# Worst Sports Team Logos/Names Thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 22, 2005, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-sports-team-logos-names-thread/304920 "2005-05-22T01:51:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2005, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-sports-team-logos-names-thread/304920/21 "2005-05-22T19:04:54Z")
**Bob Scene** , what about the [Shamrocks](http://world.std.com/~ecrowley/shamrocks/roster_2004.html)? What kind of cheer could you have? “Go, Shamrocks…stain their uniforms!” ---
**Author:** ![St.Urho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8e7dd6/32.png) [@St.Urho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/St.Urho)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2005, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-sports-team-logos-names-thread/304920/22 "2005-05-22T19:17:45Z")
The University of Denver Pioneers. While that name is lame enough, their acutal [mascot](http://denverpioneers.collegesports.com/) is a turkey. (Yes, that thing in the upper left-hand corner is supposed to be a turkey. ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2005, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-sports-team-logos-names-thread/304920/23 "2005-05-22T19:22:02Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > I love my Steelers, but I gotta say, their logo just isn’t that tough, 🙂 > > [http://www.steelers.com/](http://www.steelers.com/) I agree it’s not tough, but it is [sort of interesting though](http://steelers.com/tradition/logohistory/) ---
**Author:** ![seosamh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@seosamh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seosamh)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2005, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-sports-team-logos-names-thread/304920/24 "2005-05-22T19:41:28Z")
> [@brianjedi](#): > > What’s “reasonably silly” about the Oakland Athletics? “Athletics” makes sense: "A’s"doesn’t, to me at any rate. We have a football (“soccer”) team near me called Brentford, whose nickname is “The Bees”… But talking of football, what about [Hamilton Academical](http://www.acciesworld.com/) or [Accrington Stanley](http://www.accringtonstanley.co.uk/)? Fine teams both. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2005, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-sports-team-logos-names-thread/304920/25 "2005-05-22T19:45:07Z")
> [@seosamh](#): > > We have a football (“soccer”) team near me called Brentford, whose nickname is “The Bees”… The [local art school](http://www.scadathletics.com/)’s mascot is also “The Bees”. Is it just me or does the fact that an art school has sports teams seem a bit odd? ---
**Author:** ![brianjedi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@brianjedi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianjedi)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2005, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-sports-team-logos-names-thread/304920/26 "2005-05-22T20:31:39Z")
> [@seosamh](#): > > “Athletics” makes sense: "A’s"doesn’t, to me at any rate. It’s a time and spacesaving thing, since “Athletics” would be unwieldy to put on a cap. I would suspect it’s also related to the early days of the franchise, when “A’s” would be much easier to send via telegraph to newspapers. ---
**Author:** ![August\_West](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/august_west/32/18069_2.png) [@August\_West](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/August_West)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2005, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-sports-team-logos-names-thread/304920/27 "2005-05-22T20:37:45Z")
The worst one in the NHL is the Mighty Ducks. That is a f-ing embarassment. I think that was the beginning of the end for the NHL, letting Disney name a team after a Kid’s movie. As much as I love them, the Green Bay Packers isn’t exactly the most terrifying or intimidating nickname. For those that don’t know the history, the team was sponsored in it’s infancy by the Acme Meat Packing Company in Green Bay. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2005, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-sports-team-logos-names-thread/304920/28 "2005-05-22T20:38:23Z")
> [@brianjedi](#): > > What’s “reasonably silly” about the Oakland Athletics? The name (and the team) have been around since the early days of professional baseball, as the Philadelphia A’s, the Kansas City A’s and now the Oakland A’s. I concur…the name quite likely originates from real football, with the likes of Oldham Athletic, Charlton Athletic, Forfar Athletic, Dunfermline Athletic… ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2005, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-sports-team-logos-names-thread/304920/29 "2005-05-22T20:38:41Z")
How about the newest MLS team, Real Salt Lake, just the siliest of a MLS trend of trying emulate traditional soccer/football names without any rhyme or reason. This would inldue D.C. United and FC Dallas. ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2005, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-sports-team-logos-names-thread/304920/30 "2005-05-22T20:39:43Z")
> [@zamboniracer](#): > > It could be worse, such as for instance the University of Akron Zips. Sorry, I forgot the link to [the Akron Zips.](http://gozips.collegesports.com/) The school’s mascot is a kangaroo (kangaroos are native to Akron, you know) named “Zippy.” I wish I was making that up. ---
**Author:** ![brianjedi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@brianjedi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianjedi)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2005, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-sports-team-logos-names-thread/304920/31 "2005-05-22T20:47:22Z")
> [@Gangster Octopus](#): > > How about the newest MLS team, Real Salt Lake, just the siliest of a MLS trend of trying emulate traditional soccer/football names without any rhyme or reason. This would inldue D.C. United and FC Dallas. Don’t they have some sort of development deal with Real Madrid, though? That makes it only slightly less silly, but it offers a sliver of justification. Chivas USA, on the other hand, makes zero sense. D.C. United would make more sense if there was also a D.C. City. And going back to baseball teams, how about most of the South Atlantic League? Besides the aforementioned Sand Gnats and Legends, there’s the Blueclaws, the Crawdads, the Power, the Shorebirds, the Greenjackets and the RiverDogs. ---
