[ThePundit]

Team nicknames that make no sense:

1) The Utah Jazz: The nickname Jazz made sense when the Jazz were in New Orleans since New Orleans is famous for its jazz.

2) The Memphis Grizzlies: There are Grizzlies in Vancouver but I'm pretty sure there are none in Memphis.

3) Since there are plenty of grizzlies in Utah, why not work a 3 way deal.

1) The Jazz go back to New Orleans where that name belongs.

2) The Grizzlies go back their habitat in Utah.

3) The Hornets go to Memphis since there are Hornets everywhere.

[Gotham Dark Knight]

Originally Posted by ThePundit

Team nicknames that make no sense:

1) The Utah Jazz: The nickname Jazz made sense when the Jazz were in New Orleans since New Orleans is famous for its jazz.

2) The Memphis Grizzlies: There are Grizzlies in Vancouver but I'm pretty sure there are none in Memphis.

3) Since there are plenty of grizzlies in Utah, why not work a 3 way deal.

1) The Jazz go back to New Orleans where that name belongs.

2) The Grizzlies go back their habitat in Utah.

3) The Hornets go to Memphis since there are Hornets everywhere.

Should the Colts swap names with the Ravens?...just to repair a wrong?...Or the Cards and the Rams trade franchsie names?

[blueandwhite]

remember that great scene in Gone With the Wind, where Rhett and Scarlett are racing from the rampaging flames of CALGARY?
maybe Atlanta couldn't support a team, but did they have to hang on to the name when they moved?

[Gotham Dark Knight]

Originally Posted by blueandwhite

remember that great scene in Gone With the Wind, where Rhett and Scarlett are racing from the rampaging flames of CALGARY?
maybe Atlanta couldn't support a team, but did they have to hang on to the name when they moved?

...You mean Sherman really didn't March through Calgary?...rats... I'm never going to win at trivia...

Speaking of nicknames the ABA had the Memphis Tams (early 70's)...and I always wanted to know....what the Heck is a Tam?

You can add the Lakers too...they were the Lakers cause of all the Lakes in Minnesota...but now they are in L.A. ....

[Lefty Noob]

I live near Pittsburgh, and the only place we have penguins around here is at the zoo. And I've never once seen Capt. Jack Sparrow sailing the Alleghany, so I'm fairly sure we're pirate-free as well. My favorite is the Virginia Tech Hokies. What the hell's a Hokie, anyway?

[Gotham Dark Knight]

http://www.unirel.vt.edu/vthistory/hokie-explained.html

Here is the answer to that oft-posed question, "What's a Hokie?" and an explanation of other Tech traditions.
What is a Hokie? The origin of the word "Hokie" has nothing to do with a turkey. It was coined by O. M. Stull (class of 1896), who used it in a spirit yell he wrote for a competition.
Here's how that competition came to be held. Virginia Tech was founded in 1872 as a land-grant institution and was named Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College. In 1896, the Virginia General Assembly officially changed the college's name to Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College and Polytechnic Institute, a name so long that citizens shortened it in popular usage to VPI. The original college cheer, which made reference to the original name of the institution, was no longer suitable. Thus, a contest was held to select a new spirit yell, and Stull won the $5 top prize for his cheer, now known as Old Hokie:

Hoki, Hoki, Hoki, Hy.
Techs, Techs, V.P.I.
Sola-Rex, Sola-Rah.
Polytechs - Vir-gin-ia.
Rae, Ri, V.P.I.

Later, the phrase "Team! Team! Team!" was added at the end, and an "e" was added to "Hoki."
Stull later said that he made up the word as an attention-grabber. Though he may not have known it, "Hokie" (in its various forms) has been around at least since 1842. According to Johann Norstedt, now a retired Virginia Tech English professor, "[Hokie was] a word that people used to express feeling, approval, excitement, surprise. Hokie, then, is a word like 'hooray,' or 'yeah,' or 'rah.'" Whatever its original meaning, the word in the popular cheer did, as Stull wanted, grab attention and has been a part of Virginia Tech tradition ever since.

There you go...it was from a cheer...I guess...

[blueandwhite]

good research, Knight.
I never thought about the Lakers being called the lakers - of course they must be from somewhere else.
And isn't a tam a hat? like a beret?

[Lefty Noob]

Thanks for that, Gotham! So... its basically a nonsense term?

[Gotham Dark Knight]

Originally Posted by blueandwhite

good research, Knight.
I never thought about the Lakers being called the lakers - of course they must be from somewhere else.
And isn't a tam a hat? like a beret?

Tam: woolen cap of Scottish origin

Yep...so what does it have to do with Memphis?...

[legend]

Georgetown HOYAS

[ThePundit]

Originally Posted by Gotham Dark Knight

Tam: woolen cap of Scottish origin

Yep...so what does it have to do with Memphis?...

The TAMS was actually an anacronym. The owner of the Memphis Tams Charley Finley wanted to appeal to a lot of Southern states: So he came up with the Tams: Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi. http://www.remembertheaba.com/Memphis-Tams.html