Team nicknames / origins

[DaytonBlue]

factoids off the top of my head...

The Rams were originally named after the Fordham Rams.

Missouri Tigers...named after a battalion which defended Mizzou's hometown of Columbia during the Civil War

Memphis Tigers...named after someone said the team "fought like tigers"...colors of blue and grey symbolized reuniting after Civil War

Dayton Flyers...Wright Brothers

Seattle Supersonics...named after the proposed Boeing Supersonic plane which was not actually built

Temple Owls...name goes back to school's origins as a night school

Northwest Arkansas Naturals...Arkansas is the "Natural State"

Albuquerque Isotopes...based off a Simpsons episode

Memphis Grizzlies...The Toronto Northmen of the WFL moved to Memphis and became the Southmen. They kept their bear logo so the team was informally known as the Grizzlies. When the Vancouver Grizzlies moved to Memphis, the team considered a name change but season-ticket holdres said they liked the name, so they kept it. (part about the NBA Grizzlies was from a game program)

Atlanta Thrashers...named after state bird

Winston-Salem Dash: named after the hypen between Winston and Salem (couldn't make that up if I tried)

Nets and Jets names were chosen in part because of their rhyming with Mets

Oakland Invaders (USFL): named to sound like Oakland Raiders who had just left Oakland for LA

In the old NPSL, Detroit had a soccer team named after car models: the Detroit Neon one season and Detroit Safari another.

nicknames I don't like: Los Angeles Lakers (I know it won't change, but it sounds silly), Utah Jazz (not going to suggest a name swap), Oklahoma City Thunder (you've heard all the jokes before), Charlotte Bobcats (naming a team after the owner is so 1920ish), Minnesota Wild (I think of people going crazy, not the wilderness),

nicknames I think are especially clever: Richmond Flying Squirrels, New Orleans Saints, Toledo Mud Hens, Greensboro Grasshoppers, Louisville Bats (stadium right next to Louisville Slugger Museum)

[wdm1219inpenna]

Toronto Blue Jays - (I don't know enough about Canada or provinces to know if they have what we have here in the U.S. as far as "state birds". I believe Blue Jays was voted on in a fan contest, but blue jays are far from indigineous to Toronto, Ontario. I guess the blue part is a tie in with the Maple Leafs NHL team.)

Blue jays are native to southern Ontario, Toronto included.

The name was chosen in a name the team contest. Labatt Breweries, then the majority owners, went along with it because their flagship beer brand is known as Labatt Blue.

Cool to know that they are native to southern Ontario. Thank you!

[BlueSky]

The Denver Zephyrs minor league team retained its name when it moved to New Orleans, but it was a great fit there. Here's a piece of the roller coaster from the old Pontchartrain Beach amusement park:

It's in the background of this poster:

[Evil Doctor]

That has to be creepiest looking clown ever created without the intention of it being a horror/slasher film monster. My God, it's eating that child...

Edit: I went searching to see if I could find a photo that of clown and found another promotional ad that featured an even creepier clown that was pure nightmare fuel. What is with them and evil clowns? Who in the hell would willingly go to that place?

[RedSox44]

That has to be creepiest looking clown ever created without the intention of it being a horror/slasher film monster. My God, it's eating that child...

Edit: I went searching to see if I could find a photo that of clown and found another promotional ad that featured an even creepier clown that was pure nightmare fuel. What is with them and evil clowns? Who in the hell would willingly go to that place?

My interested was piqued about finding an actual photo of the clown. I found one. Not going to sleep tonight.

EDIT: I did a Google Image search, and when I clicked on the link to the image, the creepiest circus music began playing. I just shat myself.

Also, the image is :censored:ing creepy.

[Evil Doctor]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb3k18y6_j0&feature=related

[youcan'tseeme]

Toronto Blue Jays - (I don't know enough about Canada or provinces to know if they have what we have here in the U.S. as far as "state birds". I believe Blue Jays was voted on in a fan contest, but blue jays are far from indigineous to Toronto, Ontario. I guess the blue part is a tie in with the Maple Leafs NHL team.)

