I do a lot of work with the National Basketball League of Canada, they have eight different teams in the league and the playoffs are just two weeks away.
On Wednesday, the league announced that a ninth franchise, based in Ottawa, would join the NBL for the 2013-14 season. And as new teams will do, they had a “name-the-team” contest, where the Ottawa faithful cold come up with a cool name for their new hoops team.
Thousands of names were selected, and the list was narrowed down to about a dozen possible choices.
And then, on Wednesday, the Ottawa franchise announced its nickname at a press conference.
The new team name? The Ottawa Tomahawks.
Oh no they didn’t.
And that’s the same response from the fans, from the NBL, and even from the mayor of Ottawa.
Now I understand why the team chose that nickname. They were basing the idea on the “Tomahawk Slam,” a crowd-cheering dunk.
Or they could have been referencing the Tomahawk missile, a weapon of mass destruction.
But let’s face it. If you hear the team name “tomahawks,” you’re not thinking of missiles or slam dunks, are you?
No. You’re thinking of one of these.
And you’re thinking of the tomahawk as a weapon used by Native Americans and First Nations members.
At a time when many teams have dumped these kinds of nicknames, why would anybody ever want to bring that type of “noble savage as a sports logo” imagery back? What’s next, are we looking for a new team to call themselves the Minstrels?
Makes no sense to me.
And in fact, a day after the team name was announced, the Ottawa franchise chose to quietly delete the name and come up with a new sobriquet.
I just wish that someone had thought ahead and realized that we, as sports fans, have moved past creating team names that depict a race of people as some sort of sports iconography.
So I hope the new Ottawa NBL franchise finds a decent team nickname prior to their first game in November 2013.
Oh, and guys, do me a favor.
Don’t pick the name “Patroons.” That’s off limits, ‘k?
Chuck The Writer 
I was thinking of Ed Ames, which goes to show my age.
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Roger – you mean this?
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Sorry, Chuck. To me this is no more offensive than “The Flintlocks.” But I’m sure someone would find a way to make a big deal out of that, too.
I have a brown paper shopping bag down in the basement that’s full of my old plastic / rubber cowboys, Indians, horses, knives, rifles, and yes — teeny tiny tomahawks, from the 50s.
Perhaps the best thing to do is fall in line, turn myself in, and hand them over to the PC police.
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CP Retiree –
I can understand what you’re saying. But I think the issue here is that in an era where sports teams have dropped Indian nicknames – heck, Siena’s team was once known as the Indians – it’s very odd for a new team to add some sort of Indian reference to its team nickname.
Then again, it is Ottawa, and their choices for nicknames have either been Senators or Rough Riders.
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I understand where you’re coming from too, Chuck.
But if such statistics are even maintained, I gotta wonder how many of these local, state, national, international objections to Indian-nicknamed teams were even brought forward by…Indians.
My guess — and it’s just that — is that it was by someone trying to avoid the possibility of maybe (sorry) ruffling someone’s feathers.
Oops.
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The Ed Ames / Johnny Carson bit still makes me laugh, which I guess gives a hint to my age, too.
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I think they should call themselves the “Ottawa Canons.” Would you photograph for them if that happened?
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Ed – Ottawa Cannons, yeah. Ottawa Canons, not a chance.
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Chuck, I don’t think that the folks who chose the name “Tomahawks” meant it as a put-down of Native Americans. But “Then again, it is Ottawa, and their choices for nicknames have either been Senators or Rough Riders,” comes off as a put-down of the entire province. Hmmm.
A tomahawk is an object, as opposed to naming the team the Indians or the Redskins. Maybe they should just eliminate team names altogether so that no one gets offended. Ottawa itself is a Native American word, is it not? Should they rename their province something more PC?
Or maybe folks should just get a grip.
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Roz – let’s put it this way. A few years ago, there was a new minor league basketball team in Quebec City, and the owner of the team thought it would be a great idea to name the team the “Quebec Jumping Frogs.” Jumping Frogs? When “frog” is considered an insult to French-speaking people, and you’re going to put the team in French Canada? Yeah, that worked out NOT well… You’ve got an opportunity to brand your team and get your fans behind it. Try to pick a name that’s not going to offend an organization that has been easily offended in the past.
And as for my reference to “Rough Riders,” at one point there were nine teams in the Canadian Football League and two of them were named “Rough Riders” (you could only tell them apart in that one team used two words, and the other team just called their squad “Roughriders”).
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I’ve gotta agree with Roz. Why is the name of a weapon offensive? If they called them the “Fightin’ Injuns” I’d be offended too – but Tomahawks? Really? Someone should tell the Sabres they are offensive.
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The reason why its not offensive is because the Canadians gave the Native Americans refuge, whereas in America we launched a campaign of genocide.
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eh, the name “tomahawk” itself isn’t too bad. And the logo has nothing to do with Indians like the Washington Redskins. But I wonder if they do the “tomahawk chop” like how they do at Atlanta Braves games? Or any other cliche Indian stereotypes like that?
Chuck do they fly you out to these games or are you driving? Either way that’s a LOT of miles you’re racking up traveling.
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