USA Sports Teams' Origins Trivia Quiz

Answer: Original

The Chicago Cubs began in 1870 as a team called the Chicago White Stockings. Just one year after they started, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed their stadium and all their equipment, forcing them to stop playing the next two seasons while the city rebuilt. They eventually returned and became a founding member of the National League, even winning the very first league championship in 1876.

For many years, the team didn't have a permanent nickname and was called things like the Colts or the Orphans. In 1902, a local newspaper started calling them the Cubs because the team was full of talented young players. Fans loved the name so much that the team officially adopted it in 1907, the same year they won their first World Series title.

Answer: Original

In 1883, a team from Massachusetts called the Worcester Ruby Legs went bankrupt and folded. The National League decided to move that open spot to Philadelphia. A sporting goods dealer named Al Reach bought the rights and started a new team. He originally thought to call them the Phillies since most of the players were from that city.

However, many local newspapers preferred the name the Quakers because of Pennsylvania's history, and for about seven years, the team used both names at the same time. But the team was so bad at the start-winning only 17 games in their first season-that the Quakers name never caught on. Finally, in 1890, the team officially dropped everything else and made Phillies their permanent, legal name.

Answer: Original

In August 1919, a man named Curly Lambeau (think of the stadium) wanted to start a professional football team in his hometown of Green Bay, Wisconsin. He was working as a shipping clerk for the Indian Packing Company, so he asked his employer for money to buy uniforms and equipment. The company agreed to give him $500 as long as the team was named after them. Because they were "packing" meat, the team became the Green Bay Packers.

For a long time, the Packers struggled to stay in business. In the 1940s and 50s, their stadium was so small and run down that the NFL threatened to move the team to the much larger city of Milwaukee unless they built a new field. The people of Green Bay (who actually own the team as a non-profit) voted to tax themselves to build Lambeau Field in 1957.

Answer: Original

In 1933, Art Rooney (nicknamed "The Chief") paid $2,500 to the NFL (National Football League) to start a team in Pittsburgh. Because baseball was the most popular sport at the time, Rooney simply named his football team the Pittsburgh Pirates, hoping to copy the success of the city's existing baseball team. For the first seven years, the city had two different Pirates teams. However, the football team struggled to win games and was often confused with the baseball team, so local newspapers started calling them the Rooneymen just to tell them apart.

By 1940, Rooney decided the team needed its own unique identity. He held a "name the team" contest in the local newspaper, and out of 3,000 entries, 21 people suggested the name Steelers. Rooney loved it because it reflected the hardworking men in the city's famous and massive steel mills. The team officially changed its name in 1941.

Answer: Original

In 1946, a man named Ned Irish founded the team as one of the original members of the Basketball Association of America (the league that later became the NBA). He wanted a name that was "distinctly New York". Legend has it that he and his staff put several name ideas into a hat and pulled them out. Most of the slips of paper said Knickerbockers. The name refers to the original Dutch settlers of New York, specifically the "knickerbocker" style of pants they wore that rolled up just below the knee.

The name New York Knickerbockers was a bit of a mouthful, so from the very first season, fans and newspapers naturally started shortening it to just the Knicks. While the team is still officially the Knickerbockers on their legal documents, the Knicks nickname became so popular that it eventually became their primary brand.

Answer: Original

The Boston Celtics were founded in 1946 by Walter Brown, who wanted to bring a professional basketball team to the city's famous Boston Garden. While his advisors suggested very imaginative names like the Unicorns, the Whirlwinds, or the Olympics, Brown had a different idea. He chose Celtics because it honored the city's massive Irish-American population and paid tribute to a famous New York barnstorming team from the 1920s called the Original Celtics.

Brown famously declared, "Boston is full of Irishmen. We'll put them in green uniforms and call them the Boston Celtics!" To complete the identity, the team adopted the shamrock and a leprechaun mascot named Lucky.

Answer: Transplant

The team started in Boston back in 1871. Over the next 80 years, they went through a dozen different nicknames (including the Beaneaters and the Bees) before settling on the Braves. However, they were always overshadowed by the more popular Boston Red Sox. In 1953, they became the first team in 50 years to relocate, moving to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They were a huge hit there at first, even winning a World Series in 1957, but after a few years, attendance began to drop.

