Sports team names

Had a random thought - and wondered why the NY hockey team is called the Rangers. It has nothing to do with Central Park, but the first owner's name was Tex Rickard (also owned Madison Square Garden) and the team became know as "Tex's Rangers" before formally adopting the name.

My larger thought was this - if I'm a lawyer, I'm going around to the heirs of dozens of sportswriters and copy editors who created team identities now worth billions of dollars back when teams may not have had formal names - and don't get me started about college sports. The list is endless. And I doubt any of these sports journos received a dime for coming up with the name.

Now teams hire branding consultants for six figures, back in the day it was just trying to come up with a witty headline or turn of a phrase.

 

You were working on employer time. It’s the newspaper’s windfall, not the worker’s, I think.

 

Up until the post WWII era, team nicknames really developed out of public usage rather than formal team branding.
The Boston Braves/Bees in the late 30s and then the Philadelphia Phillies/Blue Jays in the 1940s were both long established franchises who attempted to establish new nicknames but ended up going back when the new names didn't take. I think the Senators/Nationals did the same thing in the 50s.

 

The sheer number of historical nicknames for Boston's two MLB franchises is wonderful. Pilgrims, Beaneaters, Americans, Outlaws, Rustlers, Bees, and I'm probably missing a few.

Same with Brooklyn, Bridegrooms, Robins, Suburbas, I think the Tip-Tops were the Federal League team.

 

My father's high school was nicknamed Indians. My high school was nicknamed Indians. I used to call play-by-play for a university nicknamed Indians.
Of course, the university is no longer nicknamed Indians.

 

My nephew and niece played sports for the Mahopac Indians. I think that's still their nickname.

 

The Cleveland MLB team has gone through some changes. I thought Spiders was one, but it's another team.

My HS team was the Red Raiders. The town next door was the Redmen. Those aren't around anymore.

 

Superbas. Even better.

 

I really wanted Cleveland to rename to Spiders. Guardians is stupid af and has no history. At least with Spiders they could touch on some team history and have a cool logo-mascot-merch strategy.

 

Always misread that as Superbras growing up.

 

New York State's Board of Regents banned public schools from using Native names, mascots or logos.

The new mascots must be chosen by June 30, and not all districts are in compliance -- particularly on Long Island, where there are quite a few towns with Native names.

Tribes can apparently give permission for their names to be used.