What's In A Team Name?

Andy Rooney Takes A Closer Look At The Names Of Sports Teams

(CBS)  The following is a weekly 60 Minutes commentary by CBS News correspondent Andy Rooney.

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I was idly reading the sports pages the other day when I came on this headline: "Coyotes Rally To Beat Thrashers."

I couldn't remember what city the Coyotes represent and I never heard of the Thrashers. I read the whole story and found the Coyote were Phoenix but I still didn't know what game they were playing because the reporter never said.

The Coyotes won five to four so I knew it wasn't football. It could have been baseball or soccer but probably not in January so it had to be hockey.

In another paper, a story read "Latta, Pringle Lead The Way As Tar Heels Rout Hokies." Again there was no clue as to who the Hokies were or what game they were playing.

Sports editors need some kind of nickname clearing house. They'd approve or disapprove of any name a team wanted to adopt and eliminate duplications. There are lots of team nicknames associated with just one city. No soccer team in Wisconsin could call themselves "The Yankees", for instance. It's good that way.

If you're from Pittsburgh it would be hard to imagine a better team name than "The Steelers."

Boston has the Red Sox and the Patriots.

There aren't many sports fans who don't know "The Tar Heels" are from North Carolina.

Dozens of animals regularly have teams named after them.

I was looking just at animal names starting with the letter B that are popular team nicknames: badgers, bulls bears, beavers, bobcats, broncos, bulldogs.

Some birds make good team nicknames — there are hundreds of Eagles for instance. Lots of hawks, blue jays, cardinals, owls. But not many robins or sparrows.

Some animals just don't lend themselves to being team nicknames: I can't think of any team named the elephants, the sheep, the goats, pigs or cows.

Years ago there was one well-known sports writer who refused to use team nicknames at all. He reminded me of my mother. She always called me Andrew.

[scubadude7]

Dear Andy,
I read your article and found it interesting and i agree with what you said.
I have moved several times and in those places my school mascots have been
Maine-tiger
Maine-Falcon
Michigan-Geyhound
Indiana-Wildcat
----Andy

[missrosenblo]

Dear Andy,
NO GOATS!? You got mine! The Lake Chelan High School has the goat as their team name! Not your regular garden variety goat but the beautiful white Mountain goat that roams wild in the Cascade Mountain Range surrounding Lake Chelan, WA.
Caroline Hale Yearout
Lake Chelan Alumni 1936

[bruceross2]

Dear Andy,
During your story on sports team names last Sunday you had to guess what sports the teams were playing? During the segment it was shown on camera twice the article in the paper you were talking about. Clearly on the very top of the article in bold type it said "NHL ROUNDUP" underlined! What exactly did you not understand about that header! Anyway I still think your GRRREAT! Bruce Ross

[larsuso]

Andy,
As a proud parent I must sing the praises of the Ephs of Williams College. Their mascot is a purple cow.
Williams was mentioned on CSI.
Larry O'Boyle

[terkoy]

Wen are ya'll going to realise Andy does not lower hisself to take the time to reed the cranial effluence of a handful of semi-literates like yous guys?

[maggiethe8th]

I have just learned of your recent birthday, and hope you had a most enjoyable one. You have been a wonderful spark on Sunday evenings for so many years, and I was fortunate enough to have received your book, "Years of Minutes", as a gift. Thank you for all you do.

[h2odog4]

Mr. Rooney,

I have been a long fan of your commentary but after this last episode I am starting to worry about your ability to effectively research your subject matter. You start the commentary on stating the Phoenix Coyotes you do not know what sport it is. The page you show states on the very top NHL Roundup. From this alone you would realize you were reading a Hockey column.

Andy what are you talking about%u2026.

Maybe it is the problem with acronyms and you thought NHL stood for
Need Help Looking%u2026..Due to you don%u2019t realize it is Hockey?

Maybe the next column should be on TLWs
Three Letter Words%u2026.

Andy%u2026 Andy%u2026..

[hightricky]

Dear Mr. Rooney,
Per your comments of Jan. 14, 2007, I would like to bring to your attention the great University of Alabama. Thir mascot is an elephant. In 1930 Atlanta sportswriter Everett Strupper wrote "The earth started to tremble, there was a distant rumble that continued to grow. Some excited fan in the stands bellowed, 'Hold your horses, the elephants are coming' and out stamped this Alabama varsity". We are both the Crimson Tide and the Elephants. ROLL TIDE!!!!

[cmmccarthy09]

I guess one would call that topic "filler"

[bfroggy-2009]

Oh joy, another Rooney moment. Listen Andy, the world changes. Every week I log on CBS and you're giving another whistfull condemnation of the fact that the world isnt the same as it was 10,20,50 years ago. Give it up. In other news, technology is pervasive and confusing to those who werent raised with it, and young people use curse words. Perhaps that can be next weeks column? File rooneyisms under 'Duh'.

