Pro sports teams coming around to name changes
Colorful names for teams are nearly as old as team sports themselves.
But as a growing movement aims to right the wrongs of the past, including notable successes with pro sports franchises in Cleveland and Washington recently, it reminds us history hasn’t always been kind — let alone fair — to marginalized groups.
“I don’t know where the momentum is going to go,” said Joshua Hunt, vice chair of The Committee of 500 Years of Dignity & Resistance, whose Cleveland-based organization joined a coalition of Native American activists who convinced the city’s baseball team to drop “Indians” — first adopted in 1915 — from its name.
“But we’re hoping,” Hunt added, “this will be a blueprint for professional teams like the (Atlanta) Braves, Kansas City Chiefs, (Chicago) Blackhawks and all the thousands of public schools that this is what happens when you take the time to actually listen to indigenous people.”
By now, because of pressure from activists, the public or their corporate sponsors, most sports teams have shed overtly racist names of the past. More than a dozen major college or pro sports teams made the move over the last 50 years.
But a few have clung to Native American names and imagery, arguing they reflect honor
and respect. History says otherwise.
Chariot-racing teams in ancient Rome first adopted colors and symbols — and later names — largely as a practical matter, to distinguish themselves from rivals during the actual events. Over time, though, those identifiers took on added significance. Like nations and religions, they became a marker to strengthen the bonds among followers and separate friends from foes.
As spor t s gained a f oothold i n America’s popular culture in t he late 1800s, fans needed a way to dif f erentiate the many teams playing t he same sports in t he same city. Sometimes, it was as uncomplicated as adding the name of the neighborhood or point of pride for its residents, i.e. the Brooklyn Dodgers around 1910, because pedestrians there were constantly forced to detour around streetcar lines.
Other times, the names were chosen to highlight the ethnicity of the players that made up the team, or to appeal to the language and culture of their fan base, like the Montreal Canadiens in 1909, because their francophone followers relished every chance to go up against Englishspeaking teams like the rival Wanderers.
Still other times, names were derived from chants that originated with fans or suggested by reporters at local newspapers. The New York Highlanders baseball team officially changed its name after moving into the new Polo Grounds in 1913, but the city’s dailies had been calling them the “Yankees” for nearly a decade by then, simply because it was an easier fit in headlines.