Worst entity/group to have a well-known nickname

RRMarshall
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Re: Worst entity/group to have a well-known nickname

Post by RRMarshall »

Remember Thunder and Lightning with the Giants ? Rod Dayne and Tiki Barber ... more like Sputter and Fumble.
Barber got better though and was a dual threat that has a HOF case ...


I believe the original Thunder and Lightning was used on the backfield tandem of Tony Galbreath and Chuck Muncie from the late 70s New Orleans Saints.
Odd nickname for players on a Dome team, don't you think??
sheajets
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Re: Worst entity/group to have a well-known nickname

Post by sheajets »

Always wondered regarding Dallas and them being Americas Team (not disputing the title, their success, them being on National TV so much etc) but what was the first year you could truly consider the Cowboys to be the most popular team in America? If such polls were conducted in the 70s...when did you first get that feeling that surveying all the fans across America, that Dallas would be #1.
sheajets
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Re: Worst entity/group to have a well-known nickname

Post by sheajets »

Also one of the more underrated ones was the Crunch Bunch for the Giants. I guess it later morphed into Big Blue Wrecking Crew. You don't hear much about the Crunch Bunch anymore...specifically it was the LB's (Van Pelt, Kelley, Taylor, and Carson)
Brian wolf
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Re: Worst entity/group to have a well-known nickname

Post by Brian wolf »

The moniker basically started after the Cowboys beat Denver in SB 12 ... but for my money, I think Dallas really started capturing the imagination of the nation when Clint Longley threw the TD to Drew Pearson to beat the Redskins on Thanksgiving Day in 1974. With brand new Texas Stadium, playing on late sunday starts with CBS capitalizing, especially with late game Staubach heroics and subsequent success with the Hail Mary game, SBs 10, 12 and 13, and the success of the show Dallas, the moniker of "America's Team, for better or worse, gave a team everybody could love or hate ...
lastcat3
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Re: Worst entity/group to have a well-known nickname

Post by lastcat3 »

Yeah the official title of 'America's Team' didn't start until the 1978 season highlight film. However highlights going all the way back to the late '60's talk about them being an extremely popular team who had fans all over the country and that they would often have just as many fans at away games as the home team did.

The main thing was that they simply did a great job at marketing themselves. Other key contributing factors though were that they played the Giants, Redskins, and Eagles every single year (probably the most populated area of the entire country). Their head coach was a former Giants coach and there weren't really all that many successful teams (and not as many teams in general) in the South.
Jamie Johnson
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Re: Worst entity/group to have a well-known nickname

Post by Jamie Johnson »

“The James Gang” for James Jones and Garry James of the 5-11 Lions in 1986.
RichardBak
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Re: Worst entity/group to have a well-known nickname

Post by RichardBak »

Back when the Lions were winning in the early '50s, local sportswriters tried dubbing the Lions' interior defensive wall of MG Les Bingaman and tackles John Prchlik and Thurman McGraw the "Hunks of Granite," but that went over like a cement balloon. They also tried calling the defensive secondary of Jack Christiansen, Yale Lary, etc. "Chris's Gang" before settling on the more alliterative "Chris's Crew."

The local scribes also struck out on nicknaming the Detroit defense as a whole, attempting such cringe-worthy monikers as "Detroit Destroyers" and the "Dirty Shirts." The first one sounds like it belongs to a roller derby team and the other sounds like the name of a laundry.
rhickok1109
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Re: Worst entity/group to have a well-known nickname

Post by rhickok1109 »

RichardBak wrote:Back when the Lions were winning in the early '50s, local sportswriters tried dubbing the Lions' interior defensive wall of MG Les Bingaman and tackles John Prchlik and Thurman McGraw the "Hunks of Granite," but that went over like a cement balloon. They also tried calling the defensive secondary of Jack Christiansen, Yale Lary, etc. "Chris's Gang" before settling on the more alliterative "Chris's Crew."

The local scribes also struck out on nicknaming the Detroit defense as a whole, attempting such cringe-worthy monikers as "Detroit Destroyers" and the "Dirty Shirts." The first one sounds like it belongs to a roller derby team and the other sounds like the name of a laundry.
:D
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Bryan
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Re: Worst entity/group to have a well-known nickname

Post by Bryan »

Jamie Johnson wrote:“The James Gang” for James Jones and Garry James of the 5-11 Lions in 1986.
Good one. I had forgotten about both those players.
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