They were warned

TomaHawks couldn’t survive social media uprising

Both the league and Ottawa’s mayor told the club the name TomaHawks was a bad idea,

Farewell, TomaHawks. We hardly knew you. One day you will make a fine sports trivia question. What was the original name of Ottawa’s National Basketball League of Canada team (hint: it lasted less than 24 hours)?

If nothing else, the oh-so-brief TomaHawks era was a fascinating exercise in team naming principles and the power of the people — particularly on social media, where the wheels of Internet justice turn swiftly.

Just like THAT — the TomaHawk was chopped. Gus Takkale, president of the Bytown Sports & Entertainment Group that owns the team, said in several interviews Wednesday he wanted to “take ownership” of the controversy surrounding the name.

“At the end of the day, we want to do the right thing for the community,” Takkale said.

And this is the right thing, at a time when even long-established sports nicknames like the NFL’s Washington Redskins, baseball’s Atlanta Braves and NCAA North Dakota Fighting Sioux are feeling heat from native groups.

No doubt Takkale felt good about his reasons for unveiling a fresh brand on Tuesday, including a pretty cool logo. The name itself is not cool, and Takkale and his group deserve some credit for recognizing it, although the lack of foresight in announcing it without giving the proper consideration sends off bad signals about the entire venture.

Use of the name, as Takkale explained at his news conference, was not intended to draw attention to the tomahawk, or traditional native implement. The tomahawk the new NBL franchise was tapping into was the basketball “tomahawk dunk.”

In case you’re not a connoisseur of the myriad slam dunk competitions on TV, the tomahawk is a stylistic move. It begins by a player tucking the ball behind his head, and then dunking it, in a quick, two-handed slam into the basket. Like a tomahawk chop.

To the general public, however, the tomahawk is a traditional native tool, and to some, an offensive stereotype of native traditions and warfare.

Fans of the 1992 Toronto Blue Jays have a more recent memory of the tomahawk, from the relentless “Tomahawk Chop” chants still carried out today by supporters of the Atlanta Braves.

Over the years, foam tomahawks have been sold by the ton to Braves fans.

Even those who don’t hold the souvenirs use their own hands to chop the air as a rallying cry for the ball club.

Five minutes of “WHOAAA OH — OHOHOH ... whoooa oh — ohohoh” and the chant becomes locked in one’s head. A musical earworm.

The chant didn’t actually begin with the Braves, but was a “war chant” of the Florida State Seminoles university football team in the 1980s. The Braves only picked it up in 1991, when Deion Sanders, a former Seminoles football player, joined the Braves as an outfielder.

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson, for one, is relieved the basketball group has backed away from the TomaHawks name.

Watson had warned the Bytown group that it should conduct thorough prior consultations with the Assembly of First Nations and the Algonquins of Ontario, but his warnings were not heeded.

It is tough enough to launch a new sports team in finicky Ottawa, especially one whose premise for success is that there are a lot of “basketball nets in driveways” around town.

Even with Takkale’s takeback, the new team is off to a rough start.

On a day when the franchise should have been basking in the glory of its first significant media attention, it is instead ankle deep in regret and headed back to the drawing board for a new name.

Compare that to the running start of John Pugh and Ottawa Fury FC, which happened to unveil its brand on the same day as the basketball club.

Pugh, a partner in the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group that is also bringing CFL football back to Ottawa, could not have had a better launch.

Long established as the president of the local Ottawa Fury soccer program, with deep roots in the community, Pugh has tapped into a solid, established nickname. Adding Football Club to the name speaks to the tradition of “soccer” football in Europe and around the globe.

Ottawa Fury FC is expected to become part of the NASL as early as 2014, depending on construction progress at Lansdowne Park for soccer and CFL football facilities.

As for the basketball whatchamacallits, the new club might discover than when it comes to sports endeavours in Ottawa, there isn’t always a second chance.

That is, unless it involves the CFL, where chance No. 3 is about to take flight.