How They Got Their Name: Baltimore Ravens

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After more than three decades, the city of Baltimore lost its professional football team when the Baltimore Colts were moved to Indianapolis in 1984.  It wasn’t until 1996 when they would regain a team, this time courtesy of owner Art Modell relocating his Cleveland Browns franchise to Baltimore.  As you can imagine, Cleveland fans were none too happy and fought hard to at least keep the Browns name, especially since it seemed pretty likely that they would soon receive a replacement franchise.  So, since the Baltimore Browns were out of the question, Modell initially tried to get the “Colts” name back from Indianapolis.  He reached out to Jim Irsay of the Colts and offered $5 million for the name, but when Irsay countered by asking for $25 million, the Colts name was out of the question as well.

Extensive research, focus groups, surveys, and discussions were held to figure out a nickname for the team and several hundred name possibilities were narrowed down to 17.  Then finally, three choices remained: the Ravens, Marauders, and Americans.  Wanting the final decision to come down to the fans, a poll was held in the Baltimore Sun newspaper, which reeled in a total of 33,288 votes.  An overwhelming 21,108 chose the Ravens, while 5,597 voted for the Americans, and 5,583 for the Marauders.  The Ravens name was a fan favorite because writer Edgar Allan Poe, who wrote the famous poem titled “The Raven,” lived and died in Baltimore.  Fans also thought that ravens were tough, menacing birds and would pair very well together with the city’s other professional sports team, the Baltimore Orioles.

Garett