ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, October 10, 1996 TAG: 9610100065
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
WHAT'S IN A NAME? From the Lizard Kings to the Whoopee, plenty of merchandising dollars.
A generation later, the lyrics of Jim Morrison and the Doors are part of hockey.
``I am the Lizard King. I can do anything,'' Morrison exhorted during the 1960s in ``The Celebration of the Lizard.''
Larry Lane loves the Doors. When Lane began searching for a name for his East Coast Hockey League team, Morrison's lyrics came to mind. Hence, the Jacksonville Lizard Kings, a perfect fit given Florida's wildlife.
Another singer has her place in hockey. Thanks to Doris Day and her decades-old ``Makin' Whoopee'' recording, Georgia has the Macon Whoopee. The Central Hockey League team's logo depicts a fig leaf from plants indigenous to the region.
It does not end with Lizard Kings and the Whoopee. Unusual nicknames in minor-league hockey are springing up wherever teams skate: Mysticks, Nailers, Mallards, Cottonmouths, Channel Cats and Ice Bats.
The Mystics Society is tied to the Mardi Gras festival. Add the letter ``k'' and you've got Alabama's ECHL Mobile Mysticks, who use Mardi Gras colors of purple, gold and green as team colors. The logo is a dragon grasping a hockey stick.
The ECHL's Wheeling Nailers are thus named because the West Virginia city is home to one of the oldest cut nail manufacturing plants in the world. Workers are called nailers and Wheeling is known as The Nail City. The jersey logo features a medieval mask with two nails crossed behind it.
The Quad City Mallards of the Colonial Hockey League are based in Moline, Ill. Their arena is on the Mississippi River, where mallard ducks frolic a few steps from the arena's back door.
The CHL's Columbus, Ga., team uses Cottonmouths as a nickname after the area's poisonous water snakes. The logo features an attacking snake's head with two fangs.
The Huntsville, Ala., team of the CHL uses Channel Cats after a kind of catfish found in the Tennessee River. A mean-looking catfish is depicted on the jerseys.
The Western Professional Hockey League is in its inaugural season, but it's doing fine in the name game with Texas teams such as the Austin Ice Bats, Waco Wizards and El Paso Buzzards.
Austin owners were going to use Outlaws, but a Houston cycling team had a state trademark. Team officials, staying in a hotel near the Colorado River, went jogging and saw bats swooping under bridges. Turns out a huge colony of bats wings in from Mexico every year, and citizens stroll the riverbanks at dusk watching bats.
``We thought, `If we can't use Outlaws, let's do bats,''' said a team spokesman.
In the International Hockey League, there's the Orlando Solar Bears. Their logo features a polar bear in sunglasses holding a hockey stick, with palm trees and a setting sun in the background.
The West Coast Hockey League has its Bakersfield Fog, which plays out of a misty California valley.
The IHL's Quebec Rafales, which translates to blizzard-level winds, adopted a yeti or abominable snowman as its centerpiece.
Nicknames and logos can mean big business. The moose on the IHL Minnesota Moose's jerseys led to great sales. So when the Roanoke Express' former affiliate shifted to Winnipeg this past summer, the team became the Manitoba Moose to retain the commercial appeal.
The IHL's Fort Wayne Komets misspell their nickname. Why? One of the original 1952 owners wanted a name to express speed and excitement. He thought of comets. His wife's name was Kathryn so he spelled the team's nickname with a ``k.''
The Milwaukee Admirals were founded 25 years ago by an appliance dealer for the Admiral company. The team logo, however, is a skating seafarer.
Hey, it could have been a refrigerator.
LENGTH: Medium: 76 linesby CNB