Unusual Nicknames: Roxana (IL) High School Shells

Most of the time, when the subject of this Unusual Nicknames column draws its lineage from the oil industry, the featured high school hails from one of the old “boomtowns” in Texas, Oklahoma, or elsewhere in the West South Central region of the United States.

The Shells of Roxana High School (RHS), however, are native to Roxana, Illinois, a town of about 1,500 people situated just a stone’s throw from the Mississippi River, on the northern outskirts of the St. Louis metropolitan area.

As the imagery and colors of the RHS logo suggest, the “Shells” surname is an homage to the Shell Oil Company, the entity principally responsible for the town’s foundation. In 1916, Shell made the decision to expand one of its subsidiaries, Roxana Petroleum, into a full-scale oil company, and chose the St. Louis area for its headquarters. Plans to construct a new oil refinery followed shortly thereafter, leading to the purchase of a 172-acre plot of farmland south of the town of Wood River, Illinois, a prime location near the main railroad lines.

Families flocked to the area in search of employment opportunities at the refinery, which opened in September 1918 with a roster of 175 workers. Over the next three years, more and more homes began popping up in the refinery’s immediate vicinity, prompting the official incorporation of Roxana in 1921.

The refinery, which is now owned and operated by Phillips 66, is capable of producing 314,000 barrels of oil per day and currently supplies its products to consumers in St. Louis, Chicago, Indiana and Ohio.

The 2023 football season was a particularly memorable one for the Shells, as they tied a school record with 12 victories and clinched a trip to the Illinois High School Association Class 3A state semifinals.