The Trenton Ironhawks will be the name of the relocated Utah Grizzlies franchise. The team held a naming contest that received over 2,000 submissions (unfortunately none of our submissions from part one or part two were winners). The team name was announced on Tuesday morning with a fan event held at their new home of Cure Insurance Arena that event.
When Toronto was awarded an NBA franchise in 1994 and it chose the team name, "Raptors," the initial public reaction included plenty of mockery. But kids like dinosaurs, and Jurassic Park had just been released in 1993, so the jerseys sold well. The kitsch factor perhaps overshadowed the silliness of a name that truly had nothing to do with the city of Toronto.
Everyone felt that Chiefs was more appropriate on the basis that we are a sovereign nation of many tribes; over 850 languages and 1,000 tribes and before there was a prime minister, and a king or queen in England, the sovereign head within the tribe was the Chief. Our forefathers and mothers were chiefs who kept order, peace, and balance among our tribes.
Inside the Marcus Mariota Performance Center, history dangles from wire hangers. The glitz and glamour surrounding Oregon football is not immediately apparent. This is a practical place -- a dimly lit, long hallway inside the second floor of the equipment room furnished with gray built-in closets -- created not as a way to showcase, but rather to store the very thing that has become synonymous with the Ducks: their vast array of fabrics, colors and prints.