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Naming a Chicago sports franchise does present unique challenges, especially where a women’s team is concerned. If we’re going to name it after Chicago women, then how about the Gun Molls? I know, I know, Mayor Daley is trying to get us all to transcend that old stereotype. So I guess the Everleighs, elegant as it is, ringing of fin de siecle Chicago and the White City of the Columbian Exposition (as well as the punning “ever lays,” befitting the Everleigh sisters’ renowned whorehouse) is out too. The Ladies in Red, after Dillinger’s Biograph Theater betrayer? No, connotes the same thing. It’s hard to come up with something else womanly that symbolizes Chicago. The Riveters, after the World War II workers? The Broken Nosers or the Hawk Profiles, after Nelson Algren’s line that loving Chicago is like loving a woman with a broken nose? I think not. And let’s not even go into the Byrnes — much less the Burn. (Fire parallels to the contrary, what Chicago social disease would that connote?) Better the Tillmans, with all players required to wear hats.
It turns out the team has already put names in nomination, and there’s one good one: the Red Stars, after the four red stars on the Chicago flag, mixing both the triumph and tragedy of the city’s history. It was the early leader in online voting, and it even lends itself to one of my above suggestions: the Ladies in Red. Unfortunately, this week a new leader presented itself: the 1871. I know it’s the year of the Great Chicago Fire, but what kind of a nickname is the 1871? What is an 1871, anyway? Geez, better the Char Women (if not the Charred Women) if we’re going to hark back to the Chicago Fire.
