The Hillcrest High School Viking
Our history expert solves local mysteries: who, what, when, where, why, and why not. Well, sometimes.
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Originally intended as a carpet company promotion, âErikâ has been an impressive feature of Hillcrest High School since the early 1970s.
Dear Vance: Whatâs the story behind the giant Viking that guards the entrance to Hillcrest High School? â G.L., Memphis.
Dear G.L.: In the early 1900s, when the University of Tennessee medical school here fielded its own football team, the players were called the Doctors. Meanwhile, about this time, the West Tennessee State Teachers College (now the University of Memphis, of course) called its football team the Teachers. What a terrifying spectacle that would have been, if the Doctors and the Teachers met on the playing field. And what nightmares those scary mascots would have given any youngster who saw the game. Iâm joking, of course.
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