A Brief (Tongue in Cheek) Introduction

[Loyola_Fan]

Illinois Chicago. Its takes a special kind of gumption to name your team after the worst disaster to strike a city in its history. I mean, that’s like saying being the San Francisco Earthquakes, or New York Knicks. At least the team has support. Mainly from Aldermen who are under federal indictment, but who is counting? At this point, they are as bad as the Cubs, but at least they don’t have the unrealistic love for Shawon Dunston. Seriously though, Flames? Almost as bad as having a Crusader as your mascot…

2. The "Clout" - an obvious nod to Chicago's legendary style of politics, but who in their right mind could think that naming a team after a system of political corruption is/was a good idea? IIRC, this name was proposed by the Chancellor.....as a joke. The students thought it was funny enough, however, that it got enough petition signatures to get on the ballot. Had it won, the mascot would likely have been a Ward Comitteeman. Go Grfters!!

What a missed opportunity

[Blers42]

Illinois Chicago. Its takes a special kind of gumption to name your team after the worst disaster to strike a city in its history. I mean, that’s like saying being the San Francisco Earthquakes, or New York Knicks. At least the team has support. Mainly from Aldermen who are under federal indictment, but who is counting? At this point, they are as bad as the Cubs, but at least they don’t have the unrealistic love for Shawon Dunston. Seriously though, Flames? Almost as bad as having a Crusader as your mascot…

The Flames name was actually selected by the students when UICC made the transition to division 1 and the administration decided to change the team name from the "Chikas" (ie Chikasaws), which was deemed offensive to the actual Chikasaw tribe, not to mention easily confused with the Spanish word "Chicas", which means little girls.

I was a student at the time and voted for "Flames", and not because I liked it. I voted for it because the other choices were so bad. I don't remember all of them, but a couple really stood out:

1. The "Skyscrapers" - an obvious nod to the Circle Campus' proximity to downtown, but oh my God what a dumb name. Go Scrapers!!

2. The "Clout" - an obvious nod to Chicago's legendary style of politics, but who in their right mind could think that naming a team after a system of political corruption is/was a good idea? IIRC, this name was proposed by the Chancellor.....as a joke. The students thought it was funny enough, however, that it got enough petition signatures to get on the ballot. Had it won, the mascot would likely have been a Ward Comitteeman. Go Grfters!!

3. The "Landsharks" - Another joke name, this one came out of nowhere and I have to think somebody padded the petitions. I'm all for students having a sense of humor, but what exactly is a Landshark, anyway? This being Chicago, I'm guessing the mascot would have been a crooked real estate developer. Go Eminent Domains!!

On the plus side, we didn't get a generic Lions, or Tigers, or Bears (oh my). Nor did we get Bulldogs or Panthers, which could have potentially complicated our admission the MVC. And other than the hockey team from Calgary, I am not aware of any other "Flames", making our team name about as rare as our acronym "UIC".

I would have voted for the Landsharks, great beer.

[BCPanther]

Had to be a witty early 80s SNL reference.

Those crazy kids!

[Khan4Cats]

Didn't know Murray was a state.
How many Academic All-Americans has The University of Murray produced?

This is one of my favorite things about Murray coming. I’ve really missed the “Wichita is Not a State” thing lol. Incoming Racers, this wasn’t a you thing, you will inherit the crown from the Team Formerly Known As Wichita State.

Also I think your logo makes it clear that it’s a nod to the thoroughbred tradition in the region lol

EDIT: Flames and Racers are still way better than a freakin’ Beacon.

How about a Gargoyle?

[BUFanatic]

Didn't know Murray was a state.
How many Academic All-Americans has The University of Murray produced?

This is one of my favorite things about Murray coming. I’ve really missed the “Wichita is Not a State” thing lol. Incoming Racers, this wasn’t a you thing, you will inherit the crown from the Team Formerly Known As Wichita State.

Also I think your logo makes it clear that it’s a nod to the thoroughbred tradition in the region lol

EDIT: Flames and Racers are still way better than a freakin’ Beacon.

How about a Gargoyle?

Ugh. The only people that like that creepy thing are the kids.

Also we’re still the Braves. We 100% botched the mascot thing. We didn’t have to change our name but we had to drop the Native American mascot. For some reason administration thought we needed a mascot right just now for some reason but considering the long history of the “Braves” everyone still associates it with that (or just the team absent a mascot which is what I grew up with).