In 1966, the team made history again by moving to Atlanta, becoming the first Major League team of any kind to call the Deep South home. The move was at the request of Atlanta's leaders, who wanted to prove the city was a great and fun destination. While the move was controversial in Milwaukee, Atlanta embraced them with a massive parade. Ten years later, a young businessman named Ted Turner bought the team and used his "Superstation" (TBS) to broadcast their games across the entire country, which is how they earned the nickname "America's Team".

Answer: Transplant

The team started in Brooklyn, New York, in 1883 and eventually became known as the Dodgers (a nickname for trolley dodgers who had to navigate the busy streets). For decades, the team played at Ebbets Field, a small stadium where the fans were so close to the action they felt like part of the team. In 1947, the Dodgers made history by signing Jackie Robinson, breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball. They won the World Series in New York in 1955.

By the mid-1950s, the team's owner, Walter O'Malley, wanted a modern stadium with more parking and seats, but he couldn't reach a deal with New York City officials. At the same time, the city of Los Angeles wanted a major league team and offered O'Malley a huge plot of land called Chavez Ravine. In 1958, O'Malley made the decision to move the team 3,000 miles away. Brooklyn fans were upset but the move was a massive success. The Dodgers drew record-breaking crowds in California and won a World Series in Los Angeles just one year after arriving.

Answer: Transplant

The team started in Chicago in 1898 as an amateur neighborhood team called the Morgan Athletic Club. A few years later, their founder, Chris O'Brien, bought used jerseys from the University of Chicago. He described the faded red color as cardinal red. The team became the Chicago Cardinals and was a founding member of the NFL (National Football League) in 1920. For decades, they played in the shadow of the Chicago Bears, often struggling to draw fans and money.

In 1960, the team moved to St. Louis, Missouri, to find their own identity. They were successful at first, but by the mid-1980s, the owner, Bill Bidwill, was unhappy with their aging stadium and low attendance. In 1988, he made the decision to transplant the team to Phoenix, Arizona. For the first several years in the desert, they were known as the Phoenix Cardinals, but in 1994, they changed their name to the Arizona Cardinals to show they represented the entire state.

Answer: Transplant

The team was founded in 1953 as the Baltimore Colts. They quickly became a powerhouse, winning championships in the 1950s and 60s behind legendary players like Johnny Unitas. The name Colts was chosen to honor Baltimore's rich history of horse racing and the famous Preakness Stakes. For decades, the team played at the old Memorial Stadium. However, by the late 1970s, the stadium was falling apart, and the team's owner, Robert Irsay, began clashing with city officials over who would pay for a new one.

The end of the Colts in Baltimore happened literally overnight. In March 1984, the Maryland state legislature was moving to pass a law that would allow the city to seize the team from Irsay to keep them from leaving. To beat the clock, Irsay secretly struck a deal with the city of Indianapolis, which had just built a brand-new stadium. On the night of March 28, a fleet of 15 Mayflower moving vans pulled up to the team's training complex. Workers loaded everything from helmets to office cabinets and the trucks took different routes out of town to avoid being stopped. By the time Baltimore residents woke up the next morning, their team was gone.

Answer: Transplant

The team was founded in 1947 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They chose the name Lakers as a tribute to Minnesota's famous state nickname, "The Land of 10,000 Lakes". In the early years of the NBA (National Basketball Association), the Lakers won five championships in six years behind their superstar center, George Mikan. They played in the Minneapolis Auditorium, and for over a decade, they were superstars in the North.

By the late 1950s, attendance in Minneapolis began to drop after their star players retired. At the same time, the Brooklyn Dodgers had just moved to Los Angeles and were a massive success. The Lakers' owner, Bob Short, realized that Los Angeles could be the answer for his basketball team. In 1960, he officially transplanted the team to Los Angeles. Even though California has very few natural lakes compared to Minnesota, the Lakers brand was so successful and famous that the team decided to keep the name exactly as it was.

Answer: Transplant

The team started in Philadelphia in 1946 as one of the original members of the league. They were named after an old 1920s basketball team from the same city. The Philadelphia Warriors were a massive success early on, winning the very first league championship in 1947. They even featured the legendary Wilt Chamberlain, who once scored 100 points in a single game while wearing a Warriors uniform.

In 1962, the team was sold and moved across the country to become the San Francisco Warriors. However, they had a hard time finding a permanent home and often split their games between San Francisco, San Diego, and Oakland. By 1971, the team moved across the bay to Oakland. Instead of calling themselves the Oakland Warriors, they decided to change their name to the Golden State Warriors to show they represented the entire state. They returned to San Francisco in 2019 to play at the Chase Center.