1 of 1- mace
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How Did The Blue Jays Get Their Name
Back in 1976, a public contest was held to name the franchise that would begin play in April 1977. A 14 member jury consisting mainly of members the Toronto media chose "Blue Jays" from roughly 30.000 entries. Some of the rejected entries included Maple Leafs, Blues, Towers, Blue Sox, Lakers and Giants. Back then there had been a proposal to move the SF Giants to Toronto. Personally, I think Towers would have fit the local basketball team better than the dreadful name that was chosen. Toronto is known for its CN Tower and basketball players are tall. Made perfect sense to me.
- Peter the K
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Re: How Did The Blue Jays Get Their Name
I always thought that the name "Blue Jays" was chosen because the owner at the time, Labatt's Brewing, thought the name "Blue" would stick as a team nickname basically advertising Labbatt's Blue every time anyone talked about the team.
Of course, that never happened when the term "Jays" caught on.
Last edited by Peter the K (October 10, 2022 12:10 pm)
- MJ Vancouver
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Re: How Did The Blue Jays Get Their Name
Blue was traditionally the colour worn by Toronto sports teams - not just the Leafs, but also the Argos.
- paterson1
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Re: How Did The Blue Jays Get Their Name
MJ Vancouver wrote:
Blue was traditionally the colour worn by Toronto sports teams - not just the Leafs, but also the Argos.
Varsity Blues has been used by the U of T for their intercollegiate sports programs since 1877. The name has been used for various men's and ladies sports teams, arenas and soccer fields at the university for 145 years. So the colour blue and even using it in the name of a team is a real Toronto tradition.