Misnomers....sports teams names that missed the mark.

[Blansky]

As a hockey fan I remember back in the 1980s when Atlanta Flames of the NHL moved to Calgary. Atlanta couldn't support a hockey team at the time and hockey crazy Albertans wanted a NHL team in Calgary.

So there was a contest to name the new team and since Calgary is famous for the Calgary Stampede and cowboys the usual names were included in the contest selections process that featured cowboy stuff. And the name they ended up choosing ......wait for it.....The Calgary Flames. WHAT?????

The Atlanta Flames was so named because of the civil war burning of Atlanta. There is and never was anything in Calgary that had anything to do with flames.

The Atlanta logo had a large A with flames in it, so the geniuses in Calgary changed it to a C with flames coming from it. Some guy won a bunch of money for his ingenious idea of naming the team the Calgary Flames.

Anyways here's an interesting article on the misnaming of sports teams usually that at one time had a connection with their area but were moved to somewhere else.

I'm sure you can include lots more from your area.

Please lets not get into the name changing for cultural/PC reasons.

https://www.latimes.com/california/s...d-sports-teams

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[espanol]

Perhaps missing the mark by being too accurate, but at the time, I believe the name Washington Bullets was too much of a reflection on the city.

[logo]

According to Wikipedia, Calgary had quite the fire in 1886, looks like most of the city was taken out. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgary_Fire_of_1886

[Al1969]

The Guardians or Commanders.

[Blansky]

Originally Posted by logo

According to Wikipedia, Calgary had quite the fire in 1886, looks like most of the city was taken out. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgary_Fire_of_1886

Good for you.

I lived near there for 34 years and never heard about the fire. I think most farm towns though had grain elevators and areas burned although 18 bldgs is a lot.

I never knew the Dodgers was named for the trolley dodgers.

I did know about the New Jersey Devils was named after a mythical creature that was said to roam the New Jersey Pine Barrens.

A lot of college football names I still don't know the origin of.

[SemperFi]

Originally Posted by Al1969

The Guardians or Commanders.

Exactly the two I was thinking of.

[Cru Jones]

Utah Jazz is another one.

[White Collar Boy]

Our old Gold Coast National Rugby League team the Giants, later renamed the Chargers, then the Titans. None of these appellations described the perennial wooden spooners.

[austinp]

The Lakers. Originally from Minneapolis. Odd name for LA.


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[AzPaul]

One of the more iconic names in sports is the Green Bay Packers. They drew their name from the Acme Packing Company, a canned meat outfit that had a location in Green Bay and was the place where the team founder had his regular job. Back in 1919, The company put up money for uniforms and allowed the team to use a field they owned, and in exchange, had the team named for them. Thing is, the company shuttered its doors during WWII and never reopened, but by then, the name had been associated with the team for 20 years, so it wasn't changed.

[JParm]

Originally Posted by Blansky

https://www.latimes.com/california/s...d-sports-teams

Yes, the Dodgers and Lakers were what came to mind before reading the article. LA is known for stealing things.

Sports history...absolutely love it!

[Boothroyd]

My favorite NFL trivia answer. Who was Kardex? Played one game in the NFL.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonawa...rdex_Lumbermen

[Stan Cooper]

Jacksonville Tars. It was the minor league team (South Atlantic League) in my home town when I was growing up in the 1940s and early 50s. Jacksonville is a Navy town, and "tar" is a nickname for sailors.

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

Seamen were known to 'tar' their clothes before departing on voyages, in order to make them waterproof, before the invention of waterproof fabrics. Later they frequently wore coats and hats made from a waterproof fabric called tarpaulin. This may have been shortened to 'tar' at some point.

The Tars were affiliated with the New York Giants from 1946 to 1952.

[Stud Screw]

Here’s an example in which a team relocated, retained the old name, and it turned out to be more appropriate:
The old Fort Wayne (Indiana) Pistons of the NBA were owned by a guy whose company manufactured pistons. He moved the team to Detroit, where the name “Pistons” sounds perfectly at home in the Motor City.

[pickettt]

I work about 10 miles from Angels Stadium. You know......the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Not only is Anaheim not in Los Angeles, it's not even in Los Angeles County. It doesn't even border Los Angeles County. Nonsense.

[Boopie]

This can happen when teams move.

Los Angeles Lakers. Totally made sense when they were based in Minnesota, the “‘land of 1000 lakes.”

Then there’s the Dodgers, from Brooklyn to LA…

Some think the Raiders earned their name from the moves…

I never understood the Utah Jazz.

The NFL expansion teams Tennessee Titans and Jacksonville Jaguars, to me, seemed that they were just going for alliteration. Titan stadium is right across the river from downtown Nashville and its music scene. Surely there’s a more fitting name than the Titans.

[Cru Jones]

Originally Posted by Boopie

The NFL expansion teams Tennessee Titans and Jacksonville Jaguars, to me, seemed that they were just going for alliteration. Titan stadium is right across the river from downtown Nashville and its music scene. Surely there’s a more fitting name than the Titans.

