Friday, April 6, 2012

What makes a good team name?

Go Chemics!
Credit: koco.com
Happy Easter -- and Happy Opening Day! Apropos of nothing, I was reminded of the name of the Albuquerque, NM team name: the Isotopes. I like that team name -- it's different (no Cats, Wolves, or Wolfcats!) and it's relevant (the nuclear history of New Mexico is significant*) and it's not part of the singularization trend in team names (Syracuse Orange, anyone?)

Along the chemistry theme, I seem to recall that the Midland, MI (near the Dow complex) high school team is the Chemics**.  A good team name if there were was one. 

Readers, got any good team names -- especially chemistry related ones? (I'm going to guess we're going to get a lot of intramural team names...)

*Yes, I am aware that the Isotopes are also named after the team in "The Simpsons."
** Howard Mudd was a Chemic!?! I had no idea. 

18 comments:

  1. Yes, this may be an intramural team name, but I've always liked the team name The Lachrymators.

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  2. Purple Benzene was my grad school IM Hoops team name.

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  3. I think somewhat related is the character/alter-ego names in professional wrestling. In my small inorganic class in undergraduate, we gave each other wrestler names. A couple of representative examples: The Bohr Magneton and the Tesla Tornado.

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  4. Richland, WA, is the town nearest the Hanford site, where they bred Pu for atomic bombs during and after WWII. (It's now the site of a National Lab and lots of radioactive waste.)
    The Richland High School team is the Bombers. Their symbol? A mushroom cloud.

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    1. I was taught calculus by a former Richland teacher -- she enjoyed the name/symbol.

      https://www.google.com/search?ix=aca&q=richland+bombers&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=qhh_T5mwPKa6iAei343HBA&biw=1482&bih=801&sei=xRh_T-7ZJoyziQenxuibBA

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  6. There's a robotics team here named "The Oddly Charged Particles".

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  7. I did my postdoc at Caltech with Harry Gray. We played our intramurals with John Bercaws group.
    Over the years our team had two different names
    Ligand Fielders
    and
    Cp All Stars

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  8. Our grad school dodgeball team was the Chemikazes. We gave each other impolite nicknames like Backside Attack and Mother Liquor.

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  9. CSU Org. Chem. StudentApril 6, 2012 at 12:52 PM

    Our city softball team name is the Quantum Mechanics. Has been since A. I. Meyers played on it.

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  10. The St. Louis College of Pharmacy team is the Eutectics.
    http://www.stlcop.edu/campuslife/tennis.asp

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  11. "The Natural Products" would be a good name!

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  12. The Neutrinos on the Block

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  13. The Isotopes are also....a band?

    http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/thelife/music/news/story?id=7778833

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  14. The University of Minnesota chemistry department intramural league had some great names. My favorites were the Self-Consistent Fielders and the Hoye's in the Hood.

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    1. When I was there, my favorite was I.M. Kolthoff and You Are Not.

      I probably need to explain that, huh? I.M. Kolthoff was a very prestigious analytical chemist at the U, and in fact is considered the father of analytical chemistry. The Koltoff Chemistry building was named after him, and he was the only male living in Comstock hall (at that point in time, the all-girls dorm) in a penthouse apartment at that!

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  15. Frankfort (IN) High School. Home of the Hot Dogs!

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  16. the chemistry department 5-a-side soccer team at my university contained "Bayern Mannich" and "Liquid Crystal Palace" which both raised a giggle

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looks like Blogger doesn't work with anonymous comments from Chrome browsers at the moment - works in Microsoft Edge, or from Chrome with a Blogger account - sorry! CJ 3/21/20