A TEAM of OUR OWN “Lions, and Tigers, and Bears! Oh, Lumberjacks, Minutemen, and Pa- My!” While This May Sound Like a Line by John H
May/June1999 Vol. 32 • No. 3 May/June 1999 A TEAM OF OUR OWN “Lions, and Tigers, and Bears! Oh, Lumberjacks, Minutemen, and Pa- my!” While this may sound like a line by John H. Gámez dres. Ethnic groups are also repre- from a famous motion picture, it is sented such as Eskimos, Vikings, actually a partial listing of profes- Canadiens, Canucks, Americans, sional sports mascots and nick- Hawaiians, Floridians, La Raza, names.1 Metros-Croatia (from Toronto, ON), While Americans often think of Texans, Tejanos, Aztecs, Indians, professional sports as being limited and yes, Soviets. to football, baseball, basketball, and Some nicknames were chosen be- ice hockey, the Sports Logo Guide cause of the state of race relations also identifies professional lacrosse, of the day. Black athletes were at one roller derby, roler hockey, soccer, time not allowed to compete against team tennis, and volleyball. In all, white athletes. To circumvent this that reference identifies 82 profes- problem many black baseball teams sional North American sports pretended to be foreign. Thus, were leagues, both active and defunct, born the Cubans, Cuban Stars, and from before the turn of the century our military heritage. Companies, others. to 1997. battalions, and regiments have of- With the controversey surround- Organized sports goes back to the ten carried proud names such as ing the use of Native American very dawn of civilization, with every Guards, Rifles, Dragoons, Lancers, names as team nicknames, U.S. culture having some sort of athletic Zouaves, and so on. The American News and World Report ran a story competition as part of it’s heritage.
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