What Your Favorite Teams Were Almost Called
By Ethan Trex
(The following is reprinted with permission from www.mentalfloss.com).
If you're a sports fan, you know the nicknames and mascots of every team in the leagues you follow. If you're a diehard fan, you probably even know what the teams used to be called. ("Washington Wizards? Please. They'll always be the Bullets to me.") But do you know what your favorite teams were almost called?
When an expansion team enters a league or an existing team relocates, it picks a new moniker, ideally one that will look good on a t-shirt. The process of selecting a new name can be a protracted one, though, and the winning nickname often only gets the nod at the expense of several other less-inspired finalists. Let's have a look at some team names that fans almost got to cheer for:
1. The Toronto Tarantulas
Few team names seem quite as dated as the Toronto Raptors'. The team started play in 1995 with a mascot that was obviously a nod to Jurassic Park, which had destroyed box-office records a couple of years earlier. However, looking at the list of names the Toronto franchise could have chosen, the Raptors seems like a terrific choice. The other nine finalists were the Tarantulas, Beavers, Bobcats, Dragons, Grizzlies, Hogs, Scorpions, T-Rex, and Terriers. "The Hogs" makes sense since Toronto's historic nickname is Hogtown, but it lacks a certain menace and would have been catastrophic when the team picked Oliver Miller in the expansion draft. The rest of the finalists, however, look largely like they were culled from a list of things 13-year-old boys think are awesome, so kudos on picking the Raptors name. (This decision might mark the last time a franchise under Isiah Thomas' direction made a wise choice.)
2. The Vancouver Mounties
When Vancouver got an NBA team for the 1995 season, the franchise wanted to call itself the Vancouver Mounties. The name seemed like a fitting tribute to the bravery of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The plan hit a snag, though, when the Mounties, no doubt skeptical of any cultural crossovers after Dudley Do-Right, made it clear that they didn't want their name slapped on the expansion franchise. The team quickly regrouped and picked the name the Grizzlies as a tribute to the bravery of Canada's many bears. You have to commend the Mounties on their foresight for avoiding this train wreck; the team fled to Memphis in 2001 and had an abysmal .329 winning percentage entering this season.
3. The Baltimore Marauders
When the Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore for the 1996 NFL season, they couldn't bring their name with them. According to the settlement the team reached with the city of Cleveland for swiping the beloved franchise, the Browns' nickname, color scheme, and history stayed put when the team bolted for Baltimore. The now-nameless squad had a series of phone polls and fan surveys to whittle its list of 17 possible names down to three: the Americans, the Marauders, and the Ravens. Over 30,000 fans then voted for the name they liked best, and "the Ravens" won thanks to the city's connection to Edgar Allen Poe. It's probably good that the fans wisely passed on "The Americans," which would have made Kyle Boller's tumultuous stint as starter a national shame rather than a regional problem.
4. The New York Borros
The New York Jets began their life as the New York ans in the American Football League. When Hollywood honcho Sonny Werblin and oil tycoon Leon Hess bought the team in 1963, though, they decided the team needed a new name. According to a contemporary New York Times story, they considered the Dodgers, but nixed the idea after Major League Baseball didn't like it. "The Gothams" also got some consideration, but the team didn't like the idea of having it shortened to the Goths because "you know they weren't such nice people." (Yeah, but couldn't you just see Vinny Testaverde winning a playoff game, then sacking Byzantium?)
The last finalist to fall was "the New York Borros," a pun on the city's boroughs; the team worried that opposing fans would make the Borros-burros connection and derisively call the squad the jackasses. (Little did the Jets' forefathers know that their home fans would provide all of the booing and heckling a franchise could ever need.) Eventually the team became the Jets since it was going to play in Shea Stadium, which is close to LaGuardia Airport.