Should have:
1) Reinstated the old mascot (which would never happen in this climate)
2) Stick with no mascot and “Braves”
3) Completely re brand and change its almost 100 year old nickname to match the new mascot.

Still… at least they nodded to the gargoyles on Bradley Hall. What does a lighthouse have to do with Valpo? (I went there a year and can confirm there is no lighthouse and you have to take a bus to get to the nearest body of water). Set up to be the dumbest thing since the dancing Tree of Stanford.

[Adunk33]

When I was in high school we had a similar thing. Named the Raiders with a Native American mascot that had to be dropped. The school tried to implement a turtle as the mascot, keeping the Raider name but it failed miserably. They quickly adjusted to focusing on the school abbreviation (BHS) and when they used "Raiders" they included arrow-like graphics.

Bradley doesn't need an actual mascot. They can just focus on "Bradley Braves" branding. Though the name "Kaboom" has a pretty cool story, paying homage to the long-time radio guy.

[MSUBear42]

Missouri State. One of the few D1 programs in Missouri, yet still somehow irrelevant. Their fans love to scream “Not a state”. This isn’t personal. Instead this is their way of studying for their senior level geography classes, where the final is quite literally a list of stuff that they have to determine if it is or isn’t a state. Spoiler- Not many pass that test. Did you know they used to be Southwest Missouri State? Too many of their valedictorians couldn’t spell “Southwest” so they dropped it. These guys are just SEMO with a worse location.

BTW, there can only be one MSU in this conference, Murr. Also, checked with my former professor of geography and he confirmed with me that Murray is in fact...not a state.

[bradley_townie]

Ugh. The only people that like that creepy thing are the kids.

Also we’re still the Braves. We 100% botched the mascot thing. We didn’t have to change our name but we had to drop the Native American mascot. For some reason administration thought we needed a mascot right just now for some reason but considering the long history of the “Braves” everyone still associates it with that (or just the team absent a mascot which is what I grew up with).

Should have:
1) Reinstated the old mascot (which would never happen in this climate)
2) Stick with no mascot and “Braves”
3) Completely re brand and change its almost 100 year old nickname to match the new mascot.

Still… at least they nodded to the gargoyles on Bradley Hall. What does a lighthouse have to do with Valpo? (I went there a year and can confirm there is no lighthouse and you have to take a bus to get to the nearest body of water). Set up to be the dumbest thing since the dancing Tree of Stanford.

Don't forget the Bobcat that we had as a mascot for awhile before the Gargoyle. I must be one of the few people that don't actually mind the Gargoyle. There is a cool story behind it with Dave Snell and some of the architecture on campus, and like you said, kids like it. BU needs as many young people as they can get to replace all the Florida retirees.

[Chuck A]

Illinois Chicago. Its takes a special kind of gumption to name your team after the worst disaster to strike a city in its history. I mean, that’s like saying being the San Francisco Earthquakes, or New York Knicks. At least the team has support. Mainly from Aldermen who are under federal indictment, but who is counting? At this point, they are as bad as the Cubs, but at least they don’t have the unrealistic love for Shawon Dunston. Seriously though, Flames? Almost as bad as having a Crusader as your mascot…

I am not aware of any other "Flames", making our team name about as rare as our acronym "UIC".

Actually there are the Liberty Flames, currently in the ASUN, the D2 Lee University Flames in the Gulf South Conference, the NAIA College of Saint Mary Flames (Catholic university for women) and the Welch College Flames (can't find their division affiliation). I guess for D1 Flames, there are only two.

[Murraygrad05]

Missouri State. One of the few D1 programs in Missouri, yet still somehow irrelevant. Their fans love to scream “Not a state”. This isn’t personal. Instead this is their way of studying for their senior level geography classes, where the final is quite literally a list of stuff that they have to determine if it is or isn’t a state. Spoiler- Not many pass that test. Did you know they used to be Southwest Missouri State? Too many of their valedictorians couldn’t spell “Southwest” so they dropped it. These guys are just SEMO with a worse location.

BTW, there can only be one MSU in this conference, Murr. Also, checked with my former professor of geography and he confirmed with me that Murray is in fact...not a state.

Just don’t pull an Austin Peay and keep us in your media guide as Mu**ay because apparently that will set coach McMahon off and call you bush league bill sh*t.