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What expansion teams mascot could have been.


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54 minutes ago, Mac the Knife said:

My source for it was a friend who worked in Paul Tagliabue's office at the time.  None of it really was public knowledge, though some of the St. Louis scuttlebutt had leaked to the media; just not specifics.

 

I remember a report that the NFL didn't like Jacksonville at all, but did like Wayne Weaver himself. They did indeed want him to take over the St. Louis bid, and would give him the team, but he had worked for years with the Jacksonville bid, and didn't feel he could leave now.

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11 hours ago, OnWis97 said:

The Phoenix Dudes!

 

About the only worse thing I can think of is the Phoenix Phoenix.

 

I actually like the Phoenix Rising as far as singular team names go. 

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If you hadn't noticed, Chawls loves his wrestling, whether it be real life or sim. :D

 

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On 4/9/2018 at 10:53 AM, OnWis97 said:

Buffalo Buzzing Bees?  I can't decide whether I'm glad they dodged that bullet or if I wish they'd used it so someone was almost as bad as Wild

I think "Bees" might possibly have become a name that we all got used to. It actually isn't a bad fit for the way hockey players swoop around the ice. I don't think "Buzzing Bees" would still be with us today. It would have been interesting, though... assuming they went black/yellow, would Pittsburgh still have been allowed to switch away from double blue if there were two other black/yellow teams in the league?

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On 4/11/2018 at 7:09 AM, jmac11281 said:

"The Lakers and Dudes on ESPN tonight!"

 

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On 4/11/2018 at 3:34 PM, Mac the Knife said:

Baseball is the only sport in which "Nine" works as a potential team nickname...

 

What about the USL's Indy Eleven?

 

1200px-Indy_Eleven_Logo.svg.png

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The Indy Eleven?  IMO?  Was a lousy choice.  Reminds me of these G-League teams calling themselves (and I'm about to paraphrase here because I don't follow the G-League.  At all.) the 716's because the team currently plays in the 716 area code.  WTF do you do branding-wise, large scale, with a name like that?

 

Oh, and not to go off on a tangent here, but what the hell, I will:  what happens to a team called the 716's when NANPA splits apart its area code and suddenly the team called the 716's is playing in, I dunno, the 368 area code?

 

/stops shaking fist like angry old man

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37 minutes ago, Mac the Knife said:

The Indy Eleven?  IMO?  Was a lousy choice.  Reminds me of these G-League teams calling themselves (and I'm about to paraphrase here because I don't follow the G-League.  At all.) the 716's because the team currently plays in the 716 area code.  WTF do you do branding-wise, large scale, with a name like that?

 

Oh, and not to go off on a tangent here, but what the hell, I will:  what happens to a team called the 716's when NANPA splits apart its area code and suddenly the team called the 716's is playing in, I dunno, the 368 area code?

 

/stops shaking fist like angry old man

I mean, it is called the G-League. Seems like dumb names are an obligation.

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On 4/11/2018 at 2:56 PM, Mac the Knife said:

 

My source for it was a friend who worked in Paul Tagliabue's office at the time.  None of it really was public knowledge, though some of the St. Louis scuttlebutt had leaked to the media; just not specifics.

 

On 4/11/2018 at 3:52 PM, rjrrzube said:

 

I remember a report that the NFL didn't like Jacksonville at all, but did like Wayne Weaver himself. They did indeed want him to take over the St. Louis bid, and would give him the team, but he had worked for years with the Jacksonville bid, and didn't feel he could leave now.

 

Yeah we discussed it a bit in this post/thread, with a few citations/references (by me) and a situation where I think Mac and I split the difference on a disagreement about NFL expansion processes in the 60s and 70s... ^_^...

It is what it is.

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On 4/9/2018 at 9:53 AM, OnWis97 said:

 

http://espn991.com/what-were-the-other-nickname-entries-for-the-nhl-in-minnesota/

 

White Bears and Freeze were also considered.  Wild is probably the worst, but Freeze is right there with it. It would have been Minnesota's answer to Miami Heat, I guess.  Totally uninspired but at least more obviously understandable than Wild.  I definitely agree that Voyageurs was the best pick.  White Bears may as well have been Polars...yeah, there are no polar bears in Minnesota, but there are no Penguins in Pittsburgh. Northern lights is a bit cheesy, but is gold in comparison to Wild.  I don't love Blue Ox, but it makes some sense and does a better job of hitting the "unique without being stupid" than Wild. (I guess the theme is "but still better than wild")  I'd rank 'em:


White Bears would have referred, not to polar bears, but to a local Lakota legend. One of the suburbs and one of the largest lakes in the metro area derive their name from the legend.

rATMcmK.png

 

 

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11 hours ago, Whittier S said:


White Bears would have referred, not to polar bears, but to a local Lakota legend. One of the suburbs and one largest lakes in the metro area derive their name from the legend.

