Friday Conversation: What would you call Syracuse, if not the Orange?

On Thursday, the Syracuse Chiefs baseball team tweeted a simple question: What if the team wasn’t named the Chiefs? What would locals want to call the team instead?

The team isn’t changing its name for good -- it’s just a promotion for one game in August. But the responses ranged from reasonable (Nationals, Lakers) to very minor league (Salt Potatoes, SnowCats) to far more ridiculous (Salt City Shakers, Sausage Dogs).

It got me thinking a bit, though: If the Syracuse Orange were to change their name, what would you want to call the team?

Getting these two out of the way:

Orangemen or Saltine Warriors: Both are dead in the water, so let’s move on.

Other options?

Warriors

This one can pay homage to the Saltine Warrior, without using an Native American imagery or this horrendous former logo. Plus, we’d get an SEO bump from Golden State’s recent success (it could also cause confusion).

Wolves or Lions

The 1995 mascot vote that solidified Otto as the official symbol of the school and its athletic program, also had a wolf and a lion up for debate. Those generic mascots suck, but they had potential at the time, so I suppose they’d get consideration here.

Goats/Rams

Syracuse’s first mascot in the 1920s was Vita the Goat. Calling the team the Goats or “Vitas” doesn’t sound great, so perhaps it would be upgraded to Rams, for aesthetics? Also, BIG fan of this:

Trolls

Or “Egnaros,” if you’d prefer. This would never happen, but it’s a reminder of the fact that we once had a troll as a mascot and none of you people can produce a photograph of it.

Rangers

This recalls the history of the unofficial “Dome Ranger” mascot. There’s already a New York team named the Rangers, but that’s fine.

Tigers

If for no other reason than to enrage our conferencemates in South Carolina, creating a second orange Tigers team in the ACC would be the sort of thing athletic departments would only do if run by internet comment sections.

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Syracuse’s own extensive mascot history brings up even more suggestions, but I’ll cede the floor to the group. What would you name the team, if not the Orange? Share your own ideas (no matter how ridiculous) below.