I was actually there in Columbus for
several years before the team debuted in 2000. The team's name and
uniforms and mascot were daily topics of conversation. I moved from NYC
to Columbus in 1997. At that time, the Columbus NHL team was definitely
going to happen, but the team didn't have a name yet. This was a huge
deal to the locals, because it was going to be Columbus' first
major-league sports team, if you don't count the Columbus Crew of Major
League Soccer. And of course, no one counted Major League Soccer as
major-league sports. Maybe today, but in the 1990's? Hahahaha.
So,
the sequence of events was: first they came up with the name, and
everybody was all like: ooh, Civil War soldiers! Warriors for justice
and freedom! Bold choice! Big balls! Nicely done, new hockey team!
Then,
they made the mascot a bee wearing a jacket and seemed to strictly
forbid all mention of any war, and everybody was like, what the...???
FIVE
guys from Ohio who were Union officers in the Civil War later became
President: Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, and McKinley.
FIVE. Presidents from the rest of the world who served in the Civil War
and then became President: TWO. Andrew Johnson and Chester A Arthur.
Down South, it's often said (after making sure that no reporters are around) that the Civil War isn't over yet.
But it's also often said in Ohio (after first making sure that no reporters are around). So, there's that.
The
silly thing about the Columbus Blue Jackets is that they lost their
balls and de-emphasized the Civil War meaning of the team's name. But if
you look closely at the jacket on the mascot, you can see yellow trim
on the blue jacket, somewhat like 19th-century US Army uniforms. Also,
the bee mascot, named Stinger, is sometimes seen next to a 2nd mascot
who looks like a 19th-century artillery piece, named Boomer.
