What's In A Team Name?

(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.
Written By Andy Rooney

[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.