5. The Washington Sea Dogs
In 1995 Washington Bullets owner Abe Pollin decided that he didn't want to keep fielding a team with such a violent name and decided to rechristen his franchise. A fan contest came up with five finalists: the Express, the Wizards, the Stallions, the Dragons, and the Sea Dogs. The Wizards wasn't a perfect choice since some fans thought it tied in to Ku Klux Klan mythology, but it was obviously a better choice than the Sea Dogs. One can only assume that this seafaring name got the ax when someone in the team's office realized that the District of Columbia doesn't actually sit next to a sea. Then again, they drafted Kwame Brown first overall, so maybe I'm giving the team too much credit here.
6. The San Antonio Gunslingers
When the ABA's Texas Chaparrals moved to San Antonio in 1973, the team was renamed the San Antonio Gunslingers. The team dropped this name before ever playing a game, presumably because the image was violent even by firearm-related mascot standards. Instead, the owners picked a tamer name that still tapped into the region's cowboy past: the San Antonio Spurs.
7. The Florida Flamingos
Florida Marlins owner Wayne Huizenga told the New York Times in 1993 that he had considered naming the team the Florida Flamingos.
8. The Orlando Juice
Before the NBA's Orlando Magic had a name, the other finalists were "the Heat," "the Juice," and "the Tropics."
9. The Charlotte Spirit
The Charlotte Hornets originally had this name before switching to their insect moniker as a tribute to the city's angry resistance of British forces during the Revolutionary War.
10. The Minnesota Blue Ox
The NHL's Minnesota Wild were almost the Blue Ox, the Freeze, the Voyageurs, the Northern Lights, or the White Bears.
11. The New York Skyliners
Before the New York Mets started play in 1962, they considered a list of names that included the Skyliners, the Skyscrapers, the Bees, the Burros, the Continentals, and the Jets.
Huizinga owns the Marlins? I guess he owns all major Florida teams. I remember seeing him cry back in 2007 after the Dolphins beat the Ravens to get their one and only win.
Edit: Lol, Dolphins are in Miami, not Florida. Still, he owns a lot of teams in the State of Florida.
I like seadogs and gunslingers... Remember the Bullets?
Lol at San Antonio Gunlsingers, Orlando Juice and Florida Flamingos
I dont like the fact that in America almost all sports teams are named after animals, or objects or something. like rockets, grizzlies, lakers, I mean come onwhen a player says; im a grizzlie! lolll I mean its a bit silly, especially if you translate it into your own language ( for the non americans, that is). Its a bit childish and as a show.
For example look at European basketball clubs or European football clubs, these are just named somewhat more original, simple, plain. Mostly just named after the place they play in (Barcelona, Chelsea etc...) , or after something from history, a god or something (Aris BC, Ajax Amsterdam...) They are just called Aris, or just Ajax. Not; Arisses, or Ajax's.
Lakers are named after Minneapolis. It's known as the land of a thousand Lakes. Dodgers got their name from Dodging the train trolleys in Brooklyn.I dont like the fact that in America almost all sports teams are named after animals, or objects or something. like rockets, grizzlies, lakers, I mean come on
For example look at European basketball clubs or European football clubs, these are just named somewhat more original, simple, plain. Mostly just named after the place they play in (Barcelona, Chelsea etc...) , or after something from history, a god or something (Aris BC, Ajax Amsterdam...) They are just called Aris, or just Ajax. Not; Arisses, or Ajax's.
Well, thats just it. How can the players be lakers? Do you get the funny point here?
The teams I think who do have somewhat of an original name are:
- Utah Jazz ( since they were in NO, after that same goes for jazz, they should have changed it when moved.)
- New York Knickerbockers
- Spurs (do have somewhat of a original name, but again, the S behind Spur, is also a bit silly. It would be better just San antonio Spur BC.)
- Miami Heat
- Boston Celtics ( again, somewhat original, historic, but they should have dropped the S and make it just Boston Celtic BC.)
Cool article. Thanks for posting.
Why on earth would you drop the s from Spurs? For starters, no one uses just a single spur, they come in pairs, you know, one for each foot... Secondly, there are multiple players on the team, so I don't see whats wrong with having it plural.Well, thats just it. How can the players be lakers? Do you get the funny point here?
