Origins of team names

[winghaz]

A few things I've wondered about regarding team nicknames:

Why didn't the North Stars become the Dallas Lone Stars instead of the Dallas Stars?

Why do NBA teams always keep the old nicknames when the move, even not-so-old nicknames like the Hornets from Charlotte to New Orleans?

Why didn't the Irsay family do like Art Modell did when he moved the team and keep a nickname associated with a certain city with that city? That way when Modell moved the Browns to Baltimore, they could have been the Baltimore Colts, while the Indianapolis team could be called something Indianapolisish like Racers (to rhyme with Pacers).

Speaking of Indiana, just what is a Hoosier, anyway?

Are there any other major league teams that have names of former local minor league franchises besides the following: Brewers, Marlins, Angels?

[Stampman]

Lone Stars--it is an oxymoron in the plural--so that's at least partly why--as well there were rumours before the North Stars moved that they would br called the Stars instead of North Stars--witness the black unis...

[The_Admiral]

WA few things I've wondered about regarding team nicknames:

Why didn't the North Stars become the Dallas Lone Stars instead of the Dallas Stars?

Why do NBA teams always keep the old nicknames when the move, even not-so-old nicknames like the Hornets from Charlotte to New Orleans?

Why didn't the Irsay family do like Art Modell did when he moved the team and keep a nickname associated with a certain city with that city? That way when Modell moved the Browns to Baltimore, they could have been the Baltimore Colts, while the Indianapolis team could be called something Indianapolisish like Racers (to rhyme with Pacers).

Speaking of Indiana, just what is a Hoosier, anyway?

Are there any other major league teams that have names of former local minor league franchises besides the following: Brewers, Marlins, Angels?

1. The notion of a team of Lone Stars isn't silly to you?

2. This is a recent trend, I don't think anyone's changed the name of the team since the Buffalo Braves became the San Diego Clippers. I don't think there's any reason beyond brand recognition, since the Utah Jazz established that you can get away with keeping an old name that was tied in with the old location.

3. Well, maybe he just liked the Colts name and history. I dunno. Modell HAD to change the name of his franchise because the city of Cleveland won a lawsuit saying that the visual properties, franchise lineage, and all that good Browns stuff belonged to the city, not Modell, so that lineage would be suspended and reinstated with the '99 expansion team.

3b. Let's restrict rhyming names to the New York B-Team.

4. A Hoosier is named for Indiana's classic lottery game show, "Hoosier Millionaire."

5. San Diego Padres off the top of my head

[pcgd]

I remember hearing somewhere that Canadians were not happy with the name "Mighty Ducks" for the expansion team in SoCal. In retaliation, someone suggested "Mighty Dunks" for the Toronto Expansion for "America's sport."

I got a good laugh out of that. Of course at the time i was 11.

[DEAD!]

I remember hearing somewhere that Canadians were not happy with the name "Mighty Ducks" for the expansion team in SoCal.  In retaliation, someone suggested "Mighty Dunks" for the Toronto Expansion for "America's sport."

I got a good laugh out of that.  Of course at the time i was 11.

If they really watned retalliation, then they should have entered "Mighty Dinks" Plenty of interesting stories. I've always been intrigued about the Athletics white elephant story. I just read Gothamite's Packers/Bears story. Made me spit out my coffee

[DJSpeedy]

Are there any other major league teams that have names of former local minor league franchises besides the following: Brewers, Marlins, Angels?

I believe the Orioles fall into this category IIRC.

[BaltimoreFan]

Are there any other major league teams that have names of former local minor league franchises besides the following: Brewers, Marlins, Angels?

I believe the Orioles fall into this category IIRC.

Yeah kinda, except they were named after the former Major league team that moved to New York and became the yankees.

[RichO]

Hoosier has nothing to do with the lottery...

The origin is murky. Most likely settler slang: from The Wikipedia entry for Hoosier

"The most common belief is that the term was a greeting. When approaching a man's home in those early frontier days, you shouted from afar, "Hello the cabin" to avoid being shot. The inhabitants would then shout back "Who's yer?" (who's there). As it got slurred together over time, the country folk came to be called Hoosiers.

