What expansion teams mascot could have been.

[DeFrank]

3 hours ago, bowld said:

Might be biased since I am a Die Hard Ravens fan but... "The Baltimore Ravens" has to be one of the coolest team names in all of sports. I love all the work they have done to the teams headquarters to give it a nice gothic theme

 

I’m with you! When you step back and look at it we should all be so appreciative of the fact that we live in the timeline where they picked “Ravens”

[Claystation360]

4 hours ago, JagAaron33 said:

Wow!  I don't think I'd seen those before.  Thanks!

There are also jerseys and helmets for the Baltimore Bombers and Memphis Hound Dogs also.

[shaydre1019]

22 hours ago, bowld said:

Might be biased since I am a Die Hard Ravens fan but... "The Baltimore Ravens" has to be one of the coolest team names in all of sports. I love all the work they have done to the teams headquarters to give it a nice gothic theme-

 

 

Very cool. Their backgrounds have always stuck out to me during interviews. 

[Wings]

On 4/9/2018 at 11:08 AM, OnWis97 said:

There is a difference, in that baseball teams have history of being referred to as the (insert place) nine.  ("the Mudville Nine" in Casey at the Bat, and I think in the early part of the 20th Century, people would say things like "Did the local nine beat Chicago today?")  That said, I still don't like the name.  It seems like forced quirkiness.  In theory this could have happened to another team during the deadball era and that would be pretty cool.  But I'm not a fan of creating a history that did not happen (and could not with a team that started in 1998).

The Stockton Ports rebranded themselves the Mudville Nine in 2000 before going back to the Ports in 2002. The old story goes that Ernest Thayer was inspired to write "Casey at the Bat" while watching baseball in Stockton in 1888. Thayer was a writer for the San Francisco Examiner around that time. The current home of the Ports ballpark was called Mudville way back then. 

[leopard88]

On 4/9/2018 at 12:33 PM, kimball said:

 

No, it was going to be Stallions and there was a logo and jerseys designed and all ...

 

 

*No threadjack intended*

 

I've seen this picture many times before, but just noticed something --

 

I have always assumed that the pants were folded in a weird way so the stripes could be seen better.  I still think that's the case, but it looks sort of like the stripes run at an angle across the front of the pants.  Does anyone know for sure either way?

[raz]

1 hour ago, leopard88 said:

I have always assumed that the pants were folded in a weird way so the stripes could be seen better.  I still think that's the case, but it looks sort of like the stripes run at an angle across the front of the pants.  Does anyone know for sure either way?

It's just a fold. That would have been down the side of the pant.

 

Search the boards, I and others have put up the officlal NFL drawings of the 5 expansion hopefuls. You can see what it was supposed to be there.

[leopard88]

1 hour ago, rjrrzube said:

It's just a fold. That would have been down the side of the pant.

 

Search the boards, I and others have put up the officlal NFL drawings of the 5 expansion hopefuls. You can see what it was supposed to be there.

 

Thanks.  I'm sure I've seen them before too, but I couldn't recall how the pants looked.

[BShaw20]

The Magic were going to be either Juice, Heat, or Tropics. This was in 1985 or 86 I believe.  

[kimball]

2 hours ago, leopard88 said:

 

*No threadjack intended*

 

I've seen this picture many times before, but just noticed something --

 

I have always assumed that the pants were folded in a weird way so the stripes could be seen better.  I still think that's the case, but it looks sort of like the stripes run at an angle across the front of the pants.  Does anyone know for sure either way?

 

I am totally assuming here, but I wonder if it had anything to do with the Gateway Arch?

[kimball]

1 minute ago, BShaw20 said:

The Magic were going to be either Juice, Heat, or Tropics. This was in 1985 or 86 I believe.  

 

The most popular was Orlando Challengers in reference to the exploded space shuttle.

 

Including Floridians, Orbits, Sentinels and a bunch others. It's all in the link.

[IceBurgs70]

When the Dallas Chaparrals moved to San Antonio in 1973, they were going to be named the "Gunslingers" but changed shortly after to the "Spurs".

 

http://www.remembertheaba.com/San-Antonio-Spurs.html

[Chawls]

On 4/9/2018 at 10:55 AM, kimball said:

Mental Floss is a great resource for a lot of "what if" names, they regurgitate the same articles each year before each season begins ... 

 

NFL: http://mentalfloss.com/article/25650/whats-nickname-origins-all-32-nfl-team-names

MLB: http://mentalfloss.com/article/24358/whats-nickname-origins-all-30-mlb-team-names

NBA: http://mentalfloss.com/article/23115/origins-all-30-nba-team-names

NHL: http://mentalfloss.com/article/63479/origins-all-30-nhl-team-names

 

On naming the Phoenix NBA team:

 

“General manager Jerry Colangelo, only 28 at the time, settled on a name for his expansion franchise using a name-the-team contest in 1968. Colangelo chose Suns over Scorpions, Rattlers, and Thunderbirds, among the other suggestions included in the 28,000 entries. One lucky fan won $1,000 and season tickets as part of the contest, which included such obscure entries as White Wing Doves, Sun Lovers, Poobahs, Dudes, and Cactus Giants.”

 

[JayMac]

"The Lakers and Dudes on ESPN tonight!"