The teams I think who do have somewhat of an original name are:
- Utah Jazz ( since they were in NO, after that same goes for jazz, they should have changed it when moved.)
- New York Knickerbockers
- Spurs (do have somewhat of a original name, but again, the S behind Spur, is also a bit silly. It would be better just San antonio Spur BC.)
- Miami Heat
- Boston Celtics ( again, somewhat original, historic, but they should have dropped the S and make it just Boston Celtic BC.)
And for Boston, the peoples that they are named after are of Celtic origin, but are referred to as Celtics when you speak of them as a whole, since you know, its plural... Now if you want to make fun of them, make fun of them for pronouncing it wrong...
But the Tropics are in Flint!
gunslingers would have been badass
It sounds silly, thats all. Spur sounds better. Take a look at Tottenham Hotspur FC. Or they should have called it something like; Alamo BC San Antonio.
Call it; Celts/Kelts. sounds a whole lot better.
Orlando Juice ?
Why not?
Shaquille O'Neal, Dwight Howard
I hope that was just a joke I didn't get.
here are some more fitting names for various teams;
Dallas
Dallas Choke Artists
Phoenix Wet Paper Bags
Phoenix Finger Pointers
Lol Juice.
Yeah, I confused myself by confusing myself. I just meant the Dolphins didn't have the "Florida" in front of the team name like the Marlins did.
Real creative . Get pinked.
Yeah I figured that but the Marlins are actually in Miami.
ex post facto...
That would have sucked; not that Gunslingers isn't a good name, but that it would have been changed to some PC crap like when the Bullets became the Wizards in the 90s.
Nineteenth-century British sports teams frequently had an informal nickname. For example, even today, Manchester United is called the "Red Devils," Arsenal is called the "Gunners," etc. In the U.S., these simply became ins utionalized.
A lot of European pro teams started as club teams. It often was as simple as the local town having an athletic club that people joined for fitness, pretty much exactly like the YMCA or a 24-Hour Fitness in the U.S., and the club sponsored various sports teams that members participated in. Fast forward more than a century, and those club teams got very, very big, and very, very popular. But even today several European teams in various sports are still tied to local athletic clubs. So, the official team names reflect the historical roots of the way pro sports developed in Europe.
Even today, yet again, in several European and South American countries, several of my friends and I could start a club team, and join on with a local circuit if we paid the necessary fees and met all the requirements. Then, if our club team were successful enough over a very long period of time, it could work its way up through the whole hierarchy of leagues, eventually making it into the First Division.
On the other hand, American sports franchises are solely entertainment enterprises. They consist of the pro teams and that is it. The American leagues are closed leagues with a fixed number of franchises; if I want to start a team I can't just enter the local feeder league for the NBA, rather I have to buy an existing franchise or wait for a planned expansion and buy one of the expansion franchises. So the public interaction with the sport is first and foremost as spectators. The silly unofficial nicknames for all the old European teams came from the fans, so perhaps the fact that Americans really only ever have participated in these teams as fans is why the nicknames were made official here the way they never were in Europe.
Yeah, but that's different, you said it yourself, that's a nickname. When talking about nicknames is a whole different story, these could be childish and a bit silly.
I dont have anything big against it or something and I dont hate or make fun of it, but its just that sometimes, especially when translating the names, its a bit silly. Personally I would rather choose some more original, serious name.
But yes you are right, and good explanation.
This would have been a bad-ass "Juice" team:
PG Kryptonate
SG Iggy
SF LeRoid
PF Big Ben
C Superman 2
Orlando Juice
Last edited by Allanon; 06-03-2009 at 04:51 PM.
Didn't SA have a World League football team named the Gunslingers or something like that?
I know that in the creative process for something like a team name that just about anything you can think of will get thrown out there at least once for consideration, but damn those are some stupid names to even take a second look at.
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