Throwing around suggestions
On Feb. 23, 1999 more than 500 people crammed the Crown Plaza ballroom in downtown Dayton to celebrate the announcement that final approval had been won for Mandalay Baseball Properties to bring a minor league baseball team to Dayton.
Soon after, the Dayton Daily News held a “name that team” poll and more than 500 readers sent along their suggestions.
More than 200 people suggested names that were related to Dayton’s aviation history.
The most popular name by far was the Dayton Aviators. Other names high on the list included the Dayton Stealth, the Dayton Pilots, the Dayton Wings, the Dayton Aeros, the Dayton Rockets and the Dayton Jets.
Another popular suggestion was the Dayton Diamonds, fitting for the Gem City.
There were also some goofy names: The Dayton Dingbats, The Dayton Duds, the Dayton Wannabees.
Eric Deutsch, executive vice president of the Dayton Dragons, told sportslogos.net in 2015 that the ownership group initially wanted to give the Dayton team name some connection to flying.
“The history of the Dayton area is so rife with aviation themes,” said Deutsch. “We kind of went a different direction to change it up a little bit. Dragons are fun. They’re a mythological creature.”
Deutsch also said the team wanted to stand out from the crowd.
“Dragons had not been found in a lot of other teams in our sports landscape across North America,” he said. “It was a different name.”
Credit: Lisa Powell
Credit: Lisa Powell
Team president Robert Murphy said about a half-dozen employees of Mandalay Sports Entertainment brainstormed about possible names, including some that played on Dayton’s aviation heritage.
“We tossed names around,” Murphy once said in an interview with the Dayton Daily News. “Some people said we shouldn’t do anything with an aviation theme. They wanted something fresh. We listened around our office to see which names people were talking about.”
“Dragons” was the one Murphy heard the most. Once the name was chosen, graphic artist Terry Smith of California was picked to design the logo.
Timing played a factor in the decision to not do a name-the-team contest. Time was running out on filing the needed paperwork and designing logos, uniforms and more before the start of the season.
‘Guess the name of the team’ contest
Because of these time constraints, team owners decided to choose the team name and logos before orchestrating the contest to guess the team’s name.
The rules were that if more than one person selects the same name, one would be drawn from a ball cap.
Thirteen-year-old Richard Burque of Huber Heights was one of 12 fans who submitted the name “Dragons” as their guess for what the new team would be named.
Credit: Aimee Obidzinski
Credit: Aimee Obidzinski
“It just popped into my head,” said Burque.
Burque was chosen in a random selection as the contest’s grand winner and received two season tickets to Dragon’s games as well as a variety of team gear and merchandise. He also had the honor of throwing out the first pitch at the inaugural game.
Big announcement
The team’s name was kept secret until a May 3, 1999 rally at Courthouse Square.
Credit: Aimee Obidzinski
Credit: Aimee Obidzinski
During a noon ceremony, Burque and most of the hundreds of other fans on hand cheered their approval as the name was announced and uniforms and logos were unveiled.
Sports columnist Tom Archdeacon wrote that “the atmosphere was festive, with a cast of medieval characters in costume working the crowd, music, horses, the blare of trumpets and finally the ropes being pulled off a gray tarpaulin-covered lump. And then, rising five feet, 10...20...until it was a two stories high was the inflatable star of the show: the mascot of the new Dayton Dragons.”
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