Let’s talk sports mascots and nicknames.
Recently, two rather tepidly received sports nicknames were unveiled – the Cleveland Guardians and the Washington Commanders. That brings us to a jaundiced view of peculiar mascots and team names.
After 107 years, the Cleveland Indians have changed their name to the Guardians. The moniker was selected after ownership considered 1200 choices. A little history: The Cleveland baseball team, a charter member of the American League, founded in 1901, was originally named the Blues, then the Broncos, and from 1903-11 was known as the Naps, in honor of player-manager Napoleon Lajoie. From 1912-14 the team was officially named the Molly McGuires. In 1915, Lajoie was traded, and based on sportswriters' suggestions, the team became the Indians as homage to a nickname used in the 1890s when Native American Louis “Chief” Sockalexis played for the team that was also known as the Spiders. The new mascot pays homage to the Guardians of Traffic statues near Progressive Field in Cleveland, located on the Hope Memorial Bridge. Cleveland owner Paul Dolan said he hopes the name Guardians helps “unify our fans and city.” And no doubt play off the popularity of the sci-fi “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies.
The Washington Football Team, blandly named after the previous mascot, Redskins, was jettisoned, officially became the Commanders after an 18-month process that involved 40,000 fan submissions and suggestions from former and current players. Marketing pros, Nike and the NFL also were consulted, and RedWolves, the Wolves and the Hogs were among finalists. Team officials claim the new name connotes “resilience and grit, tradition and unity, values of service and leadership.”
Sometimes when teams move their operations they retain their names, and sometimes they change them. Some name-keeping seems not to make sense.
When the Minneapolis Lakers – from “The Land of 10,000 lakes” – moved to Los Angeles in 1960, they kept “Lakers,” because changing the name, stationery and legal instruments would have cost too much money. L.A. is NOT known for its lakes.
The New Orleans Jazz made sense. In 1979, they moved and became the Utah Jazz. Not as much musical sense there.
The Montreal Expos, named after the Expo 67 World’s Fair, had enough sense to drop the name upon moving to Washington, thus becoming the Nationals.
The Minnesota North Stars of the NHL moved to Dallas in 1993 and retained the “Stars” portion as it relates to “The Lone Star State.” It fits.
When the NHL’s Quebec Nordiques relocated to Denver in 1995, they became the Avalanche. Smart move.
The Brooklyn Dodgers were named the Trolley Dodgers because of numerous hazardous trolleys that criss-crossed Brooklyn, They had also been called the Bridegrooms, the Grays, the Superbas, the Robins and Dem Bums, but they somehow retained the Dodgers nickname when they moved West in 1958.
The most popular (or most widely used) team nicknames in America are Eagles, Tigers, Bulldogs, Panthers, Wildcats, Warriors and Lions. But this column is about the extraordinary and the silly, and silly names permeate the world of sports professionally and in schools. Here are a few of my favorites.
In Japanese baseball, teams are named after their owner-companies. The Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters are misconstrued by Americans as the Ham Fighters, which would be weird, but they are actually, the Fighters, owned by Nippon-Ham Company.
Minor League baseball has some great names. Among them are the Waterloo Lulus, a minor league baseball team that played in the Iowa State League and Central Association between 1908 and 1909. The Fort Wayne Tincaps are the class-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres, and the name was inspired by Johnny Appleseed. MLB’s Rockies have creative affiliates -- Hartford Yard Goats and Albuquerque Isotopes. The Mariners have the Modesto Nuts. The Marlins control the New Orleans BabyCakes and the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp. The Mets own the Binghamton Rumble Ponies, the Phillies run the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, the Blue Jays monitor the Lansing (MI) Lugnuts and the Angels oversee the Rocket City (AL) Trash Pandas.
The Macon Whoopee is a defunct professional ice hockey team that played from 1996 until 2001 in the Central Hockey League (CHL), located in Macon, Georgia,
Colleges have some great ones, including the UC Santa Cruz (CA) Banana Slugs, the Akron Zips (named after zippered galoshes) and the Scottsdale (AZ) Community College Fighting Artichokes. The Webster University (NY) Gorlocks mascot has the paws of a cheetah, the horns of a buffalo and the face of a St. Bernard, but the name came from the local intersection of Gore and Lockwood streets. There are the UC Irvine (CA) Anteaters, the Campbell (NC) Fighting Camels and the Evergreen State (WA) College Geoducks, a giant clam pronounced “gooey-duck.” And there are such animal nicks as the Missouri-Kansas City Kangaroos, the Virginia Tech Hokies (a mythical turkey), the Kansas Jayhawks (another mythical bird) and Saint Louis Billikens (which sounds like a bird but was a charm doll).
Fun high school mascots include the Jordan Utah HS Beetdiggers, the Watersmeet (MI) HS Nimrods (In the Bible, Nimrod was a mighty hunter, but today, a nimrod is not highly thought of). There are the Mars Area (PA) HS Fighting Planets HS and many others that show that some schools really have a sense of humor.
Do you have a favorite mascot name that I didn’t cover? Let me know at mike.blake@mountvernonnews.com.
See you next time.