Blue jays are native to southern Ontario, Toronto included.

The name was chosen in a name the team contest. Labatt Breweries, then the majority owners, went along with it because their flagship beer brand is known as Labatt Blue.

Cool to know that they are native to southern Ontario. Thank you!

They are legitly everywhere here I've notice for blue jays in the past few years than ever.

Canucks - logo is a whale, Vancouver is on the Pacific. Fits.

Leafs - Canada's national emblem.

Lightning - frequent thunderstorms in Tampa area

Jets - RCAF

The logo with the whale is only a recent introduction to the Canucks, I believe it was 97? Canucks is term like Yankee's, its just a nickname for Canadians. Montreal had the Canadiens, so Vancouver took the Canucks as it fit, as Toronto had the Maple Leafs as well. However Maple Leafs was nothing to do with the national symbol, but rather the Maple Leaf regiment of from world war 1 and also the cities baseball team.

The Jets are named after the orignal Jets, who took their name from a WHL team of the same name. They just use a RCAF gimmick now to justify the name, and try and seperate from the orignal team.

I'm also pretty sure the Tampa area is the lightning capital of the wolrd? So more then frequent storms

[rams80]

St. Louis Rams - (Even when they were the LA or Cleveland Rams, it's a generic nickname to me. Montana Rams makes more sense, I picture rams being mountain dwellers...)

They were named in tribute to the Fordham Rams, which were a college football powerhouse back in the 1930s when the Rams were founded. Their offensive line was so good, it was nicknamed "the Seven Blocks of Granite." You may have heard of one of their players. He went by the name of Vince Lombardi.

[winghaz]

I'll throw in my opinion as to the best two in each league, based on what they mean geographically and the measure of toughness. These, of course, are subject to debate:

MLB

1. Texas Rangers. I love that name. Great show of regionalism and power.

2. Arizona Diamondbacks. You don't want to mess around with a diamondback.

NFL

1. San Francisco 49ers. The wild and wooly gold rush days come alive.

2. Minnesota Vikings. OK, I'm biased, as a full-blooded Norwegian.

NBA

1. Chicago Bulls. Tough and reminiscent of the Chicago Stockyards.

2. Minnesota Timberwolves. Great, tough name in a state known for its timberwolves population.

NHL

1. San Jose Shark. Don't mess around with sharks.

2. Edmonton Oilers. Don't mess around with someone working on the oil rigs, either.

[wildwing64]

Ducks - Well, the origin comes from the Disney movie, so whatever.

Southern California = film industry = fitting name?

Stars - Generic, unless they change their colour scheme to Texas flag colours.

The original North Stars name was derived from Minnesota being nicknamed the North Star State. Similarly, Texas is known as the Lone Star State. I wouldn't call it generic.

Sabres - Even though the name is kind of generic, it was probably a better choice than "Buffalo Buffaloes".

They're the Sabres pretty much because team management wanted to avoid an obvious buffalo themed name.

Rangers - Tex Rickard wanted to name them after the baseball club.

Not really. The media nicknamed the team "Tex's Rangers", and it stuck.

[tBBP]

The word "buccaneer" is the anglicised (sp?) form of the French word "boucanier", itself from the root word "bouca", which was something used to smoke meat way back in the day. Anyway, buccaneers were privateers, mostly French, often authorized to attack Spanish convoys. It's thought that they were the most ruthless types of pirates, since oftentimes they would also spring unauthorized attacks, as well. Anyway, that's how the Tampa Bay Buccaneers came upon their name.

"Jaguars" seems to throw a lot of people off. The nickname, according to Touchdown Jacksonville! (the group led by J. Wayne Weaver that got the other 1995 expansion franchise to Jacksonville) was purely alliterative. Many might know of the debacle concerning the original logo--Jaguar the car company, then under stewardship of FoMoCo, cried foul about it, so an agreement was reached that Jaguar would be the official car of the Jacksonville Jaguars. And, as it happens, thew automaker has a pretty sizeable operation in Jacksonville. So yeah, the name kinda fits.

