The Portland Rosebuds were one of six teams in the short-lived West Coast Baseball Association, a Negro League that lasted a mere two months in 1946 before disbanding. The league boasted some heavy hitters, so to speak, including Harlem Globetrotters owner Abe Saperstein, who headed the league, and four-time Olympic
Category: The Story Behind the Nickname
Pickle Things Are Happening: The Story Behind the Portland Pickles
The first time marketing entrepreneur Alan Miller heard the name of the collegiate summer level Portland Pickles, a team he now co-owns with former Seattle Seahawks punter Jon Ryan (among others), he was not too sure about it. “When I originally heard it,” he said, “it was a little bit
Authenticity, Collaboration, Respect: The Story Behind the Spokane Indians
Recent conversations about the use of Native American imagery in sports brands have been adversarial, at best. The now-former name of the football team in Washington, DC, was an actual racial slur. The Cleveland Indians used a cartoon caricature of a Native American as a logo for decades. Fans of
Headbanger: The Story Behind the Fayetteville Woodpeckers
The U.S. Army’s Fort Bragg comprises more than 250 square miles in central North Carolina and is one of the largest military installations in the world. The fifth largest city in the state of North Carolina, Fayetteville, sits adjacent to the fort and reflects a culture that is heavily influenced
Blown Away: The Story Behind the Tri-City Dust Devils
Mention Washington State to most people and the words evoke images of a lush Pacific Northwest climate, with misty waterways and layers of green in the temperate rainforests. But on the east side of the Cascade Mountains—roughly two-thirds of the state—you’ll find a much different scene. Erik “The Peanut Guy”
More Cowbell: The Story Behind the Visalia Rawhide
Roughly 200 miles southeast of San Francisco and 200 miles north of Los Angeles sits the town of Visalia, California. With a population of just over 130,000, Visalia is situated smack dab in the middle of California’s San Joaquin Valley, known for its hot, dry summers and its prolific agricultural
Top Dog: The Story Behind the Amarillo Sod Poodles
Prairie dogs are tubby rodents that serve as food for basically every predator: hawks, coyotes, snakes, semi-trucks, you name it. So what would make a baseball team in a rough-and-tumble part of the country like western Texas want to adopt them as the foundation for their brand? That question was
Is this Logo a Sandwich? The Story Behind the Chicago Dogs
Chicago-style hot dogs are more works of art than they are food items. Don’t get me wrong, they’re delicious, but it’s amazing to watch a street vendor construct one of these things, and even more amazing when you work out the geometry required to actually fit one in your mouth.
Taking Flight: The Story Behind the Las Vegas Aviators
The 2019 season brought an armful of change for the Triple-A baseball team in Las Vegas. After 36 years playing in downtown Las Vegas at Cashman Field—a symmetrical 18 seasons as the Stars and 18 as the 51s—the team moved to a jazzy new ballpark in nearby Summerlin, signed a
Of Happy Campers and Bull Testicles: The Story Behind the Rocky Mountain Vibes
When the Triple-A Colorado Springs Sky Sox moved to Texas to become the San Antonio Missions before the 2019 season, the void left in professional baseball’s highest-elevation stadium was filled by the short-season single-A Helena Brewers, who moved to Colorado from Montana. From the outset, the process of naming the
The Story Behind Patriot Pat from the Cartoonist Who Created Him
In 1960, Boston Globe cartoonist Phil Bissell, working for $25 a day, was handed an assignment that would change his life—and the lives of fans of the brand-new AFL football team coming to Boston. “Sports editor Jerry Nason came to me and he said, ‘They’ve decided to call the team
The Bear Facts: The Story Behind the Tennessee Smokies
Ask most people what the most-visited national park in the United States is and their minds will almost certainly go first to one of the iconic sites out west. But the answer to that question is not the Grand Canyon or Yosemite or Yellowstone, but Great Smoky Mountain National Park, which