How They Got Their Name: Los Angeles Chargers

logos-world.net

With every team I’ve written about so far, there has been a definitive reason why that team has the name they do.  That is not the case with the Chargers.  When the American Football League (AFL) began in 1960, the Chargers were an original member.  They actually played their first season in Los Angeles, but because of poor attendance, relocated to the suitable home of San Diego.  Before their first season of play, owner Barron Hilton (son of the founder of the Hilton Hotels chain) chose the name Chargers for his team, but no one knows exactly why.  Rumor has it that while reading fan letters with name suggestions, he opened one with the suggested name “Chargers” and liked it so much he didn’t open another letter.

But why he liked it so much gives way to a few different theories.  First, Hilton had just launched his own credit card, “Carte Blanche,” in 1958.  Credit cards were a very new thing at that point in time and in effort to promote his brand, Hilton wanted people to be Carte Blanche credit card “chargers.”  Another theory is that Hilton named the team the Chargers because he said he liked when the crowds at Los Angeles Dodgers and USC Trojan football games yelled “charge!” at the sounding of the bugle.  The last theory is that the team was named after the horses that carried knights into medieval battles.  These horses were known as “chargers,” and is perhaps why the original logo features a horse on a shield with a lightning bolt across it.

Garett