The Titans aren’t an expansion team. They were the Houston Oilers before moving. As for the name, the linked article explains the name:

“ Pro football’s Houston Oilers upped sticks and moved to Tennessee, but after a couple of seasons, it became clear that no one was striking oil in Nashville, so they re-branded themselves the Titans. Now, “Titan” sounds like a Marvel character, but it comes from long ago. Nineteenth century Nashville christened itself “the Athens of the South,” a citadel of learning, like the Athens of ancient Greek. Hence the Titans, gods of Greek myth. The team should offer a free ticket to random fans-on-the-street who know this.”

[AzPaul]

Originally Posted by Boopie

I never understood the Utah Jazz.

I'm old enough to remember when the franchise was the New Orleans Jazz.

[Blansky]

I guess this happens a lot these days due to teams leaving "downtown" and heading for open space but the San Francisco 49ers used to play in Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

Some trivia. When designing Candlestick Park, (probably the coldest park next to Green Bay) all part of the saying the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.....it was later reported that if they had put the stadium where the parking lot was and the parking lot where the stadium was, it would have been far warmer there.

Anyways now they play in Santa Clara 45 miles away almost in San Jose. And a lot warmer.

This is kind of like the Phoenix Coyotes of the NHL. They played in downtown Phoenix, then moved to Glendale a few miles away so they changed their name to the Arizona Coyotes.

[MrGoat]

Jacksonville jaguars. As a native Floridian, I’m not aware of any wild jaguars running around.


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[Blansky]

Originally Posted by MrGoat

Jacksonville jaguars. As a native Floridian, I’m not aware of any wild jaguars running around.

Researching the Florida Panthers it says there are a lot of big cats living in FLA USA???

I'll leave it to someone else to fill in a punch line if there is one.

[MrGoat]

Originally Posted by Blansky

Researching the Florida Panthers it says there are a lot of big cats living in FLA USA???

I'll leave it to someone else to fill in a punch line if there is one.

Panthers aren’t jaguars though. Only big native cats that live here are panthers and bobcats.


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[Blansky]

Originally Posted by MrGoat

Panthers aren’t jaguars though. Only big native cats that live here are panthers and bobcats.

What was the logic put forth in the naming?

I don't remember did they come from somewhere else?

[JParm]

Originally Posted by pickettt

I work about 10 miles from Angels Stadium. You know......the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Not only is Anaheim not in Los Angeles, it's not even in Los Angeles County. It doesn't even border Los Angeles County. Nonsense.

I miss the old California Angels and their CA logo. Man, they were terrible back then too.

[Blansky]

The British Columbia Lions or BC Lions of the Canadian Football League, located in Vancouver British Columbia is supposedly not named after mountain lions although that is now part of the logo but after 2 mountain peaks that....

"The twin mountain peaks name was based on legend that the mountains looked like two lions guarding the city."

Although now it is thought or said to represent mountain lions or cougars.

[AzPaul]

Originally Posted by pickettt

I work about 10 miles from Angels Stadium. You know......the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Not only is Anaheim not in Los Angeles, it's not even in Los Angeles County. It doesn't even border Los Angeles County. Nonsense.

Like the New York Jets and the New York Giants playing in New Jersey.

[Blansky]

Another rather bizarre situation in the Canadian Football League is that there were 2 teams named "the Roughriders".

Saskatchewan Roughriders from Regina and the Ottawa Rough Riders. Initially they played in separate leagues but when they merged, both kept their names???

There are two theories on where the name “Roughriders” came from. One states that it derived from members of the North West Mounted Police who were called Roughriders because they broke the wild horses used by the force.

The other states there was a Canadian contingent that fought with Teddy Roosevelt in the Spanish-American War. Roosevelt’s troops became known as the Rough Riders. Following the war, the Canadian troops returned home, with some of them settling in Ottawa and the rest moving west. The colours worn by Roosevelt’s infantry were red and black.

A few years ago Ottawa changed their name to the Redblacks.

[MrGoat]

Originally Posted by Blansky

What was the logic put forth in the naming?

I don't remember did they come from somewhere else?

I’m not aware of the lineage of the team.


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[pickettt]

Originally Posted by [email protected]

I miss the old California Angels and their CA logo. Man, they were terrible back then too.

I know, but.....Rod Carew though! This may be bad parenting by today's standards, but on many occasions, I remember my dad dropping me and my friend off to watch games we had season tickets to (always gifted to us), and pick us up afterwards. We were 10-12 years old. . They don't make kids, or parents, like they used to.

[Blansky]

Originally Posted by pickettt

I know, but.....Rod Carew though! This may be bad parenting by today's standards, but on many occasions, I remember my dad dropping me and my friend off to watch games we had season tickets to (always gifted to us), and pick us up afterwards. We were 10-12 years old. . They don't make kids, or parents, like they used to.

My parents used to drop us off at the hockey rink and pick us up at the end of the season.