The Des Moines Dicksuckers

[jason voorhees]

The Des Moines Dicksuckers

And maybe it's from watching too many Jason/Friday the 13th movies, but I find the Wheeling Nailers logo one of the scariest/disconcerting logos in all of sports:

[Reed John]

The Des Moines Dicksuckers

That is a great name. It's probably the best thing about Wheeling.

Wheeling is in West Virginia, not too far from the Ohio border. I've driven through there a lot. It's a fairly depressing post-industrial, rusting husk of a city wedged into the Appalachians. I suppose the Wheeling Nailers are a real life version of the Charleston Chiefs in Slap Shot.

I think Wild may have been elected by the fans, but if so, I doubt it got a majority.

As TPC says, Minnesota had a minor league team called the Minnesota Moose, but they became the Manitoba Moose in Winnipeg. I don't recall if that happened when the Jets left Winnipeg or when the NHL announced the Wild were coming. One or the other.

Minnesota has an indoor lacrosse team called The Swarm (as in swarm of Mosquitoes.) The University of Minnesota is named the Golden Gophers. The NFL team, along with about a third of the high schools, it seems, are called the Vikings. The NBA team are the Timberwolves. They briefly had an arena football team called the Fightin' Pike. The old American Association baseball teams were the Minnesota Millers and St. Paul Saints. They also had a WHA team called the Minnesota Fighting Saints and there's a Northern League baseball team called the St. Paul Saints.

The only remaining good options would be the Loons, but loons are fairly non-combative creatures or maybe the Fightin' Walleye or maybe Black Bears.

[ursus arctos]

The Des Moines Dicksuckers

The Minnesota-Chicago rivalry in the NFL's "Black and Blue Division" has made life difficult for ursine nicknames in Minnesota. Blue Ox is more likely that Black Bears (which is also very closely associated with Maine, at least among those who care about such things).

A perusal of the Minnesotata Intercollegiate Athletic Conference website demonstrates that the entire state is nicknamed challenged: The St. John's Johnnies, St. Thomas Tommies, St. Olaf Oles, the Augsburg Auggies, the Gustavus Adolphus Gusties. It's as if creative nicknames violated Lutheran principles or something.

The one shining exception being the



Concordia Cobbers.

[The Exploding Vole]

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A number of Wisconsin high schools have colourful nicknames blissfully untainted by brand consultants and focus groups. Monroe's is the Cheesemakers [opposing fans invariably vowed to cut the Cheese]. Way up north, on the shores of Lake Superior, there are the Ashland Oredockers and Washburn Castle Guards.

Teams from Nekooska and Kimberly are both named the Papermakers. Eau Claire Memorial High School are the Old Abes. And I could be wrong, but Horicon High School's teams used to be called the Marshmen. They may be the Marshpeople now, which of course would be horrible.

Also, Manitowoc Ships, Rhinelander Hodags [the beast so often spoke of in the lumber-camp bunkhouses], Elkhart Lake Resorters, Clintonville Truckers and even the Kaukauna Galloping Ghosts.

[The Purple Cow]

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"...and there's a Northern League baseball team called the St. Paul Saints."

I try to get to a Saints game every time I'm in the area, they are a lot of fun. You can get your hair-cut while you are sitting in the stands, or get a back massage from a real nun. They've also trained a pig in a tutu to take the match balls out to the umpire.

**

"A number of Wisconsin high schools have colourful nicknames blissfully untainted by brand consultants and focus groups"

Indeed. My wife's old high-school play in the Big Rivers Conference...

Chippewa Falls Cardinals
Eau Claire Memorial Old Abes
Eau Claire North Huskies
Hudson Raiders
Menomonie Indians
Rice Lake Warriors
River Falls Wildcats
Superior Spartans

Though, their name 'The Indians' is very controversial. There is a movement to get the name changed according to this Wikipedia page.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menomonie_Senior_High

[evilC]

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The Purple Cow wrote:

...or get a back massage from a real nun. They've also trained a pig in a tutu to take the match balls out to the umpire.

Brilliant! Can you imagine things like that going on at Premier League games? ...or certain Scottish ones?

[The Purple Cow]

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Oh good grief, he's now sponsored by UPS.

Is nothing sacred?



[EDIT: Hamline University - ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.]

[ursus arctos]

The Des Moines Dicksuckers

That's great (even with the sponsorship). St. Paul is a great place to live if you can put up with the weather and distance from the ocean/coasts.

Charlie Finley started this almost 40 years ago with his mechanical rabbit in Kansas City, before he moved the Athletics to Oakland.

[Reed John]

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Those colleges named for a saint seem to almost always go with something boring, but it reflects the historical genesis of these names. Usually they were just informal nicknames given to the team by students or a sportswriter and then later adopted as the "official" name. They weren't decided on by focus groups and what not.

Here's a good list of some interesting high school names.

My favorite all-time high school name are the Sleepy Hollow High Horsemen of Tarrytown, New York.

I also really like Steel Valley Ironmen. Near Pittsburgh.

[Wyatt Earp]

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The Exploding Vole wrote:

Monroe's is the Cheesemakers.

What's so special about the cheesemakers?

[Reed John]

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It's not meant to be taken literally.

[The Purple Cow]

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Minnesota's "Awesome Blossoms"

[Toby Gymshorts]

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Reed of the Valley People wrote:

It's not meant to be taken literally.

It refers to any manufacturers of dairy products.