# Silly Team Names **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 10, 2003, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-team-names/167815 "2003-04-10T16:42:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mirror\_Image\_egamI\_rorriM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e56c9b/32.png) [@Mirror\_Image\_egamI\_rorriM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mirror_Image_egamI_rorriM)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-team-names/167815/21 "2003-04-11T03:41:14Z")
My dad used to play on a lacrosse team (not professional, just some guys playing lacrosse) called “A Boxful of Kittens.” The other teams in the league were the Mulleteers, the Flying Monkeys, and something with chickens that I don’t quite remember. ---
**Author:** ![NicePete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ee7513/32.png) [@NicePete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NicePete)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-team-names/167815/22 "2003-04-11T04:15:33Z")
I knew a guy who once lived in a town called “Arnold”. He always claimed he played on a baseball team called the **Ziffles**. I once played on an intramural team called **Big Hair** and in law school helped form a soccer team called the **Pro Bonors**. ---
**Author:** ![knock\_knock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/22d042/32.png) [@knock\_knock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/knock_knock)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-team-names/167815/23 "2003-04-11T04:26:33Z")
How 'bout them [Kannapolis Intimidators](http://www.intimidatorsbaseball.com/)? ---
**Author:** ![brianjedi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@brianjedi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianjedi)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-team-names/167815/24 "2003-04-11T04:30:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by knock knock \* > \*\*How 'bout them [Kannapolis Intimidators](http://www.intimidatorsbaseball.com/)? \*\* What’s so silly about that? The Intimidators sounds like a good name for a sports team to me. Plus it was Dale Earnhardt’s nickname, so having a baseball team named for him (he was a part-owner) is pretty cool. ---
**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-team-names/167815/25 "2003-04-11T04:30:55Z")
My husband’s high school team : St. Edward’s Green Wave. And the mascot is a guy in a wave costume, although if you didn’t KNOW he was supposed to be a wave, you’d never figure it out. My high school team: Steinmetz Streaks. In the late 70s (when I was there) we called ourselves the Steinmetz Freaks. Our mascot? A big silver lightning bolt. ---
**Author:** ![HubZilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-team-names/167815/26 "2003-04-11T04:34:09Z")
My high school was the Moanalua **Menehunes**. Basically means little leprechauns in Hawaiian. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-team-names/167815/27 "2003-04-11T04:48:29Z")
The Bunnies (Japan Ice Hockey League) ---
**Author:** ![RobbieFal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c5a1d2/32.png) [@RobbieFal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobbieFal)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-team-names/167815/28 "2003-04-11T05:05:24Z")
The Savannah Savages (Savannah, MO) A damned outdated and offensive team name, they use a damned Native American as their mascot too. The Columbia Hickman Kewpies (Columbia, MO) some more… [http://www.halcyon.com/marcs/mascoths.html](http://www.halcyon.com/marcs/mascoths.html) Watersmeet Nimrods Poca Dots ---
**Author:** ![Treviathan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/838e76/32.png) [@Treviathan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treviathan)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-team-names/167815/29 "2003-04-11T06:18:37Z")
I know, it’s not technically part of the team name, but still: nothing in my mind can quite beat Japanese baseball’s Nippon Ham Fighters. [manager] “Well, we were able to win today because of our timely hitting, our solid defense, and our unstoppable Honey Mustard Glaze attack!” [/manager] ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-team-names/167815/30 "2003-04-11T06:22:15Z")
The Australian blind cricket team is of course **The Bats**. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-team-names/167815/31 "2003-04-11T06:43:36Z")
ALLEGEDLY… The high school football team in Pekin Illinois was at one time the Chinks. The town was so-named as it was supposedly halfway around the world from the other Peking. No mention of any team called the Chinks in the local paper though… > **[Pekin Daily Times: Local News, Politics & Sports in Pekin, IL](https://www.pekintimes.com/)** > > Get the latest breaking news, sports, entertainment and obituaries in Pekin, IL from Pekin Daily Times. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-team-names/167815/32 "2003-04-11T07:53:13Z")
