What’s in a name? Love,
What’s in the name of a sports team? Layer upon layer of emotional attachment, if the Crusaders affair is anything to judge things by.
To suggest the Crusaders change their name in the wake of the Christchurch mosque murders, was to get emails from readers containing travel advice along the lines of ‘‘f... off to’’ (Syria or Nigeria) ‘‘and see how long you f...ing last’’.
An irrational response to examining the branding of a sports team born just over three decades ago? Well no, says Eric Simons the San Francisco-based author of The Secret Lives of Sports Fans: The Science of Sports Obsession.
Simons says it’s perfectly normal for sports fans to lose perspective. In the face of evidence to the contrary, they will get outraged at suggestions their team has a potentially offensive name or logo, such as Redskins, Indians, Braves . . . or Crusaders.
But change does come, outrage or not. In 2020 the NFL’s Washington Redskins (born in 1932) became simply The Washington Football team, the same year the Crusaders rid themselves of the swords, horses and logo that linked their name to a series of medieval religious wars.
So with sports in the social spotlight, let’s look at other names and logos that have moved along.
Teams are riddled with warlike or aggressive names, many dating back to a more colonial or warlike era (Barbarians, Saracens, Crusaders, Highlanders, Warriors), cultural names appropriated from vanquished natives (Braves, Indians, Chiefs, Redskins), or foul weather (Hurricanes, Storm, Lightning).
They can date back more than a century. In English rugby the Saracens – history’s polar opposite of the Crusaders – were established in 1876. In effect, sport is two tribes going to war, urged on by fans. So there are banners, and logos, and chants, and fans get invested in warlike and aggressive imagery that invokes a far distant, more aggro, more racist past.
Calm and downbeat names such as the Blues, Lakers, Jazz, Reds, Saints and Red Sox are far less common. So are charmers, such as football’s Sheffield Wednesday.
Wednesday were initially a cricket team named after the day of the week on which they played their matches. They used football only to keep fit in winter.
It might just have hit New Zealand, but considering the social elements of team names has been ‘‘a thing’’ for more than half a century. In the US, the NFL champion Kansas City Chiefs were the last US professional team to adopt an indigenous-derived name. That was in 1963, more than 30 years before Super Rugby started.
Unlike some, Kansas City