Even though I don’t live in New England or follow hockey that much, I always had a soft spot for the Hartford Whalers (who moved to North Carolina in the nineties). Why? Their goofy mascot, the fact their arena was in a shopping mall, suiting up a 51-year old Gordie How, and this song. What other now nonexistent franchises did you enjoy.
“Onward and upward, St. Louis Browns.
We who are your fans will never let you down–
We know you’ll rise to play another game
And once again recapture your old fame…”
Are we downhearted?
No!
We’re Brownhearted!
Plus which I used to go see the Chicago Cougars of the old WHA.
The Providence Steam Roller, 1928 NFL champions, had the coolest name ever for a football team. And they played in a bicycle velodrome.
The Oorang Indians, a NFL team developed solely to advertise dogs.
To the owner’s credit, the team was actually made up American Indians.
Cause we’re the
Houston Oilers
Houston Oilers
Houston Oilers #1
Yeah, I know they simply moved, but then they changed names, and now Houston has another NFL franchise in the city.
Pastorini, Earl Campbell, Billy “White Shoes” Johnson, Bum Phillips… Those were the days.
Moon years were pretty cool, too.
The Macon Whoopee(s) just for the name. There were three different franchises actually. The Macon Whoopees were in the Southern Hockey League in 1973-4, but disbanded part way through the season. The second no-s version played in the Central Hockey League from 1996-2001. This team’s mascot was a whooping crane and a bee (birds and bees). When this team folded, the East Coast Hockey League team in Tallahassee moved in and took the no-s name.
A later team named the Macon Trax played from 2002-5 in three different leagues. And next year the Macon Mayhem are scheduled to start in the Southern Professional Hockey League.
The Cleveland Spiders.
The Sacramento Solons.
The Continental League’s stillborn NYC team, the Turncoats.
The Seattle Pilots.
Especially their terrific 1899 season.
The St. Louis Spirits of the old American Basketball Association. The team itself was mostly an undisciplined bunch, but it had Bob Costas (in his first job) as its announcer, and most importantly, its owners made what was maybe the most lopsided deal in the history of sports when they agreed to fold the team and go quietly into the night.
Buffalo Braves basketball team. The first professional sports game I ever saw and I got an autograph!
Weren’t they officially called “The Spirits of St. Louis”?
There was a minor league baseball team known for a while as the “Swing of the Quad Cities.” What a bizarre name. I believe they’ve gone back to the Quad Cities River Bandits or something more traditional.
Seattle Totems.
After the games a bunch of kids would go down to where the players exited to plead with them to throw us their sticks. I somehow got in the way of my brother retrieving one that was thrown and snatched away by some other kid. He still hasn’t forgiven me.
The Dayton Gems. It’s the best name for a team from that city.
Duplicate.
The Seattle SuperSonics.
The NBA is dead to me.
Personally, I would give that award to the Akron Zips.
I was a big fan of the LA Rams in my childhood. I was less than pleased by their decision to move to Saint Louis.
My favorite outside of my geographical area is probably the Montreal Expos. They had a really zany mascot, cool uniforms, and a dreadful stadium. Their 1994 team was fantastic and the fact that they didn’t get to play in the playoffs was a travesty. Just another reason to hate the '94 strike…
The Quebec Nordiques. I just loved the name. A friend of mine in college and I used to go to a sports bar that has one of the big satellite dishes and I’d always ask the bartender to put on the Nordiques.
The Pittsburgh Condors played basketball when I was a kid. They tried so hard to draw fans, mostly through giveaways for kids (who would be accompanied by their parents, hopefully). I’d go to games with my friends, no adults along. We’d get free tickets, get a free TShirt or similar. Our folks would pack us bags of sandwiches and pop.