12/12/2006

A nickname change at AAA

The Syracuse franchise in the International League will from now on be known as the Syracuse Chiefs:

For the past 10 seasons, the city's International League franchise has gone by the name of the SkyChiefs. That moniker is now a thing of the past, as the club announced its new name and logo at a press conference at Alliance Bank Stadium on Monday afternoon.

The team's new name -- the Chiefs -- will certainly be familiar to long-time Syracuse baseball fans, as the club was known by that handle from 1934 to 1996. The team adopted the SkyChiefs' name and logo in 1997, as part of an attempt to distance themselves from criticisms that their previous identity was offensive to Native Americans.


Well, why go back to Chiefs, then?

While the old SkyChiefs logo was aviation-themed, Syracuse's new logo pays tribute to another type of transport: the train. In honor of the city's history as a manufacturing hub that shipped goods all over the country via rail, the logo features a steam locomotive, an engineer mark and the word "Chiefs" in a stylized font reminiscent of Syracuse's industrial heritage.

Oh.

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