High School Viking Giant

Memphis, Tennessee

Mascot of Hillcrest High School, the Viking statue directs his steely gaze toward Elvis Presley Blvd, probably on the lookout for any Graceland tourists that he can plunder. Some people believe that this type of statue -- there are several copies of it around the U.S. -- is a Spartan, not a Viking. But it was originally the symbol of the Viking Carpet store chain, and if they considered it a Viking, that's good enough for us.

We were told by Carese Rice, who owns the Atomic Mouse statue a couple of miles up the road, that it was her high school senior class that donated the Viking statue to the school. We were too polite to ask what year that might have been, but guessed it was sometime in the 1970s.

Update: Tipster Ellen Hamilton writes that the Viking was placed on the Hillcrest roof between 1969 and 1971. "It was donated by the Shuler family, who sold Viking Carpet. Their children, Ted and Terry, graduated in '71 and '72. The Shulers were big Hillcrest supporters."