[Whittier S]

The Stallions bid only fell apart in the final weeks. They'd made hats that I saw in thrift stores and such in the area after the bid fell apart. The logo was godawful, though.

[Claystation360]

Well their bid was bad enough they tried to get Weaver to leave the Jacksonville group and take over St Louis, If he did they would've awarded STLS the same day as Charlotte.

But he didn't and they didn't award 30 at the time to give St Louis more time, But wasn't meant to be. 

[OnWis97]

The Phoenix Dudes!

 

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

[Gothamite]

23 hours ago, Wings said:

The Stockton Ports rebranded themselves the Mudville Nine in 2000 before going back to the Ports in 2002. The old story goes that Ernest Thayer was inspired to write "Casey at the Bat" while watching baseball in Stockton in 1888. Thayer was a writer for the San Francisco Examiner around that time. The current home of the Ports ballpark was called Mudville way back then. 

 

When the Ports' owner sold the team, he bought the Visalia Rawhide, and took the Mudville name with him.  The Rawhide still sell Mudville Nine gear.

[Mac the Knife]

On 4/9/2018 at 10:44 AM, AstroBull21 said:

I believe they wanted Cougars first and couldnt lock up the trademark from the classic ABA team, but that might not be 100% true

 

You believe... incorrectly.  Richardson was calling his hypothetical team the "Carolina Panthers" from the day it was made public he was trying to land a franchise for Charlotte.

 

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

 

I think it's possible you're mixing it up with the Cleveland Browns. When the browns were founded in 1944, they originally tried to name themselves the Cleveland Panthers, but the original owner of the first Cleveland Panthers (a team from the 1920s that folded) still owned the rights. The new team didn't want to pay the original owner's [rice demands and ultimately went with the Browns.

 

The Cleveland Panthers were actually a very much still existing semi-pro team at the time.  But yeah, other than that you pretty much have the story straight.

 

On 4/9/2018 at 1:23 PM, OnWis97 said:

• According the the MLB page, the Colt company provided some pressure to dump the Colt .45 name. Surprising; seems like free advertising.  I'm glad that happened though, as I'd be getting burned out on the debate over that one by now.

 

Actually it was the other way around, sorta:  Roy Hofheinz got Colt Firearms to agree to let him use the "Colt .45's" name (along with "Colt .22's" for a farm team) when the franchise was awarded.  Around the end of the first year, Colt Firearms, rather than realizing the good thing they had going, went to Hofheinz and asked him to pay them a fee for use of their trademarks.  Hofheinz stalled until he got all the i's dotted and t's crossed on constructing the new Astrodome, continuing negotiations with Colt Firearms right up to the day he announced that when the team moved into its new digs, they'd be rebranded the "Astros."  Today this would go the other way, with a team probably paying north of $50 million a year for the opportunity to brand a team with one of its trademarks.

 

On 4/9/2018 at 1:53 PM, DeFrank said:

I like "Nine."

 

The Tampa Bay Nine! You could come up with whatever identity you want. Total creativity. Classic or modern uniforms. Tons of fun.

 

Baseball is the only sport in which "Nine" works as a potential team nickname, and there are only two types of cities in which you could make it work.  Either (i) a city in which it becomes alliterative (e.g., Nashville Nine, New Orleans Nine), or (ii) Washington, where you could brand a team around a retro aircraft-oriented theme and call them the "D.C. Nine."

 

4 hours ago, Claystation360 said:

Well their bid was bad enough they tried to get Weaver to leave the Jacksonville group and take over St Louis, If he did they would've awarded STLS the same day as Charlotte.

But he didn't and they didn't award 30 at the time to give St Louis more time, But wasn't meant to be. 

 

I've never heard this one before.  What's your source on this?  I'd like to look into it, primarily because I was never all that convinced that Weaver was seen as a "must-have" NFL team owner.  My recollection at the time was that (i) the owners were only impressed with Charlotte to the point of making the immediate franchise award, (ii) St. Louis would've been the second choice and had the financing in place for the expansion fee, but for some reason couldn't secure the $20 million letter of credit the NFL required over-and-above that, (iii) Baltimore would've been third, but had the same problem, and (iv) with Memphis they weren't even sure the ownership had the jack to pony up the expansion fee... kind of giving Jacksonville the franchise by default after a month-long period where none of the other groups could get their **** together.

[leopard88]

16 minutes ago, Mac the Knife said:

I've never heard this one before.  What's your source on this?  I'd like to look into it, primarily because I was never all that convinced that Weaver was seen as a "must-have" NFL team owner.  My recollection at the time was that (i) the owners were only impressed with Charlotte to the point of making the immediate franchise award, (ii) St. Louis would've been the second choice and had the financing in place for the expansion fee, but for some reason couldn't secure the $20 million letter of credit the NFL required over-and-above that, (iii) Baltimore would've been third, but had the same problem, and (iv) with Memphis they weren't even sure the ownership had the jack to pony up the expansion fee... kind of giving Jacksonville the franchise by default after a month-long period where none of the other groups could get their **** together.

 

I've never heard this one before.

[Mac the Knife]

3 minutes ago, leopard88 said:

 

I've never heard this one before.

 

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.