Toronto Hogs? Ranking the 9 rejected final team names for the Raptors

What if the Toronto Raptors simply weren’t… the Raptors?

Back in 1994, when the Raptors organization was just in its infancy, a list of 10 potential team names was floated to the public, with fans being offered the opportunity to vote on the eventual moniker.

Two of those names — Grizzlies and Bobcats — eventually became other franchise names across the NBA, but seven of them are simply lost to the realms of history.

It’s not clear if there’s another NBA expansion on the horizon anytime soon, but it’s a safe bet that most of these names will probably never be used by an NBA franchise.

And though we’re ok with a few of those names being lost to history, there are a few real gems in there.

Here’s a completely subjective ranking of those nine rejected team names, with the pros and cons of each listed.

9. Toronto Beavers

Pros: While Beavers are not unique to Canada, they’ve always been claimed as a symbol of the Great White North. Every time you look at a nickel, it’d be free marketing for the team, and the team would be more “authentically Canadian” than their current Raptors name.

Cons: It’s a dang beaver. Let’s be real.

Even though they could undoubtedly rip you or me to shreds with those chompers, they’re kind of a goofy-looking animal and American broadcasts would likely spend far too much time talking about the animal itself.

And like the #1 name on this list, there’s also an obvious innuendo behind the name itself.

8. Toronto T-Rex

Pros: Rexdale would go wild for this one. The logo could look remarkably similar to their current logo, and putting T-REX across the front of a jersey would look very clean.

Cons: Grammatically, it’d be a battle talking about this team every day. Fitting “T-Rex” into a sentence is really awkward. Are they “The T-Rex?” The “T-Rexes?” It might be a relatively minor drawback, but it would probably be enough reason alone to disqualify it.

7. Toronto Bobcats

Pros: Bobcats are an intimidating animal, and, at the time, it was a name that had yet to be used in North American major professional sports. It’s not hard to imagine a sleek, fierce, feline logo in Toronto’s colours.

Cons: The Charlotte Bobcats played 10 seasons and never won a single playoff game, getting swept twice in the first round. It’s a name that was probably cursed from the get-go and it’s for the best that Toronto avoided it.

6. Toronto Scorpions

Pros: A scorpion is everything you’d want your basketball team to be: a possible killer, a little annoying, and pretty scary-looking, too. To top it off, it’s a cool-sounding word, and there are plenty of intimidating logo options available to pick from.

Cons: Do Scorpions have any ties to Toronto at all? They definitely seem better suited for a team near a desert, so we’ll keep our eyes out for that Santa Fe or Albuquerque expansion.

5. Toronto Grizzlies

Pros: We’ve seen an NBA team called the Grizzlies in both Vancouver and Memphis, and the reception for both teams’ gear and branding has been overwhelmingly positive, with many to this day still rocking their retro Vancouver jerseys.

Cons: When was the last time you saw a grizzly bear in Toronto? Vancouver was always a more natural fit for the Grizzlies name, and the team actually took the team name and logo from the Raptors. It’s a cool name, but perhaps best suited elsewhere.

4. Toronto Dragons

Pros: There are plenty of directions Toronto could go with the Dragons as their look, with multiple cultural and fictional tie-ins available to draw on.

It’d come with a killer logo and intimidating court look, no doubt, and they’d be one of the NBA’s fiercest-looking teams from day one.

Cons: “Dragons” just seems like one of those names destined for high school or minor league teams and fake rivals in video games, or abroad franchises like China’s Jiangsu Dragons. There’s a lot that could be done with it, but it isn’t quite sticking like some of the other names on the list.

3. Toronto Terriers

Pros: Alliteration in sports can be a pretty cool tool if used correctly and it’d be a natural successor to the Toronto Huskies pro basketball franchise of the 1940s and 1950s.

With the Baha Men dropping “Who Let the Dogs Out” in Summer 2000, it’d take a few years for Toronto fans to find their new anthem, but it’s easy to imagine Scotiabank Arena being referred to as the “Dog Pound” for their loud home crowd.

Cons: We’d probably have seen the “Terrible Terriers” headline plenty of times in the newspaper over the last three decades.

2. Toronto Tarantulas

Pros: Just think about how cool whatever Spider-Man crossover the team would inevitably employ would be. The jersey and branding capabilities are endless, as long as you don’t have arachnophobia.

Cons: Like many of the other names on the list, you can’t really shorten “Tarantulas” into anything more catchy. It’d be a cool name, but it doesn’t exactly flow off the tongue.

1. Toronto Hogs

Pros: “Go Hogs Go” or simply “Go Hogs” or even “Let’s Go Hogs” is such a tremendous chant. Simple, effective, and intimidating to get beat by a team wearing a pig logo on their chest. While Arkansas Razorbacks fans call their team the “Hogs” for a shorter version of the team name, having the Hogs in Hogtown would be an awesome, unique name.

Cons: There’s an obvious sexual innuendo, but maybe it’s alright to have a little fun in sports. Here’s to one day Toronto getting a pro sports team called the Hogs.

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