FYI The Hokies are from Virginia Tech and dont underestimate them at anything. In addition to advanced work on Cloning and Automotive Engineering, they are credited with developing much of the Agricultural Science that makes America the most successfull farming nations in history. Them 'Internets' have all kinds of fascinating information such as this. I suggest you bookmark wikipedia and simply look up things you have'nt heard of. It's how one keeps up with the changing world.

[hypnotoad72]

Or the Cincinnati Centipedes, Minnesota Millipedes, or Georgian Gerbils...

Mind you, the owners of the teams are all Major Pigs... :) Hundreds of millions (when not billions) they own and they still beg the government to give them money to make them a stadium. Whatever happened to businesses standing on their own two feet? :

I'll subsidize roads because everybody uses them, but I don't see why any of us has to support any leech apparently too broke to buy his own stadium yet can easily afford his own salary, his players' salaries, and so forth.

[fred1415]

in the first article andy rooney uses in his story on team nicknames, did he notice above the headline, it reads "NHL ROUNDUP". maybe not the best article to use when he says he can't figure out what sport they are talking about.

[monkeys_sis]

Dear Mr. Rooney, As a non-sports fan in a sports oriented society, I really enjoyed this commentary. As an ex-resident of Alabama, I also enjoyed the Sidney Lanier High School mascot name of the Poets.

[geno1196]

As usual Andy hits the nail on the head. Some team's mascots he could have included might have been Southern Cal, condoms ("Trojans"), University of California at Santa Cruz ("Sea Slugs"), Harvard, whose mascot apparently is either and embarassment or a can of paint ("Crimson"), the University of Alabama, rah rahing for an ocean malady that causes beaches to close ("Crimson(red) Tide"); MIT has as its mascot a small animal that strongly resembles a rat, but they deny it's one: they call it an otter. Thank heaven Beaver Falls (PA) College finally changed its name a few years ago, along with its mascot, the beaver.

Let's hope medical and trade schools don't start adopting descriptive mascots: "the Drillers" (dental school), "the Deliverers" (gynacology school), "the Shockers") electrical trade school.

I remember reading several years ago a story about a kid who enrolled in embalming school: as I recall, their mascot teams were called "the Preparers", or something like that. So, Andy, it could be worse.

[alphonsobell]

In Texas:
Fredericksburg Billygoats (Billies)

Hutto Hippos

Progreso Red Ants

San Saba 'Dillos (Armadillos)

Smiley Bantoms (Roosters)

Taylor Ducks

[slackersmom]

Note: I think Andy is looking at the situation not as someone familiar with sports, but from a journalistic background. First thing a journalist learns is to always tell who, what, when,where, and why as quickly as possible. In a perfect world, this would mean giving all the details of a game in the first paragraph: "The UNC Tar-heels beat the Virginia Hokies in Saturday's ACC basketball game." Obviously, avid sports fans would think this is nuts, which is why sports writers don't bother with it. (their reasoning: If you're not a sports fan, you wouldn't be reading the article in the first place.)

By the way, once I moved to North Carolina, it took me a few years to figure out that the "blue" team is the Tar Heels, and the "red" team is the Wolfpack, as well as which mascot belongs to which university. Guess that's what happens when you don't really have much interest in that sort of thing.

[slackersmom]

Note: I think Andy is looking at the situation not as someone familiar with sports, but from a journalistic background. First thing a journalist learns is to always tell who, what, when,where, and why as quickly as possible. In a perfect world, this would mean giving all the details of a game in the first paragraph: The UNC Tar-heels beat the Virginia Hokies in Saturday's ACC basketball game. Obviously, avid sports fans would think is nuts, which is why sports writers don't bother with it. (their reasoning: If you're not a sports fan, you wouldn't be reading the article.)

By the way, once I moved to North Carolina, it took me a few years to figure out that the "blue" team is the Tar Heels, and the "red" team is the Wolfpack, as well as which mascot belongs to which university. Guess that's what happens when you don't really have much interest in that sort of thing.

[bradspin]

After Saturday I bet every Tarheel and every college basketball fan knows that Virginia Tech is the home of the Hokies.

[iamanole]

In responce to Andy Rooney's comment or team names I must find fault with one statement. that no team is named The Elephants.

Please note that the U. of Alabama football team's mascot is an elephant. The written logo is The Crimson Tide. You will note on the side line that there is an elephant,not a Crimson Tide. They earned the moniker in 1930 from a local sportscaster who noted the increased size of the yeam from the year before. They were 10-0 that year and after a Rose Bowl win were #1.

Please note that I am a Florida State fan since 1975.That is not an easy task in Alabama.

[arthurb5]

Also, we have a baseball team in my area named the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, which will be the Triple-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies as of 2008 (http://www.ironpigsbaseball.com). However, the name is really associated with "pig iron", used in the production of steel (and thereby saluting the former Bethlehem Steel that used to define the Lehigh Valley).