**Author:** ![Birdmonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/71e660/32.png) [@Birdmonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Birdmonster)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2005, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-sports-team-logos-names-thread/304920/32 "2005-05-22T21:11:06Z")
Chattanooga went from the feathered-head-dress Indian thing to the…ummm…[train-conducting-bird-thing?](http://gomocs.com/article.asp?articleid=9421) ---
**Author:** ![Neurotik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/91b2a8/32.png) [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2005, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-sports-team-logos-names-thread/304920/33 "2005-05-22T21:30:04Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > I concur…the name quite likely originates from real football, with the likes of Oldham Athletic, Charlton Athletic, Forfar Athletic, Dunfermline Athletic… Nope. The Athletics go back to the American Association (the name does anyway) starting in 1882. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2005, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-sports-team-logos-names-thread/304920/34 "2005-05-22T21:37:23Z")
> [@brianjedi](#): > > Chivas USA, on the other hand, makes zero sense. D.C. United would make more sense if there was also a D.C. City. There’s plenty of 'United’s without a ‘City’ opposition…Leeds, West Ham, Newcastle, Sheffield, Cambridge, Colchester, Oxford, Peterborough… ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2005, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-sports-team-logos-names-thread/304920/35 "2005-05-22T21:47:44Z")
> [@St. Urho](#): > > The University of Denver Pioneers. While that name is lame enough, their acutal [mascot](http://denverpioneers.collegesports.com/) is a turkey. (Yes, that thing in the upper left-hand corner is supposed to be a turkey. I actually played for another college (Grinnell) whose teams were called the Pioneers. It made sense in football, as they were so lousy that advancing the ball beyond the opposition’s 20-yard-line _was_ a pioneering effort. Any team name like the Storm, the Wheeze, the Vomit etc. etc. is dumb. Oil Can Boyd is making a comeback on a low-minor-league baseball team called the Brockton Rox. If there is a justification for that name (aside from aping Boston) I can’t think of it. They just played the Worcester Tornadoes, which is silly too, sort of like having the Rapid City Hurricanes. Oh, and if schools like St. John’s and Marquette are going to change their team names to avoid offending Native Americans, how about finding decent alternatives? “Red Storm” - blah. ---
**Author:** ![brianjedi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@brianjedi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianjedi)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2005, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-sports-team-logos-names-thread/304920/36 "2005-05-22T23:23:38Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > There’s plenty of 'United’s without a ‘City’ opposition…Leeds, West Ham, Newcastle, Sheffield, Cambridge, Colchester, Oxford, Peterborough… D’oh! I should have figured that one out if I’d spent more than 5 seconds thinking. I know Leeds Utd, but for some reason all I could think of was Man Utd and Man City. Shows you just how much presence the EPL has on this side of the pond. Maybe we’re on to something with our naming system, since it’s a lot harder to confuse the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox. For example, the White Sox occasionally win games. ---
**Author:** ![YWalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/6f9a4e/32.png) [@YWalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YWalker)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2005, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-sports-team-logos-names-thread/304920/37 "2005-05-22T23:29:36Z")
> [@brianjedi](#): > > What’s “reasonably silly” about the Oakland Athletics? Because if you’re a fan of said team, it means you’re an Athletic Supporter. ---
**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:** [May 22, 2005, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-sports-team-logos-names-thread/304920/38 "2005-05-22T23:39:46Z")
> [@Neurotik](#): > > Nope. The Athletics go back to the American Association (the name does anyway) starting in 1882. Futher than that: the Athletics started with the National Association in 1871. For bad nicknames, I’ll add the Brooklyn Tip-Tops from the Federal League – named after a brand of bread. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2005, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-sports-team-logos-names-thread/304920/39 "2005-05-22T23:49:21Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > There’s plenty of 'United’s without a ‘City’ opposition…Leeds, West Ham, Newcastle, Sheffield, Cambridge, Colchester, Oxford, Peterborough… Yeah, but I thought historically they were named United because they were formed out of two different teams many eons ago, which is defintely not the case for D.C. But I coul be totally offbase. ---
**Author:** ![bmoak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@bmoak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmoak)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-sports-team-logos-names-thread/304920/40 "2005-05-23T00:24:53Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > The undisputed champion of terrible logos is the 1995-96 NY Islanders "[Fish Sticks](http://www.blammo.ca/jerseys/pics/ny_isles_fish.jpg) logo, which was stupid on all levels: > > [ul] > [li]Long Island isn’t really known for its fishing industry[/li][li]Fisherman wear yellow slickers, not teal.[/li][li]The model looks liked he worked for Gorton.[/li][/ul] > > The logo was so hated that the team asked permission from the NHL to change it halfway through the season. A league rule prevented is, so the played the entire year with the damn thing on their chests. For year, Ranger fans shouted out “fish sticks” to rattle the Islanders. “WE WANT FISH STICKS!” \\\\\\ “GOR-TON’S FISH STICKS!” \\\\\\ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-sports-team-logos-names-thread/304920.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-sports-team-logos-names-thread/304920.md?page=3)