Utah and their "ZZ" names - some other possibilities...

[B-Rich 836]

As we are all aware, in the mid to late 1990s there was this weird thing going in Utah with their team names.  The area already had the NBA Jazz, then in 1994 acquired an AAA baseball franchise which was named the Buzz (referencing an earlier Salt Lake Bees PCL team, itself an homage to Utah being The Beehive State and the bee's symbolic importance in the Mormon faith).   A year later the IHL Denver Grizzlies moved there as a result of the Nordiques moving to Colorado, and thus the state now had the Utah Grizzlies.  And just a few years later in 1997 the WNBA Utah Starzz began play, bringing the "ZZ" trifecta to a foursome. 

 

But before we could see the inevitable addition of the Utah Blizzard in some form of football (with ZZ Top appearing at their first game), several of the "ZZ" names fell by the wayside.  First to go was the Salt Lake Buzz, who changed their name to the Stingers in 2001, but this was because of a trademark dilution lawsuit from Georgia Tech, who had a yellow jacket mascot named Buzz.  The WNBA Starzz then left for San Antonio in 2003, leaving just the Jazz and Grizzlies as the ZZ teams.  The selection of the incongruous Europhilic nomenclature "Real Salt Lake" for their MLS franchise in 2005 essentially put the brakes on the "ZZ" trend,  which was completely stopped dead in it tracks when the area's new Arena Football team was dubbed the single "Z" Utah Blaze (instead of continuing the trend with "Blazze").  The 'ZZ" trend was not only dead, but buried for sure earlier this year with the AAF Salt Lake Stallions.

 

Which is a shame, because late last week on Jeopardy!, one of the categories was "Words with 'ZZ' in them".   The clues gave me some great way-out ideas for bringing back some slightly off-kilter ZZ names that Utah could have gone with.   Here are six, graphically presented for your enjoyment:

 

                    

 

                     

 

 

                                                                            

 

FEEL FREE TO ADD YOUR OWN...

 

 

 

[Ferdinand Cesarano 3,928]

[pianoknight 2,777]

[neo_prankster 2,642]

Utah Fozz?

[Walk-Off 23]

2 hours ago, neo_prankster said:

Utah Fozz?

Only if the act is clean enough for the state's many Mormons.

[dont care 3,507]

I saw one where they tried to turn the Oakland A’s to the Utah A’zz. Pretty easy to see why it wouldn’t work.

[Foxxtrot44 405]

I feel you didn't do a good enough job picking on the panoply of hopeless minor league pro-teams that showed up here.

Like the Utah Blitzz, the Utah Catzz, and the eternally mind-melting Utah Freezz.

[B-Rich 836]

40 minutes ago, Foxxtrot44 said:

I feel you didn't do a good enough job picking on the panoply of hopeless minor league pro-teams that showed up here.

Like the Utah Blitzz, the Utah Catzz, and the eternally mind-melting Utah Freezz.

 

Did not know about those VERY minor league team names.  It was worse than I thought. 

 

[Bobster 277]

Buzzards.

 

[McGlinchey23 386]

MOD EDIT

Edited October 22 by officeglenn

[PepMan33Conde 286]

WIzzards

[vtgco 504]

On 10/17/2019 at 4:46 PM, Bobster said:

Buzzards.

That would actually be an awesome, classy name, so of course this '90s trend would never go for it.

[DustDevil61 791]

On 10/17/2019 at 5:46 PM, Bobster said:

Buzzards.

 

 

Given that there's a wildlife rehabilitation program for the endangered California Condor in the southern end of the state (near Zion NP), this would be an excellent, not-too-painfully-obvious-in-the-vein-of-the-Grizzlies name. Bonus points for basing such a team in St. George.