by liberal japonicus
While in the US, there is an apparent cultural taboo about naming sports teams after business concerns (though stadiums connected with the team seem to be fair game, as Network Associates Coliseum, home of the Oakland Raiders and Qualcomm Stadium, home of the San Diego Chargers suggests), in Japan, there is no such dividing line. So for most people, it is not the Tokyo Giants, it is the Yomiuri (a major newspaper) Giants, the Seibu (a department store) Lions and the Softbank (a cell phone company) Hawks. Still, I had to take a second look when there was a team called Yokohama DeNA Baystars. The various names of the team are explained in the wikipedia entry and DeNA is a mobile game company.
While this was pretty strange to me, I recently had to explain why US college teams had such a wide cast of characters, from Ducks to Badgers, Irish to Illini (and the infamous Chief Illniwek), as well as Bananaslugs,Tar Heels, and Boilermakers. In the it has to be seen to believed category, a little extra internet research reveals that the Rhode Island School of Design has a mascot called 'Scrotie' (google it yourself) but fortunately, I didn't have to explain that one.
So, take to the comments to explain why this state of affairs obtains, or to share bizarre mascots you know and love. Or talk about whatever you want!
Fisher High School in Fisher Illinois fields the Fisher Bunnies.
“Let’s go Bunnies
Mighty mighty Bunnies … ”
Some schools have great nicknames for their sports teams. My mother went to Centralia (IL) High School. It’s teams were nicknamed the Orphans after someone said of their basketball team, “They look like a bunch of orphans out there.”
My fave japanese team is the Nippon Ham Fighters. I like to think of them as players who fight ham for Nippon, rather than on behalf of Nippon Ham.
Ahem
And, of course.
My H.S. was named after Teddy Roosevelt, with the obvious Rough Riders nickname. Until the football coach was caught having sex on the roof…
Maybe he was having sex on the roof because of the nickname…
“Fight, fight, Inner Light! Kill, Quakers, kill!”
I’d like to know what a Nittany Lion is.
I’d also like to know if the Yuba City Honkers have a girls basketball team.
From you who live in Japan or otherwise know it well, I’d like to enquire whether it is polite to discuss the success of the company team in business small talk. At least the Japanese partners my company have show polite interest in the teams we are sponsoring, even taking the care to find out their latest game scores. Is this a common practice?
Lurker, I’m not sure, but I imagine it is. The team is a representative of the company, which is why the team can really come down like a ton of bricks on people who are misbehaving. I’ll ask some friends in the business world if that is the case.
Along with the Banana Slugs (UC Santa Cruz), there’s the Anteaters (UC Irvine) and the Artichokes (Scottsdale Community College).
And these are *official* mascots. Some of the unofficial ones (Fighting Okra?) are even stranger.
Thanks, liberal japonicus!
The HS in Rock Island, Il. is home of the — wait for it — Rocks.
SCIAC (Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) has some of the least threatening mascots, including the Whittier Poets, Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens, and Caltech Beavers. The trend for baseball teams to name themselves after the color of their socks also leads to some very mild nicknames.
The University of Maryland Terrapins (Motto: Fear the Turtle.)
I believe they’re now the Owls, but when I went to Bryn Mawr, the teams were the Mawrtyrs. That didn’t exactly scare our opponents out of the pool.