Midgets

Estherville - Lincoln Central has a unique nickname: the Midgets (or Midgettes for girls teams). E-LC's run to the 2A title game at the Girls State basketball tournament had a lot of people inquiring about the orgin of the nickname, so I started asking around at Wells Fargo Arena. According to some folks from a radio station in Estherville, the nickname originated from a newspaper account of a basketball game between Estherville and Jackson, MN a number of decades ago. The under-sized group from Estherville beat a group of taller players from Jackson, leading the reporter to write “the midgets were a tough bunch,” or something to that effect. The nickname stuck. The radio announcer told me the school voluntarily toyed with the idea of changing the mascot name a few years back, but there was strong opposition from the community to any kind of change. I guess no one outside of Estherville has complained about it, even though in this day and age, political correctness is more and more important for publicly funded institutions.

And now you know the rest of the story. Shawn Terrell... good day.