Name game

Outdoors: Ducks Unlimited looking for volunteers. 11C

Sports

S U N D A Y , J U L Y 12 , 2009

SECTION C

WWW.TUSCALOOSANEWS.COM

THE NAME GAME

FOOTBALL

Ex-Tide star signed and ready for NFL

AUTO RACING

Ever wonder why Central High School is known as the Falcons?

Or how Hillcrest came up with Patriots as its mascot? The Tuscaloosa News tackled this issue and discovered several schools in the county have a unique story for why they chose a particular mascot.

By Christopher Walsh Sports Writer

By Aaron Suttles

NORTHPORT | In a year of firsts for Rashad Johnson, the All-American and former free safety for the University of Alabama found himself once again in unfamiliar surroundings Saturday morning, even though he was technically back in familiar territory.

Two days after signing his first National Football League contract with the Arizona Cardinals, the Sulligent native was a headline contributor in the inaugural Le’Ron McClain All Star Football Camp, held at the fullback’s former Rashad high school, TusJohnson caloosa County.

Surprisingly, it was the first time Johnson had served as an instructor, other than to his own teammates.

“The opportunity is something you dream about, talking about going to the NFL and to sit down and sign a contract,” Johnson said regarding the three-year deal. “It felt good. All the hard work paid off, but there’s obviously a lot more to do. I don’t want to be just a guy who made it to the NFL. I want to make a name and establish himself.”

As for how the third-round draft pick fits in with the Cardinals, that has yet to be decided. With Antrel Rolle and Adrian Wilson apparently set as star ters for the defending NFC champions, the rookie will likely compete with backups Matt Ware and Aaron Francisco for roles.

However, that doesn’t mean there won’t be immediate opportunities for him under coach Ken Whisenhunt and defensive coordinator Bill Davis.

SEE RASHAD | 5C

Sports Writer

TUSCALOOSA | Some are established in the likeness of a community — the living embodiment and testament to a town’s tradition and history. Others are cliche, with no clear lineage or indication to how they became connected with one particular school or another.

They engender fierce passion and loyalty unmatched. And since the 1800s, the modern-day mascot has been synonymous with sporting events.

Live animals served as mascots back then, often on the sidelines during competition while the athletes wore a patch on their uniforms signifying their allegiance.

When live animals became too expensive to care for, mascots evolved into their current incarnation of oversized caricature costumes and face-painted teenagers.

West Alabama high schools cover the spectrum of mascots.

From the often-used Wildcats and Tigers to the more tailored Ironmen and Choctaws, nothing evokes civic pride like that of a school mascot.

Drive through Northport on a Friday night in the fall and you’ll see a parade of cars with “Go Wildcats” written in shoe polish on their windows.

Sit in the stands at a Gordo football game and watch the stadium swell as young and old pull for their Greenwave, decked out in green and gold.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Mark Martin celebrates after winning the LifeLock.com 400 at the Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill., on Saturday. Martin led a Chicagoland Speedway record 195 laps.

Mark Martin dominates at Chicago

By Brian Hamilton McClatchy News Ser vice

Men of Iron Perhaps no other local school or mascot is more steeped in its community’s heritage than the Holt Ironmen.

SEE MASCOTS | 9C

STAFF PHOTO | MICHAEL E. PALMER

Clockwise from bottom, the Brookwood High School Panther mascot (Rocky Davis), the Central High Falcon (Jamarcus Sanders), the Tuscaloosa County High Wildcat (Haley Greene), the Northridge High Jaguar (name withheld) and the Holt Ironman (Sayde Wright).

TOP FIVE ALABAMA MASCOTS

COMING MONDAY ■ Catching up with former University of Alabama running back and current Baltimore Ravens player Le’Ron McClain

Highland Home (Crenshaw County) | Flying Squadron History: When World War II broke out, several of the seniors left school along with other locals to join the war effort. Many went into the Air Force. They would have a student at the school to look out for planes flying over from Maxwell field during training. One day a student ran in and told everyone that the planes were coming. When asked how many, he said, ‘A whole squadron.’

Jags counting the days until first game

Slocomb (Geneva County) | Red Tops History: According to Mr. James Bass, a Slocomb alumnus, John B. Davidson came to Slocomb High School as head coach after graduating from college and painted his team’s helmets red to distinguish them from the rest of the area teams’ leather helmets. He called his team the Red Tops, and the name stuck. At some point, the Indian was adopted as the school’s mascot, and eventually this Indian became known as the Slocomb Red Top.