The Lansing Lugnuts may sound offensive to them, but people in Lansing buy a lot of Lugnut gear. They play at Oldsmobile Park. Can anyone else confirm that Lansing is one of the dullest state capitals in America? It’s also home to America’s most confusing road sign. “Interstate 69 is now Interstate 96. Interstate 96 is now Interstate 69” ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-team-names/167815/33 "2003-04-11T09:38:40Z")
Franklin and Marshall College, in Lancaster, PA, has the Diplomats. That might not qualify as a silly name all by itself, but it always gets shortened, even in the student newspaper, and there’s only one thing to shorten it to: **The Dips**. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-team-names/167815/34 "2003-04-11T13:07:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Grey \* > \*\*Toronto Raptors - NBA > > For the love of god did we have to name the team after Jurassic Park? \*\* They may be the only team who can’t even get their mascot right. A raptor is a bird, not a dinosaur. > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Zev Steinhart_ > **The Chicago team in the Federal League (1914-1915) was known as the Chicago Whales, just what you’d name a baseball team where speed (at that time) was very important and in a city that was 1000+ miles from the nearest ocean.** It’s better than the Chiffeds, which was their original name. As a matter of fact, the Federal League had other silly names: the Buffalo Buffeds and the Brooklyn Tip-Tops, probably the only sports team in history to be named after a loaf of bread. And, of course, no one has mentioned the Nippon Ham Fighters, though it’s less silly once explained than it seems as first glance (It’s meant to be Nippon Ham _Fighters_, but Americans see it as Nippon _Ham Fighters_) ---
**Author:** ![grimpixie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-team-names/167815/35 "2003-04-11T13:38:57Z")
In the South African Soccer leagues there is (or was) a team called **Dangerous Darkies** - they weren’t very good, but it made the sports results fun to listen to… Grim ---
**Author:** ![grimpixie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-team-names/167815/36 "2003-04-11T13:41:51Z")
Seems they are [still going strong.](http://www.lowveldinfo.com/news/showstory.asp?story=3335) Grim ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-team-names/167815/37 "2003-04-11T14:39:51Z")
Many of the silly-sounding names probably make very good sense to the locals, who know what the name means. “Austin Ice Bats” sounds like a very silly name for a hockey team, but it so happens that bats (the flying kind) are one of Austin’s most popular attractions- seriously! There’s a colony of about a million Mexican free-tail bats that live under a downtown bridge, and large crowds of people gather nightly to watch them fly out en masse, in search of insects. It’s a genuinely amazing sight, to watch a million bats flying into the sunset. So, those little winged mammals are a big deal in Austin, and it seemed only natural to name a sports team after them- even if it sounds ridiculous to outsiders. I don’t doubt that other towns have similarly cool stories about their local teams’ names. ---
**Author:** ![NameAlreadyTaken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/97f17d/32.png) [@NameAlreadyTaken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NameAlreadyTaken)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-team-names/167815/38 "2003-04-11T15:00:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by astorian \* > \*\*Many of the silly-sounding names probably make very good sense to the locals, who know what the name means. > > “Austin Ice Bats” sounds like a very silly name for a hockey team, but it so happens that bats (the flying kind) are one of Austin’s most popular attractions- seriously! \*\* So what does that imply about the El Paso Buzzards (another team in the same league)? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Pabitel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbce88/32.png) [@Pabitel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pabitel)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-team-names/167815/39 "2003-04-11T15:47:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by mayberrydan \* > **Lansing Lugnuts** sounds like an insult (to themselves). When Lansing got a minor league team I was hyped. Baseball right here in town! Then they announced the name. The Lugnuts. The the mayor came out with a quote about the criteria they used for choosing the name. He said something like, we wanted to come up with a name that no one would believe if they heard it. We think people will buy our merchendising if the name is so stupid that no one would believe it. The entire decision on how our town and team are represented by our baseball team’s name was based on the mayor’s ideas about the best way to sell merchendise. I have never been to a game. BTW: This is a car town. Everybody here knows about building cars, etc. So naturally the logo they chose for the team shows a bolt not a nut. [cite](http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/images/baseball/minors/midwest/logos/100/lan_100.gif) ---
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-team-names/167815/40 "2003-04-11T16:23:46Z")
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