? How hard would you cheer? How many shirts or novelty license plates would you buy? And, wait a minute… isn’t having a twin actually kind of fun?
Regardless, if you ever find yourself in Alexandria, Kentucky, or Powell, Tennessee, keep your eyes peeled. You just might see a little slice of Wyoming.
–patrick