It finally happened.
The new XFL team has a name and while many were hoping for a name like the Stallions, Clydesdales or Admirals, the team name will be called the BattleHawks.
Why?
Once upon a time, McDonnell Douglas was headquartered in St. Louis, where my mother worked during the 1970s and was known as an aerospace manufacturer of fighter jets like the F-15, F/A-18 or tomahawk crews missiles.
That’s the best that I can come with, but the important thing is that it’s original and it’s a creative name.
This is a team that didn’t move to St. Louis from Chicago like the Cardinals or the Rams who moved out of Los Angeles in 1995 to St. Louis, only to move back to Los Angeles again in 2016, this is St. Louis’s team and all the credited is due to Team President, Kurt Hunzeker, a native St. Louisain, who’s resume in the past was working with Minor League Baseball franchises and is now leading the charge for the newest franchise that will begin playing in February 2020.
Football fans who gathered at the Urban Chestnut Brewing Company in St. Louis, were on hand to celebrate the unveiling of the XFL team new nickname; from local sports radio personals, like my friends Arlington A-Train Lane and Jason Spurgeon from the XFL STL Football talk show on Facebook and Youtube to 101 ESPN The Fastlane with Randy Karraker, Chris Rongey, and Brad Thompson.
The logo itself, you could say, looks like it came from the television series “The Game of Thrones” with the point of the sword pointed upwards with the wings at 45-degree angle but when you flip it around you actually get the letters STL which is very creative. “When you don’t have a playbook … that’s when it gets really fun,” Hunzeker said. “We are building all these traditions together.” This is where the challenge for the team President begins in a city that lost 2 different NFL franchises in less than 30 years but Hunzeker is up to the challenge.
As the fall football seasons begins, Hunzeker plans to work with various communities throughout the St. Louis area and have some ideas to galvanize football fans like what’s the intro music team will play when the players come through before the game starts?
Will, there be some type of spectacular intro before football games at the Dome in St. Louis? Everything is up in the air for now but, our team has arrived and while it may not be sexy from a traditional standpoint the BattleHawks have landed.
It’s been over 30 years since the Big Red Cardinals left St. Louis and it’s been only 3 years when Rams moved to back to L.A. and many fans in are still left bitter after those franchises left.
I can’t help but be very geek up to have Professional football back in St. Louis once again. The BattleHawks will carry on the next generation of football that will honor the past two teams who came before. It’s time for St. Louis football fans to support The Battlehawks and the XFL. This is our team.