By John Zenor

Sidney Lanier (Montgomery County) | Poets

The Associated Press

History: Established in 1910, the school was named for a well-known southern poet, Sidney Lanier, who resided in Montgomery from 1866 to 1867. The school consolidated Lanier and Montgomery County High Schools. The name of the new school was decided by the outcome of a football game between Lanier and Montgomery County in the fall of 1928, which Lanier won.

Santuan McGee can count the days until South Alabama’s first football game.

Literally. It’s on the university’s athletic Web site, ticking off the days, hours and minutes until the new program kicks off for the first time: 60, 59, 58.

“I always check the Web site,” said McGee, a running back from Tallahassee, Fla. McGee isn’t just another southern player or fan eager for the annual fall football fix. He and some of his teammates have been gearing up for this day — Sept. 5, for those keeping track — since enrolling last fall when they had to settle for watching games on TV instead of participating.

The wait has been even longer for coach Joey Jones, who has been on the job since February 2008 without coaching a game.

The Jaguars, who have already been through their first spring practice, are gearing up for another series of milestones.

■ Aug. 1, move into a new 49,000-square-foot football complex.

■ Aug. 4, start fall practice.

■ Sept. 5, debut against Hargrave (Va.) Military Academy.

SEE JAGS | 3C

Holt (Tuscaloosa County) | Ironmen History: In the early 1900s, investors settled on a tract of land in Holt and built its headquarters for the Central Iron and Coal Co. Because no one in the immediate area had any knowledge of the intricacies of working with a blast furnace, the company hired workers away from Birmingham and Chattanooga, Tenn. “These men were called Ironmen because they had experience in working with iron,” said 99-year-old Paul Singleton, who worked at the company for 50 years.

Shoals Christian (Lauderdale County) | Flame History: In 1997, there were enough students for the school to field an 11-man football team and join the AHSAA. But, the school needed a nickname. There was competition to find a new name. Brett Trapp came up with ‘Flame.’ The light symbolizes Jesus Christ and one of Shoals Christian’s slogans is ‘We are to carry the light into the darkness.’ On Friday nights before kickoff for a game, a student carries a lit torch onto the field to symbolize the light of Jesus.

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NEWS

Oklaho

Oregon

Lava Bears

The Tuscaloosa News takes a look at some of the more intriguing high school and college mascots from around the country. Plus, a history lesson on the University of Alabama’s mascot, ‘Big AL.’ | 6C-7C

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A look back at defunct schools — the Tuscaloosa High Black Bears and the Druid High Dragons. | 9C

JOLIET, I LL . | The close-cropped stubble on his head contains more salt than pepper, and the wrinkles run across Mark Martin’s face like long-ago dried-up riverbeds. And for a while there, twilight racing had a far less poetic meaning for him, semi-retirement leaving him with a loose grip on the track.

So it was with unmistakable giddiness that a man a half-century old took to the radio early in the LifeLock.com 400 on Saturday, his Chevrolet hast- INSIDE ily and efficiently chopping through ■ Auto racing traffic and turning notebook | 4C the Chicagoland Speedway’s 1.5mile oval into a veritable senior circuit.

“This is easy, bud,” Martin boasted over the airwaves.

Not by the end Saturday, it wasn’t.

But for three full seasons, Mark Martin had vanished from victory lanes everywhere. Now he is a 50-year-old who mostly dominated the LifeLock. com 400 for his fourth Sprint Cup victory of the year and reasserted, for now, his place in the chase for the first championship of a nearly three-decade career.

Martin entered the weekend perched just on the outside of the top 12 in the points standings, thanks to a 38th-place finish at Daytona International Speedway last weekend that capped a lamentable streak of three straight finishes outside of the top 10 after a victory in Michigan on June 14.

And after thoroughly dominating most of the race, Martin lost the lead to Jimmie Johnson off a double-file restart following a Sam Hornish Jr. crash on Lap 220. Then, just as dramatically, Martin recaptured the lead when a double-file restart pushed Johnson well back on Lap 252 and gave Martin the clean air to run to victory.

Thus continued a rejuvenation that began when team owner Rick Hendrick coaxed him back to a full-time racing schedule for 2009. Though there has been some rough luck along the way, Martin has nonetheless produced his fattest victory total since 1998, when he won seven races.

What’s more, the win in Joliet erased a minor blemish from Martin’s record, as the Speedway was the only track at which he never had recorded a topfive. But as it did during the Nationwide Series race the previous night, the Speedway rewarded those with the fastest cars, and Martin definitively was among that group.

SEE MARTIN | 4C