Additionally, "Hussar" was a term used on the Kentucky frontier for people who were public nuisances. According to local tradition, hussars were hard drinking carousers. This theory carries the implication that a large share of such folks came from Indiana."

<snip>

As pointed out a lot of college team names come from old state nicknames or settler nicknames (Sooners, Buckeyes, Hawkeyes, Badgers, etc)

So deep, deep down- I wish U of Illinois went by the state nickname of frontier days and were known as what they truly are:

the Illinois Suckers

[Discrim]

Are there any other major league teams that have names of former local minor league franchises besides the following: Brewers, Marlins, Angels?

I believe the Orioles fall into this category IIRC.

Yeah kinda, except they were named after the former Major league team that moved to New York and became the yankees.

the Brew fall into this category too (old MLB name that was long used by the minor team). oddly enough, the eventual end result of the orignal Brew, after a lengthy stop in St. Louis, was....*drumroll please*...the Orioles

[JamesCraven]

I thought "Hoosier" came from the expression "Hoosier Dady?"

[footballfiji]

I think I'll keep this thread going by explaining some of Auburn's tradition of mascots.

Auburn Tigers: The nickname "Tigers" comes from a line in Oliver Goldsmith's poem, "The Deserted Village," published in May 1770, "where crouching tigers wait their hapless prey..."

The term "Plainsmen" comes from a line in that same Goldsmith poem, "Sweet Auburn, loveliest (sic) village of the plain..." Since Auburn athletes were, in the early days, men from the Plains, it was only natural for newspaper headline writers to shorten that to "Plainsmen."

War Eagle is a battle cry by the team. Not a mascot. There are at least 4 different stories about the origin of the battle cry ranging from a Civil War vet to the team playing the Carlisle School for Indians.

Auburn is also responsible for the nicknames of two other teams. The GA Tech Yellow Jackets and the Clemson Tigers.

John Heisman coached at Clemson after Auburn. He brought the nickname and the colors (which were taken from UVA) with him and began a tradition of Clemson and Auburn being very similar schools, cities, atmospheres.

For GT. When AUburn played the first football game in the Deep South against Georgia some GT students wanted to come to cheer on Auburn because they hated UGA so much. They met at a pep rally and decided to wear a similar color. They decided on gold. Later, when they fielded their first football team they wore the same gold color they wore to cheer on Auburn. The beat writer for the Atlanta Paper wrote that the "team looked sharp in their yellow jackets" and the nick name stuck.

[JamesCraven]

While we're on a college thing, here's four of the six D-I hoops schools in Philadelphia:

• University of Pennsylvania (Penn) Quakers - Named twofold. For Ben Franklin, the founder of the school, and for the fact that Philadelphia, founded by a Quaker named William Penn, is known as "The Quaker City."
  
• Temple University Owls - Once a night school, and the owl is known as the wisest bird of them all.
  
• LaSalle University Explorers - Mistaken for the explorer De La Salle, when in actually, it was named for the founder of the Christian Brothers.
  
• Saint Joseph's University - When the school moved from the middle of Philadelphia (Center City to the locals like us) to their current location on City Line Avenue, a large bird, seemingly a hawk, was flying around the area gave them the team nickname.
  

If anyone can find the meaning for Villanova and Drexel, please post.

[winghaz]

I've always thought nicknames of universities and land-grant colleges within a state should represent a state well. So here are, in my opinion, some of the best nicknames for universities and state universities:

Oklahoma Sooners and Oklahoma State Cowboys

Florida Gators and Florida State Seminoles

Montana Grizzlies and Montana State Bobcats

Colorado Buffaloes and Colorado State Rams

Iowa Hawkeyes and Iowa State Cyclones

Indiana Hoosiers and Indiana State Sycamores

Pennsylvania Quakers and Penn State Nittany Lions

And of course my home state ...

North Dakota Sioux and North Dakota State Bison