Yep. White Bear Lake. (Both the city and the lake.) Go Bears

 

There’s also a few stories about the lake. One is that a Lakota prince died fighting a giant white bear, and killed it to save the girl he loved, and then the bear became the large peninsula on the lake. There’s another one that simply says that the Lakota saw a white bear on the lake, and that’s what they called it. I’m not sure how accurate the second one is, but the first story is generally accepted as the correct legend. (As in that’s the correct story, but definitely not how the lake came to be.) 

"And those who know Your Name put their trust in You, for You, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You." Psalms 9:10

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I attended an NFL preseason game at the old Busch Stadium in 1993 between the Chiefs and Jets. There was a lot of St. Louis Bomber signage around the stadium in a bid to get an NFL expansion team. The Bomber nickname is in reference to the McDonnell-Douglas plant in the metro St. Louis area that created such great fighter planes as the F-4, which my grandfather piloted in the Korean War. He once told me that not only was the F-4 an extremely tough and forgiving aircraft, but that it could also could carry a rather substantial amount of bomb ordinance. Fun fact!!

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After Googling the F-4, it came into service in 1960. So, l know my paternal grandfather was an F-4 pilot. Maybe his service was more Vietnam era. My maternal grandfather was also a military pilot, so l may be mixing details up a bit, (my maternal grandfather is about eight years older.) 

 

But, regardless, that is the story l remember from the early nineties. The Stallions was definitely a serious proposed team name also for a potential St. Louis expansion NFL team.

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Two I recalled from memory:

An ownership group seriously tried to bring a team to Phoenix for several years prior to the Cardinals moving.  Bart Starr had already been named head coach of what woukd have been the Firebirds.

Arizona Firebirds story

 

Also, at one point there appeared to be a serious possibility that it was going to be the Baltimore Rhinos.  Logos were "in the works" but I never saw a picture of any of the concepts.

Baltimore Rhinos story

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On 4/14/2018 at 1:54 AM, Whittier S said:


White Bears would have referred, not to polar bears, but to a local Lakota legend. One of the suburbs and one of the largest lakes in the metro area derive their name from the legend.

Admittedly, I did not know about the Lakota connection to the name of White Bear Lake.  That said, that would almost make the name too local. To the rest of North America, they're named after polar bears.  Still better than Wild, of course.

 

Phoenix Dudes.  Buffalo Buzzing Bees.  It's like everyone had the sense to skip out on the embarrassing names.  Except for the Wild.

Disclaimer: If this comment is about an NBA uniform from 2017-2018 or later, do not constitute a lack of acknowledgement of the corporate logo to mean anything other than "the corporate logo is terrible and makes the uniform significantly worse."

 

BADGERS TWINS VIKINGS TIMBERWOLVES WILD

POTD (Shared)

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54 minutes ago, OnWis97 said:

Admittedly, I did not know about the Lakota connection to the name of White Bear Lake.  That said, that would almost make the name too local. To the rest of North America, they're named after polar bears.  Still better than Wild, of course.

 

Phoenix Dudes.  Buffalo Buzzing Bees.  It's like everyone had the sense to skip out on the embarrassing names.  Except for the Wild.

Older AWA fans would TOTALLY have understood the White Bear reference.

It's where I sit.

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8 hours ago, OnWis97 said:

Admittedly, I did not know about the Lakota connection to the name of White Bear Lake.  That said, that would almost make the name too local. To the rest of North America, they're named after polar bears.  Still better than Wild, of course.

 

I don’t know there is any such thing as “too local”. 

 

Fans in Minnesota would have gotten the reference.  Fans elsewhere who didn’t get the reference are the ones who think Minnesota is a frozen wasteland anyway, and would think a polar bear mascot terribly appropriate. It’s a win-win. ?

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