The 25 best defunct sports teams names

We’ll never feel right about seeing the Carolina Hurricanes bust out the Whalers uniforms. On the other, those were killer uniforms. Plus, it was just so interesting for there to be a team in one of the big four sports leagues of the prior millennium in Hartford, Connecticut. The Whalers haven’t been around since 1997, but the uniforms, and the team name, echo through the ages.

The Whalers are never coming back. Sorry, Hartford hockey lovers. We’d bet good money, though, the Seattle SuperSonics will be back. When the NBA next expands, Seattle is effectively guaranteed to get a team, and it will get that Sonics branding back. If we could quibble a bit, though, we’d prefer not to see a random capital letter in the middle of the name. Just be the Seattle Supersonics. Looking forward to seeing you guys back.

The Expos had that mysterious logo that was cool, but also had a name that, if you were a kid in the ‘80s or ‘90s, you likely had no clue about its meaning. The team was, of course, named for Expo 67, a world fair held in Montreal two years before the team played its first game. Unfortunately, the 1994 strike prevented the Expos from having their best chance to win a World Series, and then the franchise would win it all once it was the Washington Nationals.

In the NFL, you have to go old-school to get to defunct team names. “Bulldogs” is not exactly a name that pops off the page. It’s not found in the major pro sports leagues these days, but there are approximately five million college teams called the Bulldogs. It’s the fact they were the Canton Bulldogs, playing out of a town in Ohio that is now home to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Jim Thorpe was a Canton Bulldog! The team, in all its old-timey glory, folded in 1927.

Not to be pessimistic, but we think the list of defunct MLS franchises will grow someday. Feels like the league may have overexpanded. To date, only three teams have ever folded, and only one had a cool name. That would be the Tampa Bay Mutiny, one of the original MLS clubs. This was back when MLB clubs all had American-sports-style names, rather than Atlanta United or FC Dallas. The Mutiny had a good look and found early success, but also was owned by the league for its entire run, which wasn’t ideal. The Mutiny dissolved after the 2001 season.

Allow us to celebrate, for a moment, a glorious return, a proof of concept for the Seattle SuperSonics. The Portland Fire joined the WNBA in the 2000 season. They folded after the 2002 season. The Fire were around for three years, and then that was that…until 2026. Portland was given one of the WNBA’s expansion franchises, and the franchise decided to revive the Fire brand. This time with a real glow-up for the logo. The new logo rules.

When the Utah Mammoth did not yet have a name, one popular option was "Outlaws". They didn’t go that route because seemingly every damn team needs to have a name that doesn’t end in an “s” now. If the NBA expands to Vegas as expected, may we suggest borrowing the name of the city’s former XFL team? The Las Vegas Outlaws are from the original, disastrous XFL. The one with a team called the Memphis Maniax. That is not a cool name we remember fondly.

Though it is one of the largest cities in the United States, Houston has never had an NHL franchise. They had a minor-league hockey team for many years, though. The Houston Aeros was an awesome name, one that lasted across two leagues. It started off as an independent franchise in the old IHL from 1994 until 2001 when that league folded. The franchise survived, though, moving over as a few IHL teams did to the AHL, the proper minor league to the NHL. Houston, who also had a cool logo of a mean plane, became the Minnesota Wild’s farm team, but in 2013 the franchise moved and became the imaginatively named Iowa Wild.

The ABA burnt brightly, and though it never had more than 11 teams active at any given time, 37 different team names were used. Yeah, it’s not surprising after the fact that the league dissolved. The Anaheim Amigos only existed for one season, but it was a great name while it lasted. We’d sign off on the Angels rebranding as the Anaheim Amigos, but first they’d have to acknowledge that they are in Anaheim, not Los Angeles.

The G League had a wild ride. It was once the D-League, after all. These days it’s like the AHL, a proper minor league where every NBA team has an affiliate franchise. That has led to a lot of franchise movement and name changes. The Fort Wayne Mad Ants were named in part for the famed general “Mad” Anthony Wayne, but of course the logo was an ant who was mad. It was a fun name that spoke to a fledgling minor league. Eventually, the Mad Ants became the affiliate of the Indiana Pacers, and in 2025, the Pacers moved the team to Noblesville, Indiana, and rebranded it the Boom.

The Mariners have never played in a World Series, but many a Hall of Famer has played for Seattle’s MLB franchise, and it has had some memorable seasons. Things certainly went better than the first time around. The Seattle Pilots had a cool name, if a confusing logo that made it unclear if they were boat pilots or plane pilots, but were not long for the world. After one season, the franchise was flailing, and car salesman Bud Selig bought the franchise to move it to Milwaukee. Thus, the Brewers were born, but the fallout from the Pilots saga led to the birth of the Mariners.

The last team in one of the four major men’s sports leagues in North America to simply cease to exist was the Cleveland Barons (some argue the Arizona Coyotes, but that was a relocation, with the franchise’s history remaining at its former home). The Barons were merged into the Minnesota North Stars after the 1977-78 season. That was a fine team name, as was the North Stars, but we’re going back to the earlier iteration of the Barons’ franchise. The California Seals were one of the Expansion Six franchises to hit the NHL in 1967. That was a fine name, but when they became the California Golden Seals, things really popped.

