New Orleans Reclaims a Bit of Heritage

The NBA franchise in New Orleans, currently named the Hornets, has opted to change their name to the Pelicans as early as next season. The Hornets, as a name, is mostly associated with Charlotte. I once wrote a  piece about team names and places, and the association of the name "Hornets" and the city of Charlotte dates back to the middle 1700s.

The NBA team that was founded in Charlotte in 1988 moved to New Orleans in, what, 2002? So far the most important thing accomplished by them is to show that Oklahoma City can support an NBA franchise (the Hornets moved to OKC in the aftermath of Katrina).

So what do we have? The Hornets, as a name, will likely be moving back to Charlotte, replacing their current "Bobcats" moniker, and that makes sense. The current Hornets will become the Pelicans, and again, that makes a sense. Here's a mock-up of what the logo COULD look like:

Now, their logo most likely won't ever look like that, but that looks pretty cool. I've read many fans comments who thing that the Pelicans as a name is stupid, or lame, and should be something fearsome. Like a Wizard, or a Buck, or a Celtic, right? Some people say that the team in Utah, the Jazz, originally from New Orleans, should send their name back to the Big Easy. Other people suggest that they should have chose something else, like the Brass.

"Pelicans", though, goes way back with the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana. Here's a vintage T-shirt from their long-standing OG minor league team:

And here's one of their jerseys. The Pelicans won many pennants in their own league throughout their existence. Minor league baseball returned to New Orleans a few years ago, but now they're called the Zephyrs.

Living where I live now, in Southern California, I've had the opportunity to go to the beach and watch the pelicans hold court, the largest and most regal of our sea-birds. Their dive-bombing for fish is a great sight and like watching a highlight reel from a nature show. When it's feeding time, it's on.

Anyone who's ever seen a dive-bombing pelican would never complain that they'd make a lame mascot.

A Pair from Middle Earth

Tolkien's Middle Earth has been realized in the flesh of grass and rocks and mountains and canyons in the Southern nation of New Zealand, but anyone familiar with the Peter Jackson trilogy knows that information.

Today I bring two flags from the Down Under's cousin.

One is the symbol of the All Blacks, the name given to the national teams from New Zealand, and it'll look weird here wit the black background:

The Silver Fern. I'm not totally clear how the silver fern, or here, what looks like a white fern, became the symbol for all New Zealand international sports teams, but it is. If you ever see a silver or white fern on a black field, rest assured you're looking at something associated with kiwis (the affectionate demonym for a New Zealanders).

Here's the next, one I came across a while back randomly and snatched it up:

This is called the Maori flag, the flag for the indigenous Australnesian peoples who inhabit the islands of New Zealand. I think it looks pretty cool. (Also, it may look cool with the black background.)