Philadelphia Union? Figure it out. . The city was once the national capital before the powers-that-were relocated it to city of Washington, District of Columbia.

Seattle Seahawks...seahawk = osprey, a bird commonly found up in the Pacific northwest region.

To corroborate the posts about the Tampa Bay Lightning...yes it is indeed the lightning-strike capital of the world.

That's pretty much all I got straight off the dome for right now.

[charger77]

Red Wings - automotive industry. Perfect.

Obviously the logo references the automobile industry, but the name has nothing to do with it.

Neither does the logo, it was borrowed, then modified from another team.

[infrared41]

The Denver Zephyrs minor league team retained its name when it moved to New Orleans, but it was a great fit there. Here's a piece of the roller coaster from the old Pontchartrain Beach amusement park:

If memory serves, wasn't there a "Zephyrs group" in Denver that was really pushing for Denver's new MLB expansion team to be called the Zephyrs?

[Gothamite]

I remember more talk about some wanting the name "Bears" but the team not wanting to share their name.

Rangers - Tex Rickard wanted to name them after the baseball club.

Not really. The media nicknamed the team "Tex's Rangers", and it stuck.

Tex was ahead of his time, wanting to name his hockey club after a baseball team that wouldn't exist for half a century...

[Jer15]

Ducks - Well, the origin comes from the Disney movie, so whatever.

Southern California = film industry = fitting name?

Not to mention that Disneyland is in Anaheim and that the Stadium is close to some offices for ABC.

[wildwing64]

Ducks - Well, the origin comes from the Disney movie, so whatever.

Southern California = film industry = fitting name?

Not to mention that Disneyland is in Anaheim and that the Stadium is close to some offices for ABC.

Thinking about it, the Ducks name kind of fits in with the name of the city of Anaheim as well. I highly doubt the team thought about this themselves and it's probably a complete coincidence, but here's what I've got:

I'm fully aware that "Ana" is derived from "Santa Ana" (while "heim" is German for "home"), but it also looks like a shortened form of Anatidae, the family of birds that ducks belong to. Therefore, "Anaheim" can also be interpreted as "home of ducks", essentially making the city a real-life Duckburg.

I'M A GENIUS.

[The_Admiral]

The Denver Zephyrs minor league team retained its name when it moved to New Orleans, but it was a great fit there. Here's a piece of the roller coaster from the old Pontchartrain Beach amusement park:

If memory serves, wasn't there a "Zephyrs group" in Denver that was really pushing for Denver's new MLB expansion team to be called the Zephyrs?

"Denver Zephyrs" would've sounded really cool. We could use a Z-team. From A's to Z's.

[Evil Doctor]

I remember more talk about some wanting the name "Bears" but the team not wanting to share their name.

Rangers - Tex Rickard wanted to name them after the baseball club.

Not really. The media nicknamed the team "Tex's Rangers", and it stuck.

Tex was ahead of his time, wanting to name his hockey club after a baseball team that wouldn't exist for half a century...

It's weird to think that there are people out there who think the Texas Rangers were around before the New York Rangers...

[Evil Doctor]

The Denver Zephyrs minor league team retained its name when it moved to New Orleans, but it was a great fit there. Here's a piece of the roller coaster from the old Pontchartrain Beach amusement park:

If memory serves, wasn't there a "Zephyrs group" in Denver that was really pushing for Denver's new MLB expansion team to be called the Zephyrs?

"Denver Zephyrs" would've sounded really cool. We could use a Z-team. From A's to Z's.

As long as they don't use evil clowns...

...can't sleep...clown will eat me....

[Lights Out]

I've always liked how the Clippers and Lakers follow the same shipping theme - clipper ships vs. lake freighters (lakers for short).