Same team, same town, different name

The Game Room
1

Watching NFL football today and seeing the name “Washington Football Team”, formerly the Redskins, got me thinking how many professional teams changed their name/mascot but are still the same organization in the same location. Washington Bullets became the Wizards is the only other one I can think of. Any teams done it more than once?

2

New Orleans Hornets became the Pelicans.

ETA: and then the Charlotte Bobcats became the Hornets

3

Tampa Bay Devil Rays became the Tampa Bay Rays.

4

Moved to the Game Room.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

5

In the early years of baseball team names (actually knicknames bestowed by sportwriters) changed frequently before they settled into what they are today, The New York Yankees were the Highlanders. Often a name used early in its history by a National League team was reused by an American League team in the same city. The Chicago Cubs started out as the Chicago White Stockings, later being known as the Colts or the Orphans. The Boston (now Atlanta) Braves were originally the Boston Red Stockings, later being known as the Red Caps, Beaneaters, and Doves, before settling on the Braves name. The St. Louis Cardinals started out as the Browns, later becoming the Perfectos. Most other teams underwent similar series of name changes.

6

The Philadelphia Phillies claim to be the ‘oldest continuous same-name, same-city franchise in American professional sports’, but at different times they were known as the Quakers, Philadelphians, and Blue Jays. The team says these were never official names but the beginnings of official names for teams seems a little murky.

7

Early teams were occasionally named after their team captain, such as the Cleveland Naps (for Napoleon LaJoie) or manager, like the Brooklyn Robins (for Wilbert Robinson).

The Cincinnati Reds rather famously became the Redlegs for a few years at the height of McCarthyism.

8

Two of my favorite baseball trivia questions.

What was the original name of the New York Yankees?

The Baltimore Orioles. The franchise spent its first two years in Baltimore under this name before moving to NY in 1903. (However, it’s also contended that this was a different franchise, being replaced by the NY club rather than moving.) In any case, most people guess Highlanders.

What was the original name of the Baltimore Orioles?

The Milwaukee Brewers. The club was in Milwaukee for one year before moving to St. Louis to become the Browns. They moved to Baltimore in 1954 to become the Orioles.

9

That is interesting, because,

The current Milwaukee Brewers spent their first season in Seattle, as the Pilots.

10

A more recent example than the ones I listed is the Houston Astros, who played their first three years as the Houston Colt 45s (1962-1964).

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New York Jets were once known as the Titans.

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Some more examples, recent enough that they occurred during the era when team nicknames were more formal:

  • The New York Titans of the AFL changed ownership after the 1962 season, and were renamed the Jets. (edit: ninjaed by @TheCuse while I was writing!)
  • The NFL’s Houston Oilers moved to Tennessee in 1997, but were still named the Oilers for the first two seasons they played there. They then changed their name from the Tennessee Oilers to the Tennessee Titans in 1999.
  • The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim were an NHL expansion team in 1993, and were then owned by Disney; their name was, obviously, taken from the Disney film “The Mighty Ducks.” In 2006, they simplified their name to just “Anaheim Ducks.”
  • The Cincinnati Reds of MLB played as the Redlegs for several seasons in the 1950s, during the Red Scare in the U.S.
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The Chicago Bears were originally the Decatur Staleys, and kept the name as the Chicago Staleys for the first year after they moved in 1921 before changing to the Bear name (to draw on the popularity of the Chicago Cubs).

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The Dodgers had many names over the years including The Trolley Dodgers.

Tm Years W L W-L% Playoffs Pnnts WS
Los Angeles Dodgers 1958-2020 5392 4555 .542 24 11 5
Brooklyn Dodgers 1911-1957 2339 1958 .544 7 7 1
Brooklyn Robins 1914-1931 1375 1341 .506 2 2 0
Brooklyn Superbas 1899-1913 879 1030 .460 0 2 0
Brooklyn Bridegrooms 1888-1898 440 374 .541 0 2 0
Brooklyn Grooms 1891-1895 362 319 .532 0 0 0
Brooklyn Grays 1885-1887 189 194 .493 0 0 0
Brooklyn Atlantics 1884-1884 40 64 .385 0 0

The Braves are another good example:

Tm Years W L W-L% Playoffs Pnnts WS
Atlanta Braves 1966-2020 4468 4195 .516 21 5 1
Milwaukee Braves 1953-1965 1146 890 .563 2 2 1
Boston Braves 1912-1952 2459 3005 .450 2 2 1
Boston Bees 1936-1940 355 406 .466 0 0 0
Boston Rustlers 1911-1911 44 107 .291 0 0 0
Boston Doves 1907-1910 219 389 .360 0 0 0
Boston Beaneaters 1883-1906 1742 1465 .543 0 6 0
Boston Red Stockings 1876-1882 299 226 .570 0 2 0

Baseball is very old and some of the NL teams are truly ancient so you’ll see a lot of name changes before 1950 for the original 8 NL Teams.

Even the Giants were briefly the Gothams and the Phillies started as the Quakers.
Pirates began as the Pittsburgh Alleghenys.

Tm Years W L W-L% Playoffs Pnnts WS
St. Louis Cardinals 1900-2020 9767 8952 .522 29 19 11
St. Louis Perfectos 1899-1899 84 67 .556 0 0 0
St. Louis Browns 1883-1898 1059 1029 .507 0 4 0
St. Louis Brown Stockings 1882-1882 37 43 .463 0 0 0

Astros were the Colt .45s

15

Is that really a name change? All that’s different is the omission of the word “Devil.” And they still have their original mascot, Raymond Ray.

16

The Red Sox are another good example of this. They used a number of different names for their first decade of existence (including Americans, Pilgrims, Somersets, and Plymouth Rocks) before finally settling on Red Sox around 1910 or so.

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Bit of player trivia; Eddie Mathews played for the Braves in all three cities.

he is the only player to have represented the Braves in the three American cities they have called home.[2] He played 1,944 games for the Braves during their 13-season tenure in Milwaukee—the prime of Mathews’ career.

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It’s not a town or city either. But it is an official name change. And the name no longer refers to fish, it represents sunshine now, or some goofy thing like that.

19

I would say it counts.

Then you have teams that have kept the same nickname, and basically the same location, but changed the official complete name. The Los Angeles Angels became the California Angels became the Anaheim Angels became the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The Florida Marlins became the Miami Marlins. The Boston Patriots became the New England Patriots.

20

A couple other examples of that:

  • When the NFL’s St. Louis Cardinals moved to the Phoenix area in '88, they went by “Phoenix Cardinals” until 1994, when they changed to “Arizona Cardinals”
  • In the same market, when the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets moved to Phoenix in 1996, they went by “Phoenix Coyotes” until 2014, when they switched to “Arizona Coyotes”

And, also, we have the most fiddly of naming changes: the NHL’s Chicago team was the “Black Hawks” until 1986, when they removed the space, and became the “Blackhawks.”