For reasons I can’t quite explain, I find the nicknames of U. S. states pretty interesting. Maybe it’s because Canadian provinces don’t really have nicknames the same way—there are some well-known ones, like “The Island” (P. E. I.), “The Rock” (Newfoundland), and “La Belle Province” (Quebec), but they aren’t official, not every province has one, and they’re just not that cool. Here’s a list of nicknames of provinces and territories, but that’s not what this post is about. This post is about state nicknames. Every state except Wisconsin has an official one, and most states have a few additional descriptive, well-known, unofficial nicknames. There are a lot of teams, especially college teams, that use their state’s nickname either directly or as inspiration for their mascot; here are the ones I’ve found:

State	Nickname	Team Name	League/Association
Arkansas	Natural State	Northwest Arkansas Naturals	Texas League
Indiana	Hoosier State	Indiana Hoosiers	NCAA
Iowa	Hawkeye State	Iowa Hawkeyes	NCAA
Louisiana	Pelican State	New Orleans Pelicans	NBA
Michigan	Wolverine State	Michigan Wolverines	NCAA
Nebraska	Cornhusker State	Nebraska Cornhuskers	NCAA
North Carolina	Tar Heel State	North Carolina Tar Heels	NCAA
Ohio	Buckeye State	Ohio State Buckeyes	NCAA
Oklahoma	Sooner State	Oklahoma Sooners	NCAA
Oregon	Beaver State	Oregon State Beavers	NCAA
South Dakota	Mount Rushmore State	Rapid City Rush	ECHL
Tennessee	Volunteer State	Tennessee Volunteers	NCAA
Utah	Beehive State	Salt Lake Bees	Pacific Coast League
West Virginia	Mountain State	West Virginia Mountaineers	NCAA
Wisconsin	Badger State	Wisconsin Badgers	NCAA

With these in mind, I thought it would be interesting to see how other state nicknames would translate to team names, logos, and uniform designs. I’ll add designs to this post as I finish them. My plan is to have primary designs focus on states’ official nicknames with special alternate designs for notable unofficial nicknames or aspects of the state not covered by the primary identity. I’m not going to work in any particular order.

Here are the ideas for teams I have so far, subject to change:

State	Nickname	Team Name	Sport
Alabama	Yellowhammer State	Montgomery Yellowhammers	Hockey
Alaska	The Last Frontier	Fairbanks Frontiersmen	Hockey
Arizona	Grand Canyon State	Flagstaff Canyon SC	Soccer
California	Golden State	Sacramento Gold	Baseball
Colorado	Centennial State	Lakewood Centennials	Hockey
Connecticut	Constitution State	Hartford Constitution	Basketball
Delaware	First State	Wilmington Firsts	Hockey
Florida	Sunshine State	Sarasota Shiners	Hockey
Georgia	Peach State	Savannah Peaches	Basketball
Hawaii	Aloha State	Honolulu Alohas	Basketball
Idaho	Gem State	Boise Gems	Football
Illinois	Prairie State	?????	?????
Kansas	Sunflower State	Wichita Sunflowers	Basketball
Kentucky	Bluegrass State	Lexington Bluegrass	Baseball
Massachusetts	Bay State	Provincetown Bays	Baseball
Maryland	Old Line State	?????	?????
Maine	Pine Tree State	Augusta Pines	Hockey
Minnesota	Land of 10,000 Lakes	Twin Cities Lakers	Baseball
Missouri	Show-Me State	?????	?????
Mississippi	Magnolia State	Jackson Magnolias	Soccer
Montana	Treasure State	Helena Treasures	Football
Nevada	Silver State	Silver Carson City	Soccer
New Hampshire	Granite State	Manchester Granites	Baseball
New Jersey	Garden State	Jersey City Gardeners	Baseball
New Mexico	Land of Enchantment	Santa Fe Enchanters	Football
New York	Empire State	Staten Island Emperors	Basketball
North Dakota	Peace Garden State	?????	?????
Pennsylvania	Keystone State	Harrisburg Keystones	Football
Rhode Island	Ocean State	Providence Ocean SC	Soccer
South Carolina	Palmetto State	Charleston Palmettos	Basketball
Texas	Lone Star State	Austin Lone Stars	Football
Vermont	Green Mountain State	?????	?????
Virginia	Old Dominion State	Norfolk Dominion SC	Soccer
Washington	Evergreen State	Olympia Evergreen SC	Soccer
Wyoming	Equality State	?????	?????

FLORIDA: Sarasota Shiners

February-April 2020

In a lot of cases I’ve chosen state capitals or largest cities to base these teams in, but that wasn’t the case here. I’m trying to avoid putting teams in cities that already have teams playing at the top level of the same sport, which ruled out the Miami and Tampa Bay areas. Tallahassee, the capital of Florida, would still be an option, but “Tallahassee Shiners” doesn’t have the same ring to it, and “Shiners” seemed better suited to Sarasota anyway.

