Well, we all knew this was coming sooner or later. At the end of the 2018, the Cleveland Indians retired their controversial “Chief Wahoo” logo. Finally, it was time came to change the controversial nickname. The team officially announced it was changing their nickname to the Guardians.
The official announcement seemed to come out of nowhere, as most people were shocked by the timing. The video itself was very well done and narrated by the great Tom Hanks. The Guardians are a reference to the large stone edifices that are known as “Traffic Guardians.” Both of the large stone statues are on opposite ends of the Hope Memorial Bridge.
Name Chame to the Cleveland Guardians
The Change Was A Long Time Coming
As said earlier, the writing was on the wall for the Cleveland name change in 2018. It’s almost a bit surprising that it took the organization that long to make the name change official. After the social unrest throughout the country last summer, it really made team owner, Paul Dolan, speed up the name changing process. He had this to say about the statues that the team is named after.
“Frankly, I hadn’t studied them that closely until we started talking about them and I should emphasize, we’re not named after the bridge, but there’s no question that it’s a strong nod to those and what they mean to the community.”
Paul Dolan, Team Owner (ESPN)
The team colors will remain the same, and the new logo will weave the statues into the design. Overall, this wasn’t a popular choice online. Many fans and people around Cleveland wanted to name to be “Spiders.” However, the Cleveland Spiders were a team in the late 1800’s and they were terrible. Thus, many did not want the new name to be associated with a losing team.
Overall, the name change needed to happen, and honestly, the name isn’t all that bad.
Follow us on all of our social channels! Check out our Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok for more great FlurrySports content.
