The name game
This link about the origins of NHL team names on the Dallas Stars' site is making the rounds on blogs today, but I think it's also worth a link here (in case you missed it).
The best part of the piece, I'd say, is that we get a chance to see some of the names that could have been. Like the Colorado Outlaws, Columbus Justice, Minnesota Blue Ox, Phoenix Scorpions, San Jose Fog and St. Louis Apollo.
It's a good thing fan contests usually weed out the ugly ones.
N.B. There's one mistake in the piece, however, where the writer mentions Conn Smythe may have drawn inspiration for the name 'Maple Leafs' from Canada's flag. The Canadian flag was inaugurated nearly 40 years after Toronto's NHL team was named.
by James Mirtle @ 3:25 PM
Trackbacks
| Permalink |
11 comments
11 Comments:
He got it backwards. The Canadian flag drew inspiration from the Maple Leafs.
They're Canada's team doncha know.
Actually, Canada's flag for many years, the Red Ensign, under which Smythe fought as a member of the Canadian Army, contained several maple leaves. Smythe, as a proud and loyal Canadian, could indeed have taken his team's name from the flag at the time.
True, there are a few small maple leaves on the Ensign, but that's not the flag he's referring to in the piece. The maple leaf was Canada's national symbol, however.
As regards the blurb on the Blues, St. Louis was heavily involved in the space program, with the local McDonnell Aircraft Company having built all of the Mercury and Gemini spacecraft.
I would like the Wild a lot more if they were called the Blue Ox.
I knew about the CBJ name, sense I live in Columbus...But had no idea about the Alanta to Calgary name thing...General Sherman was born in Lancaster, Ohio; about 20miles south of Columbus.
And he burnt alot of cities to the ground on his way to Savannah.
Some of those rejected team names totally sound like they could have been WHA teams. The Colorado Wranglers, for instance.
I prefer Scorpions to Coyotes (I really don't like the howling coyote logo they use now). If I bought that team, the logo would be the first thing to go.
But I really very much prefer Blue Ox to Wild. And not that the Wild logo is bad, but the Blue Ox logo possibilities are great.
The Philadelphia Flyers
"owner Ed Snider and general manager Bud Poile formed a committee to pick out a name. A contest was held"
I wonder if this snippet of Poile's biography sheds any light on their decision:
"he moved up to the Wings' Western Hockey League affiliate, the Edmonton Flyers, in 1952-53. He retired as a player in 1954, but would continue to coach the Flyers until 1962."
I guess I should have kept reading before posting
"in Winnipeg, where the owner decided to call them the Jets based largely on the fact that he was friends with the owner of football’s New York Jets."
That could be true, but
Ben Haskin operated the Jets WHA team. Before that, he had operated Winnipeg's Major Junior team. Guess what they were called?
Kurt Daniels should do more research, because ppp might be closer to the truth. Canada's flag didn't prominently feature maple leaf until 1965.
Post a Comment
<< Home