I’m wondering if anyone knows of any sports team names and mascots that are medieval in nature. I’m writing a fiction novel and would love to include this detail as foreshadowing.
This could be knights, kings, etc.
I’m having trouble finding a list of sports mascots in the UK (other than the premier leagues). The mascot could be for a grammar school, college or professional team. Any team at all. Here goes nothing…
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Doncaster Knights, a rugby union team in the Championship.
Tottenham Hotspur are named after Harry Hotspur, a man with some significant involvement in British history around that point.
Schools, universities etc don’t tend to have mascots in the UK.
Harlequins rugby team
Saracens Rugby Club
Wait … are we just doing someone’s school homework for them??
They’re not very well-known but Brightlingsea Regent, Staplehurst Monarchs, Royal Wootton Bassett Town, King’s Lynn Town Reserves, and the following teams are nicknamed “The Royals”:
AFC Portchester, Kirkley & Pakefield, Potton United, Reading, Sutton Coldfield Town.
Athletic Newham are known as the Kings, as are Kings Langley.
York City are named after the historic city of York.
Phoenix Knights.
Sunderland AFC go on to the pitch – or used to – to Prokofiev’s ‘Dance of the Knights’, and there used to be a London Knights ice hockey team.
Off topic, but Hearts’ pitch song is ‘Young Hearts Run Free’.
We don’t really have mascots.
Lewes FC are known as the rooks, as in the medieval castle context not the bird context. (Nice club with a great story, worth a read.)
Think there’s Reading Knights basketball
It’s not so much the mascot names you need but the club nicknames e.g. Everton are known as the Toffees.
This is a list of the nicknames of English and Scottish football teams
https://www.football-stadiums.co.uk/articles/club-nicknames/
Exeter Chiefs rugby union. Used to be called after Native Americans, from this July named after the Celtic Iron Age Dumnonii Tribe.
Knights of Old are pretty popular.
Saracens, Dragons, Exeter Chiefs, Harlequins, Glasgow Warriors – Rugby.
**York City Knights** are the rugby league club in York.
They’re currently doing well in the Championship, the second tier of rugby league. They do have a guy dressed up as a knight as a mascot.
Not quite medieval but West Ham played at the Boleyn Ground which was named after Green St Castle built during the reign of Henry VIII. Local legend says Anne Boleyn once stayed there and the name “Boleyn Castle” stuck. Loads of street names around there have Tudor origin. There is a line of streets near the ground, each one named after a different wife
I’v definitely heard Newcastle Knights as a thing. Not sure what sport though.
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EDIT: After a bit of a google the Newcastle in question is Newcastle in Australia.
The Scotland football teams mascot is Roary, a lion who is – according to folklore* – the great great great grandson of the lion on the Lion Rampant, which is the Royal Banner of Scotland. The banner dates from the 13th century.
Football teams mascots aren’t hugely well known though, it’s more just a fun little thing for the kids. And the national teams mascots are even less well known than that, I doubt even a quarter of Scotland fans could tell you that Roary is the mascot.
*Or the tongue in cheek marketing bumpf put out by the SFA, depending on what you want to believe
Farnham have a team called Farnham Knights. Could be something to do with Farnham castle. It’s an American football team.
Fleet used to have two football teams, like an A and a B team. One called Vikings and the other Saxons.
Schools and colleges don’t really have sports teams in the same way Americans do. I played football for a bit at school and university. You were lucky if 10 people were stood watching us play (as football is played in winter and it’s usually damp and windy most of the time there were normally none) and we definitely didn’t have mascots.
Mascot-wise, Nottingham Forest still have Robin Hood, I think? There are a couple of dragons knocking around as well – Wrexham, off the top of my head, but there will be others.
In the same vein as the Hotspur connection someone else pointed out, Chelsea play at Stamford Bridge (the less famous battle in 1066, but still pretty well known).
In cricket there are the Notts Outlaws and the Yorkshire Vikings playing in the national T20 competition.
Only the big clubs that want to have something to appeal to children have mascots.
And it’s just to sell maybe teddies in the gift shop and have some a mascot for the kids to take pictures with in kids area.
That’s it. Premier League, championship. Oh and we do have the Olympic teddy and the commonwealth but they change for each set of games.
They are not featured heavily in sports or at the grounds at all.
So examples of mascots –
We have Bella chip and Hercules the lions at Aston Villa.
Gunnersaurus the dinosaur is at Arsenal.
Wolves have Wolfie.
Man United have the Red Devil.
Outside of that no mascots. there was a post the other day you might want to look at.
Quite often holiday parks or theme parks will have their own characters, I wouldn’t call them mascots.
We do have knick names for clubs . Tend to be a play on their name or because of the picture on their badge or what they are known for locally.
But we don’t particularly use this in imagery – more so just as a knick name. I wouldn’t expect to go in the Stoke city shop (the potters) and expect to buy pottery or something with a picture of pottery on.
Eg Arsenal are the Gunners
West Ham are the Hammers
Stoke City are the potters
Aston Villa are the Villains or the lions
Wolverhampton Wanders are the Wolves
And then you’d go to “the blues, the whites, the claret and blues” etc.
I think we all said on that other post the other day – everything here about sports culture is different. Everything.
We don’t have cheerleaders for sports, pep rallies, we don’t have sports scholarships, all that stuff. It’s completely different culture.
“North Wales Crusaders” is a rugby league team.
Mascots are more of an American thing. Some teams do have them.