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The stupid thread. How did teams get their names?

fervorfactor

Active Member
Some pro and college team's names make no damn sense. I wanted to understand where they came from. Add to the list and maybe Allbuffs can publish this, or not.

Minnesota Twins - Minneapolis and St Paul are the TWIN cities.

Los Angeles Lakers - A move by the Minnnesota Lakers (the land of lakes) to LA

Green Bay Packers - Meat packing plants in Wisconsin.

New York Mets - I thing that is short for Metropolitans

Akron Zips - No clue

Virginia Tech Hokies - No Clue

Georgetown Hoyas - No Clue

Alabama - Crimson Tide and why do they have an elephant as a mascot?

I'm really curious about the Brooklyn/LA Dodgers. The rumor I heard was that it related to traffic.

Many many others. This is just for fun.
 
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Some pro and college team's names make no damn sense. I wanted to understand where they came from. Add to the list and maybe Allbuffs can publish this, or not.

Minnesota Twins - Minneapolis and St Paul are the TWIN cities.

Los Angeles Lakers - A move by the Minnnesota Lakers (the land of lakes) to LA

Green Bay Packers - Meat packing plants in Wisconsin.

New York Mets - I thing that is short for Metropolitans

Akron Zips - No clue

Virginia Tech Hokies - No Clue

Georgetown Hoyas - No Clue

Alabama - Crimsome Tide and why do they have an elephant as a mascot?

I'm really curious about the Brooklyn/LA Dodgers. The rumor I heard was that it related to traffic.

Many many others. This is just for fun.

Many years ago, when all Georgetown students were required to study Greek and Latin, the University's teams were nicknamed "The Stonewalls." It is suggested that a student, using Greek and Latin terms, started the cheer "Hoya Saxa!", which translates into "What Rocks!" The name proved popular and the term "Hoyas" was eventually adopted for all Georgetown teams.
 
Some pro and college team's names make no damn sense. I wanted to understand where they came from. Add to the list and maybe Allbuffs can publish this, or not.

Minnesota Twins - Minneapolis and St Paul are the TWIN cities.

Los Angeles Lakers - A move by the Minnnesota Lakers (the land of lakes) to LA

Green Bay Packers - Meat packing plants in Wisconsin.

New York Mets - I thing that is short for Metropolitans

Akron Zips - No clue

Virginia Tech Hokies - No Clue

Georgetown Hoyas - No Clue

Alabama - Crimsom Tide and why do they have an elephant as a mascot?

I'm really curious about the Brooklyn/LA Dodgers. The rumor I heard was that it related to traffic.

Many many others. This is just for fun.

Dodgers is believed to be a reference to the Brooklyn trolley's that were the main public transit back then. The reference is supposedly short for the "Trolley-Dodgers"

Pretty sure all of these names can be looked up on Wikipedia though
 
Many years ago, when all Georgetown students were required to study Greek and Latin, the University's teams were nicknamed "The Stonewalls." It is suggested that a student, using Greek and Latin terms, started the cheer "Hoya Saxa!", which translates into "What Rocks!" The name proved popular and the term "Hoyas" was eventually adopted for all Georgetown teams.

HAHA, so basically it means either the Georgetown Rocks or the Georgetown Whats?
 
This is not directly related to the question at hand but this always blows the mind of anyone who didn't know. So CSU used to be Colorado A&M. Their mascot is a ram whose name is CAM. Think about it for a minute...
 
Los Angeles Lakers - A move by the Minneapolis Lakers (the land of lakes) to LA

.

fify

and "lakers" refers to Minnesota being the "Land of 10000 Lakes" SUCK IT, LOBLAW!

So ya, betcha thought no one else knew that, did ya?
 
VaTech used to be the fighting gobblers with a turkey mascot. The costumed mascot sort of morphed into the "hokie bird" and then eventually the team name was shortened to the Hokies. At least it's something along those lines.
 
Also, "Crimson Tide" has to do with the deadly Red algae blooms that hit the Gulf of Mexico from time to time that roll up into Mobile Bay. Elephant? No ****ing clue.
 
Movie quote, rep for who gets it. "The Jazz moved to Utah where they don't allow music." Hint: Somewhat CU related
 
VaTech used to be the fighting gobblers with a turkey mascot. The costumed mascot sort of morphed into the "hokie bird" and then eventually the team name was shortened to the Hokies. At least it's something along those lines.
Va Tech also has a chant their students do (or at least used to...)

Hokie hokie hokie hai!
We're the boys from VPI (Virginia Polytechnic Institute)!!

Don't know if the nickname comes from the chant or the other way around, though...
 
Also, "Crimson Tide" has to do with the deadly Red algae blooms that hit the Gulf of Mexico from time to time that roll up into Mobile Bay. Elephant? No ****ing clue.

Pretty sure the elephant came from an early newspaper writer that described their offense as a stampede of elephants or something along those lines.
 
This is not directly related to the question at hand but this always blows the mind of anyone who didn't know. So CSU used to be Colorado A&M. Their mascot is a ram whose name is CAM. Think about it for a minute...

My head just exploded. I didn't know goats could be so clever. Woe is me.
 
Yup, "Hokie" came from a song that won a competition for a new "spirit yell" at VT.

Hoki Hoki Hoki, Hy
Techs, Techs, VPI.

..and then later on an "e" was added to the end, and that's that. Some UVA fans maintain that "hokie" is actually a term for a neutered turkey, and at least one link online supports that claim.

On big 3rd downs at Lane they have a turkey "gobble gobble" and the fans go nuts. They also do the "key play" **** that we do.
 
I visited Alabama for the hell of it when looking at schools, and Crimson Tide came from a Bama/Auburn game in horribly muddy conditions (in red clay?) in which Bama played very well.
 
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May I recommend that anyone who does not already have the ESPN College Football Encyclopedia go buy it. It has the the history, stadium size, student pop. ect. for all FBS schools in it including how schools got their nicknames and mascots. I think the newest edition came out around '04 so it is a little outdated on some stadium and school size but none the less a great reference for questions such as this
 
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