Panthers vs. Sharks, Blue Jays vs. Cardinals, Bears vs. Lions...

July 14, 2009 8:44 AM

Is it mainly North America that has a thing for animal-themed sports teams?

I am not a "sports guy" by any stretch of the imagination, so even coming up with more than a dozen sports teams in North America is tough, to say nothing of things like cricket and rugby teams around the globe. I know that animal names don't make up the majority of pro team names on my continent, but there seem to be a lot of 'em, and I'm wondering if North America is alone in its focus on animal team names and mascots, or if this is a global phenomenon.

posted by Shepherd to sports, hobbies, & recreation (18 comments total)

Hanshin Tigers
posted by Iron Rat at 8:50 AM on July 14

Australian Football League: Crows, Lions, Magpies, Cats, Hawks, Kangaroos, Tigers, Swans, Eagles, Bulldogs.
posted by smackfu at 8:50 AM on July 14

Rugby League teams in Australia are very much into the "animal team names" thing :)

Manly Sea-Eagles, St George-Illawarra Dragons, Parramatta Eels, Penrith Panthers, Canterbury Bulldogs, South Sydney Rabbitohs, Brisbane Broncos, Balmain Tigers

And so on :)
posted by mahke at 8:51 AM on July 14

Early baseball teams had such exciting official names as "The New York Baseball Club." What we consider the "names" of baseball teams generally started out as nicknames, and are often still referred to as such.
posted by yesno at 9:15 AM on July 14

Very few British teams are nicknamed for animals. Cardiff's football (soccer) team are "the bluebirds", but offhand I can't think of any others. Rugby has a few (Lions and Wasps are the ones that spring to mind), but it's not the norm.

I vaguely remember seeing that several (British) American Football teams in a UK university league are named after animals, but I've forgotten them all. It's really not a big sport here and the university leagues for all sports (except the Ox/Cam boat race) are largely ignored by most people who aren't currently in university, so I'd be surprised if many people could name any of them.
posted by metaBugs at 9:18 AM on July 14

I should add that many (most?) teams do have commonly used nicknames, it's just that not many of them are animals. E.g. Arsenal are "the gunners".
posted by metaBugs at 9:21 AM on July 14

In Japanese baseball (which of course is heavily influenced by American baseball), many of the teams have animal names (including the not very threatening-sounding Carp).
posted by burnmp3s at 9:49 AM on July 14

A good number of Super League teams are named after animals. However, these are rather artificial names introduced when the league was created in the mid 90s, as Sky TV tried to sex up the game. County cricket pulled a similar renaming stunt in the one-day league, though with less animals, I think.

There are a few English football teams whose nicknames are animals (e.g. Hull - Tigers, Huddersfield - Terriers, Bristol City - Robins), but none of these are part of the official team name.
posted by Bodd at 9:53 AM on July 14

More football (soccer) team nicknames:

Norwich City are the Canaries. Newcastle United are nicknamed the Magpies. Derby County are nicknamed the Rams. Wolverhampton Wanderers are nicknamed (surprisingly) Wolves. Barnet are called the Bees, though that might have more to do with the club's initial letter than anything else.

Rugby League in the UK has a whole bunch of animal-themed team names, and not just nicknames.
posted by tapeguy at 9:55 AM on July 14

This wikipedia page only covers football (soccer), but it's still pretty awesome. It classifies all the teams across all the world leagues by what kind of nickname they have.
posted by smackfu at 10:05 AM on July 14

My home prefecture in Japan has a new minor league baseball team with the wonderful name of "Fukui Miracle Elephants."
posted by KokuRyu at 10:32 AM on July 14

Very few British teams are nicknamed for animals. Cardiff's football (soccer) team are "the bluebirds", but offhand I can't think of any others.

Derby Rams
Newcastle Magpies
posted by yerfatma at 10:40 AM on July 14

Many of the soccer teams in Mexico are named after animals.

And, smackfu, that really is an awesome page.
posted by Penks at 10:44 AM on July 14

Korean Baseball Organization teams: Lions, Tigers, Bears, Eagles, Giants, Heroes, Twins, and Wyverns (!).
posted by billtron at 1:01 PM on July 14

I would hazard that the Japanese and Korean animal names of teams probably stems from the American influence involved in those sports. Both baseball (Giants, Golden Eagles, Tigers, Carp...) and basketball (Seahorses. Seriously.) are imported, with a lot of cultural tidbits attached.

J-League soccer on the other hand, has (like soccer in America, with D.C. United) names that more closely reflect... hell, I'm not quite sure what Sanfrecce Hiroshima, Urawa Reds, and, my favorite, the Kyoto Purple Sanga actually represent.

What's a Sanga? Do they come in colors aside from purple?
posted by Ghidorah at 4:13 PM on July 14

This is less true in college sports than in pro sports. Consider the Ivy League, for example; out of eight Ivy League team names, there are three colors (Cornell Big Red, Dartmouth Big Green, Harvard Crimson) and one pacifist religion (Penn Quakers). The other four are animals, though.
posted by madcaptenor at 9:15 PM on July 14

Curiosity: satisfied! Thanks, all!
posted by Shepherd at 3:41 AM on July 15

What's a Sanga? Do they come in colors aside from purple?

A sang(h)a is a group, or, I suppose, a team. The usual context is a group of Buddhists.
posted by mendel at 8:46 AM on July 17