Ahh, Arena Football. So many team names, so many of them bad. Some of them good! The Iowa Barnstormers is one of those specific names that really works. Sometimes when you try to think outside the box, you end up with the San Antonio Talons. Barnstormers also felt particularly apt for an Arena Football team. Oh, and the helmets had pilot goggles built in, which was great.

The PHF, formerly the NWHL, was one of the leagues that was a predecessor to the current PWHL, which seems to be finding its footing as a women’s professional hockey league in North America. The PHF had seven franchises, including the Connecticut Whale, but the standout is the Buffalo Beauts. The Beauts had great uniforms and a strong logo as well. Some might quibble with calling a women’s professional sports team the “Beauts,” but you can miss us with that second-wave feminism handwringing. It was a fun name, and also a great goal in hockey is often called a “beauty” or a “beaut,” eh?

Minor league baseball franchises tend to move often. Most aren’t the Toledo Mud Hens, which is a great name but not applicable here because they very much still exist and will never die. The Buffalo Bison had existed since the 1880s without any affiliation. When the Expos joined MLB, they bought the Bison and moved them to Winnipeg. The Whips were born as the Expos’ Triple-A franchise. That lasted two seasons. Not quite the Mud Hens.

Look, Pro Beach Hockey was very silly. It ran from 1998 through 2000, maybe the only time in the history of the world it would have been a thing. It was roller hockey played outdoors with a ball, ramps behind the net, banked glass to keep the ball in play, and a two-point shot. The whole thing was dumb, MTV Sports-type stuff, and it was a ton of fun. There were six teams, none of them having a city affiliation because they all played at the same rink in Huntington Beach, California. We still don’t know what a Web Warrior is, and we will never care.

It would seem the SlamBall Wikipedia page may need an update, because a look at the SlamBall website indicates the fifth attempt to get the league going after ceasing operations four times did not succeed. As such, we could go with any SlamBall team name here. We’ll go with the Maulers. We could have seen an Arena Football team with that name. Also a shout-out to the Slashers. That’s pretty aggressive for a team name.

Lacrosse has never taken off in the United States (unless you go to Johns Hopkins or are from Long Island, maybe), but there have been both field lacrosse and box lacrosse leagues that have tried their level best. The NLL, a box lacrosse league, has been going for a while, but teams have fallen by the wayside. The Albany Attack is a nice bit of alliteration, and also attacking the opposing goal is part of the game. After a few seasons, the Attack became the San Jose Stealth, which is both alliterative and stupid.

It’s just fun that there was a professional football team based in Dayton, and that they were called the Triangles. These days you get all these visceral names and aggressive names. Kraken, Valkyries and the like. Back in the 1910s, a team might just be called the Dayton Triangles. They existed until 1929 when professional football in Dayton became less feasible. Long live geometric shapes.

The Continental Basketball Association was an attempt at a viable minor league basketball organization, and it lasted from 1946 through 2009. Lumberjacks is a cool name for a sports team from anywhere known for timber, and Maine is such a place. After a few seasons as the Maine Lumberbacks, the franchise moved to Massachusetts and became the Bay State Bombardiers, which is also a good name.

It’s to be determined what the new WNBA franchise in Cleveland will be called (the same holds true for Detroit, which lost the Shock several years ago). Will Cleveland revive the Rockers brand? Also, while we are at it, shout out to the New Jersey Rockin’ Rollers of Roller Hockey International, whose name was also kind of a pun because it was a roller hockey league.

The specificity of the team being based in Long Beach certainly helps. When they were briefly the Los Angeles Ice Dogs, that was not quite the same. This minor league hockey team, though, then became the Long Beach Ice Dogs. We grant you we aren’t sure what an Ice Dog is, but this was a team name that was four words and four syllables.

Even more esoteric a team name, at least to American kids (and probably adults) of the ‘80s and ‘90s, than the Montreal Expos was the Quebec Nordiques. The franchise also had a logo that was hard to parse, but of course few cared because the uniforms were so dope. It essentially means “Northerners” or “Northmen.” So yeah, that is cool. Definitely better than the Colorado Avalanche.

The Federal League tried to be the third major league in baseball, back when the American League and National League were more separate. It didn’t pan out for the Federal League, which existed as a “competitor” to the AL and NL for, oh, two seasons. They still came up with some interesting team names, though, including the Brooklyn Tip-Tops. The fact they were named after Tip-Top Bread only curbs our enthusiasm a smidge.

The Rochester Royals led to the Cincinnati Royals, which led to the Kansas City Kings, which, in turn, led to the Sacramento Kings. Royals is a bit better than Kings as a team name, because it feels a bit more well-considered. “Kings” is the first thought, you know? Rochester, of course, also adds alliteration to the mix, and so we’re shouting out the Rochester Royals, even if that version of the franchise ended in 1957.