My absolute all time favorite team name was a minor league hockey team in Macon, Georgia called the Macon Whoopee.
The minor league team in Modesto, California is the Nuts.
Blackhawks is another one. It’s the English nickname for a guy called Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak, so it’s sort of the equivalent of the Chicago Steves.
For this reason Texans don’t bother me. The Texan-ness of Texans is an established thing, at least more so than the Canadien-ness of French Canadians.
That and in a world where the Cowboys exist, the Texans will always be no worse than the second worst Texas team.
Well, “raptor” properly refers to a bird of prey. But yes, it was intentionally meant to capitalize on Jurassic Park, not any birds. Deinonychus and Utahraptor more closely resemble the movie dino, and they’re at least closer geographically, if not in the same area or country.
Boston Celtics, pronounced “SELL-ticks” instead of “KELL-tics”, as it’s properly pronounced.
The Rhode Island School of Design’s unofficial mascot is Scrotie, and the teams are the Nads and the Balls.
Also Lansing Lugnuts (Class A baseball)
Not terribly related to the OP, but the best names are also the UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs, and the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters (that is, the Fighters from Hokkaido who are sponsored by the company Nippon Ham). Both also show up on worst name lists, but people who consider these bad names are not people I want to be friends with.
Actual Celts in Glasgow pronounce it the same way though.
Their logo (until recently) indicates the dino was intended. Likewise their mascot.
Gorgosaurus was at least Canadian. (Toronto Gorgos has a ring to it.)
University of California Santa Cruz is the Banana Slugs. UC Irvine is the Anteaters.
I’ll see your Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters and raise you the Tokyo Gas Creators, from Japan’s American Football League (as in, the guys who play in helmets and pads).
The league has a few doozies, including the Deers (with an S), and the Apricot (singular).
The Alaska Aces are a professional basketball team. In the Philippines. They’re owned by the Alaska Milk Company.
Philippine Basketball Association is full of these:
[ul]
[li]Blackwater Elite. Sounds manly, I didn’t know the mercenary group (now Academi) sponsored a team… no, it’s a… makeup company!?[/li][li]Phoenix Fuel Masters. Arizona, Philippines?[/li][li]TNT KaTropa. The scourge of Italian plumbers everywhere.[/li][li]And 3 separate teams named after the San Miguel beer and food conglomerate, of which the best is San Miguel Beermen.[/li][/ul]
I’m just glad that the Colorado Rockies changed their name when they moved. The New Jersey Rockies would just be stupid.
Acheroraptor was found in Montana and is a relative of velociraptor
The New Jersey Landfills just doesn’t have the same ring.
Arizona Cardinals? Are there any cardinal birds in Arizona?
Apparently so, though looks like they avoid the Phoenix metro a bit. Also some stranger looking species.
The Northern Cardinal is the state bird of 7 separate states, but not Arizona (theirs is the interesting cactus wren). 6 states also named the Northern mockingbird, 3 the American robin, 3 goldfinches (2 different species), and 6 the Western meadowlark. State birds are, with a few exceptions, pretty boring.
Yes, there are. I live in Tucson and have seen cardinals from my living room through the sliding glass door.
Thanks! Ignorance fought!
“Rockies” is an apt name for the baseball team, though. Their play has been pretty rocky in the 24 years of their existence. I’m including the 2007 World Series, when they folded like Superman on laundry day.
The picture in the link provided by thelurkinghorror shows the desert cardinal, which is predominantly brown with splashes of red, however I have seen a few northern cardinals as well, as they do nest in southern Arizona.
According to who?
The pronunciation is all over the place these days, but for a long time (basically to the mid twentieth century) the soft C pronunciation was the standard.
Can’t believe I haven’t been beaten to this one…the Montgomery Biscuits (AA baseball team).
I’m from the South AND love a damn good biscuit as much as most Southerners, and it still makes me laugh.
thelurkinghorror:
We have enough room, we just didn’t have enough politicians who were willing to build it to outvote the ones who wanted to block it.