Earlier this week, we told you about the Hat Trick Swayzes, a Beer League team from Maryland with a simply tremendous moniker and logo. We also asked for some of your favorite rec hockey team names and sweaters; we didn't anticipate the crush of hilarious emails that followed, such as …
From reader Steve "Kingchev" Kaltchev:
One of the main reasons I love Puck Daddy is the constant mix of the two greatest pleasures known to man, Puck & Rasslin.
Being quite the enthusiast of both, three years ago when I was putting together a team and had to come up with a name. This was my creation: The Nature Boys. Late 60's St. Louis Blues kit (matching pant covers should be a go for next season), a unique photo of Slick Ric on the front, with two-color stitched numbers and "Whooo" on the back.
(We threw the "H" in there nice and early to distinguish our "Whoooooo" from the other girlier "wooooos.")
Clearly the Boys throw numerous "Whooooos" both in the room and on the ice, and so the refs also constantly "whooooo" as well as spectators and even the oppositions at times. Also we have this old sweater that our league manager gave us that we cut the sleeves off and made into a vest and had "Naitch" heat pressed on the back; it is givin to the player that styled and profiled during the game, and they must wear this beauty for the postgame bevies.
Well, in order to be the best, you gotta beat the best. So now that this Ric Flair tribute has set the bar, here are a slew of other inventive, humorous and boundary-pushing jerseys from Beer Leagues around North America in Puck Daddy's Salute To Awesome Beer League Teams (Vol. 1) …
And here … we … go.
From reader Justin Ross:
I'm part of a deck hockey team dedicated to the first Korean born NHLer who pretty much single-handedly brought Pittsburgh their first two Cups.
We are known as the Jim Wolf Paek, attached are the three logos we've used so far. Lest there be any confusion, we are all Pens fans, and this is absolutely a tribute to one of their unsung heroes.
Oh, there is no confusion, sir. Mario? Hack. Jagr? Overrated. Francis? Girl's name. Jim Paek? The straw that stirred the drink my friends.
From Matt F:
Glad you asked for the best rec league team name and sweaters because we've got both.
We were due for new jerseys a few years ago and were sitting around the locker room after the game having some cold ones trying to think of a name. It's pretty tough to agree on one when there's 15 guys. Finally, someone was getting up to leave and another guy said "C'mon, just one more!" And there it was! Our new team name had been said hundreds of times in our locker room and we never even knew it.
Thus, "Just One More" was born.
We were contemplating old school Canucks or Whalers jerseys, but a few modifications to the old Canucks logo promptly ended that debate. The pic of the player is my buddy Francis, who came up with the logo along with the computer guy that actually drew it for us. Gotta give them credit.
If you can't make it out, that would be one last can of suds on a plastic ring, dangling from a hockey stick. Hopefully they cut those rings before disposing of them, for the seagulls' sake.
From reader Miles Lavin:
So we recently went through a similar team renaming. After much debate over names like "Top Shelf" and "Upper Deckers" we finally settled on "Dump 'N Chase". Certainly not the most professional of logos, but for a beer league it does just fine.
Our only concern: Those skates are going to be murder on that seat. They're totally going to need one of those covers that looks like a carpet.
From reader Scott Morley:
Here is the logo of the Albany Hooligans. Kicking ass like Nelson Muntz does … HAHA!
We heartily endorse any and all Simpsons references on rec league jerseys. Somewhere out there has to be The Super Nintendo Chalmers.
From reader Tehchico:
Hebrew Nationals: Pretty much owned Central Jersey Roller Hockey for a good five years.
I mean, it's a hotdog holding a hockey stick! It's on an American flag jersey as well, hopefully I can find some game photos too.
Do we detect a devious re-appropriation of the Cleveland Indians' mascot here? Is this, in fact, Beef Wahoo?
By the way, the Nationals may actually be the second greatest idea these guys have ever had:
Our next team name was going to be The Buk Hockey team.
Submitted without comment.
Sticking with food for a bit, here's reader Simon Q.:
Real Bacon is a beer league team in the Greater Seattle Hockey League. We wear the '80's Oilers sweaters.
Wait ... Seattle? Are you telling us that at some point in the last two years Kyle Wellwood was within a reasonable driving distance to a team named Real Bacon and didn't offer to be their ringer?
From reader Heather Robinson:
My little brother plays in a co-rec league in MN. The team: The Ham Lake Fighting Hams. Check out their fight song at www.myspace.com/fightinghams.
Seriously, check out the fight song. It's epic, if a little ham-fisted.
From reader Paul Smachetti:
We have a beer league team based out of a Pittsfield, Mass. bar called The Home Plate.
We call ourselves The Beer Kings. A few yrs ago we were looking for a bar theme for our new jerseys and stumbled on a Russian jersey website and found an amateur team jersey The Moscow Beer Kings. I believe it's a brewery . We have home and away as you can see by the images. We thought it would be cool to have our names on the back in Russian. Our age range is approx 22-56.
Our team motto is "Win or lose we drink the booze."
So say we all.
From reader Casey Barrett, an in-depth history of the Roll Models:
Our proud heritage of beer drinking and playing hockey (not necessarily in that order) with this group of guys has been going on for about three years now. We stared out as the 'River Pigs' wearing Now, like your story about the Swayzes, we started bringing in new players when others left or went on to other beer league sports (softball is very popular for some) and at some point we had to do a whole new uniform thing. Our story for the creation is what's more intriguing.
We play in a 'D' (rec) inline league, our players range from age 28 to 58 (with the occasional sub in from our backup goalies kid who is 17). A few seasons ago, we had a team called the Drunken Monkeys, which was humorous to us because I don't think one of them was over the age of 18. They were much better than all of the teams in our division, which led to many scraps near the end of many games with many different teams.
One night when we were playing them it was getting especially chippy, one of their guys actually dropped his gloves, but no fight came out of it. While in line shaking hands at the end of the game, (this is "unknown" who started what … I think it was us), but someone said something people were in each others faces, and when probably the most spoiled kid on the team (he's the one with the Chevy Blazer SS that Mommy and Daddy got for him), says and I quote "You guys are supposed to be the role models out here for us to look up to."
That earned quite the laugh, even to this day, there's a bar that overlooks the rink that we take part in every week. So for kids that destroy us week in and week out on the scoreboard, and tell us, old guys in the rec 'D' league of the rink that we were the role models, our new team name was born.
Enjoy the day!
Thanks old-timer …
From reader Andre:
Here's pics of my beer league team in Queens, NY: we're the Little Lebowski Urban Achievers. (One of the pictures, as you can tell by the fake facial hair, was taken during the playoffs. Playing with that thing was IMPOSSIBLE).
Sometimes there's a team … and we're talking about the Little Lebowski Urban Achievers here … sometimes there's a team that …
From our buddy Jeff Marek of CBC Sports:
One of the men's leagues teams I played on last year here in Toronto was the Inglewood Jacks. Best jersey I ever wore.
"and you will know my name as the Lord..."
WANT. NOW. MUST. FIND. GOING. TO. EBAY.
Finally, here's an instant classic from reader Geoff D.:
I've been playing inline hockey with a team called "The Flyin' Seamen" for 10 years now. We also have an ice hockey team of the same name.
Awesome jersey … just keep it away from this one until you feel you're responsible enough adults.