When I first started thinking about state nicknames as team nicknames, I was a bit worried about how they would all translate, so, to play devil’s advocate, I tried to think of the least intimidating state nickname. While there are others I was forgetting, it was the Sunshine State that came to mind. Sunshine is not very intimidating (sorry Phoenix Suns) but then it occurred to me that I could alter it to “Shiners”, which sounds to me like a tough, old-school kind of hockey team, since “shiner” is slang for a black eye. Hence, the primary logo is a pun; it’s a hockey mask with a black eye, except the black eye is a bit of sunshine. The secondary logo, which appears on the shoulders of all three jerseys, depicts the state of Florida with a similar sunshine pattern centred on Sarasota on the Gulf Coast. Admittedly the geometry of this secondary logo was another part of the reason I chose Sarasota.

The alternate logo is a reference to Florida’s unofficial nickname, “Alligator State”.

And, of course, the jerseys, which use the Face Off M54 font and Steven Grant’s template:

I played around with several different colour schemes, including yellow/orange/double green and yellow/orange/black/turquoise, but ultimately the cleaner look of yellow/orange/black prevailed. As you can see, I added green for the alligator on the alternate jersey, and I considered adding more throughout that jersey as well, but eventually decided to focus on team colours outside of the necessary green in the logo. The black base with orange and yellow gives it a strong ’80s Canucks vibe, but I think the colour scheme makes more sense for a Florida team than it did for a Vancouver team.

NEW JERSEY: Jersey City Gardeners

April 2020

I started thinking about this one pretty early in the process of conceptualizing teams, since I live in Jersey City. Some of the earliest organized baseball was played in Elysian Fields in Hoboken, just north of Jersey City, and “Gardeners” is the sort of timeless, non-threatening nickname I think of old baseball teams using (e.g. Athletics, Red Sox, Dodgers), so it seemed natural to make this a baseball team.

I knew from the beginning that I had to use green for a team named the Gardeners, but the rest of the colour palette was open for debate. Just before starting this project, I was on a bus from Hoboken to East Rutherford, to see the inaugural game for the New York Guardians of the reincarnated XFL. Somewhere along the way, I’m no longer sure if it was Weehawken or Union City or North Bergen or Secaucus, I saw a red brick building, of the sort common throughout Hudson County, with the trim around the top painted lime green. I quite liked the combination, so that’s what I stuck with for the Gardeners, along with the addition of buff, one of the state colours of New Jersey and the background colour of the state flag.

The cap logo is a “JC” monogram with a few leaves representing the team name; that seemed the best fit for the classic look I was aiming for with the two regular uniforms for the team. I also created an “NJ” monogram in the same style to represent the state.

I also created a secondary “green thumb” logo that’s used on the sleeves of the home and away jerseys, and on the fronts of the two alternates.

The uniforms use Academic M54 font and a template based on the one found here.

Traditionally, the road uniform should be grey, but that would have clashed with the brick red and green and especially the buff of the team’s actual colour scheme. Hence, I settled on buff jerseys with an otherwise traditional look. I’m not completely happy with the script on the home jersey, but I think it gets the point across, and I think the initial “G” did turn out quite well.

The alternates depart rather significantly from the traditional look. The first of those two includes a sublimated brick pattern, representing all those red brick buildings I mentioned before. The second is a blue-purple colour to represent the New Jersey state flower, the violet. I didn’t come across any inspiring nicknames for the state other than the well known “Garden State”, but I thought it appropriate for a team named the Gardeners to pay tribute to the state flower.

NEW MEXICO: Santa Fe Enchanters

May 2020

I’ve never been to New Mexico, and I don’t know too much about it. That being said, I am a big fan of the New Mexico state flag. It is distinctive both in its red and yellow colour scheme and its use of the sun symbol of the Zia people. Before Florida claimed the title more officially, New Mexico was known to some as the “Sunshine State”.

The stripes of the sun play more of a role in the uniforms and the tertiary logo, but I had trouble figuring out how to represent the “Enchanters”. Eventually I settled on a throwback-style cartoon of a wizard playing football, similar to the old Dallas Texans and Kansas City Chiefs logos. I decided to put the character’s head on the team’s helmets and though the full-body version doesn’t appear anywhere on the uniforms, I imagine it being used in branding and merchandise.

The tertiary logo is a football with the laces replaced with the stripes from the Zia sun symbol.

The uniforms use K. O. Activista font and a template I created myself.

The uniforms include jerseys and pants in red, yellow, and white, such that they could be mixed and matched. The four stripe pattern appears four times on each of the first three uniforms: on either side of the pants, on the helmet, and in the logo on the left sleeve. Four is the sacred number of the Zia. The right sleeves have the silhouette of Shiprock on them, representing New Mexico’s natural beauty. The fourth jersey is based on the official state question: “Red or green?” This refers to red or green chile, and so the uniform balances red and green elements, with opposite coloured sleeves and pant stripes. The helmet retains its yellow base but has a green chile pepper on one side and a red one on the other; this look was inspired by the Chargers helmet, but using peppers in place of lightning bolts.