A FAN’S NOTES

Edmonton Elks

Edmonton’s Canadian Football League (CFL) club, established in its current incarnation in 1949, has officially changed its nickname. The Eskimos will now be known as the Elks. A hardy prey animal, as opposed to a predator, at least tops Ottawa’s REDBLACKS, RedBlacks or Redblacks (Rouge et Noir en francais and what the team should’ve done sans the anglais equivalent).

My personal bugaboo with sports teams’ marketing monikers is singulars requiring an article: the Lightning, the Kraken. Elks is an awkward though pleasing plural, like the Maple Leafs – my 1980 edition of the Canadian Press Style Book cautions cub reporters not to correct Toronto’s grammar. Terry Jones, the reigning dean of Canadian football writers, noted in a recent Postmedia column that Edmonton’s rugby football club competed for the 1922 Grey Cup as the Elks because the local Elks service club had provided and paid for their kit. Although Jones is getting up there, I’m certain he did not attend the game.

Athletic clubs select nicknames for their positive attributes. Should you play football in Edmonton in November, you better be tough and resilient. Same goes for the fans in the stands. Green Bay’s famed and redundant “frozen tundra” is south of 49 tropical. “Eskimos” is thought to be an English or French (the fur trade in the New World in the 1600s was very competitive) mangling of an Algonquian proper noun, their name for their Inuit neighbours and competitors who still inhabit the far north of the continent. I always assumed “Eskimos” was complimentary and not derogatory but then again, I never thought about it. Language is dynamic and organic, and the definitions of words necessarily alter or evolve over time, and the dominance of English around the globe constitutes a form of cultural hegemony. And so should a distinct nation say: “Don’t call us that and we’re not your mascots,” best to huddle up and listen.

Edmonton’s new logo is a slightly abstract line drawing of an elk as seen on the log wall of a hunting lodge. The design would also make a fine sticker on a tractor or thresher displayed at a farm equipment dealership. I’d been under the impression that the community-owned club was desperate for a nickname that began with the fifth letter of the alphabet in order to maintain the long established brand recognition of its EE logo, retain fan engagement by changing but not changing too much, and to minimize costs associated with any re-branding.

Elks President and CEO Chris Presson Tuesday told sports reporters that the team’s EE logo is “still within our ecosystems of brands and we still plan to use it.” Now, I know what an actual ecosystem is. And I also know what a tech entrepreneur means when she drops that co-opted noun in the business press. But, jeez, hell if I know what “ecosystems of brands” are. I assume Presson meant a suite of primary and secondary logos; sports franchises, like legacy rock bands, know there’s money in merchandise.

I had assumed too that Edmonton was intent on keeping EE on its helmets, just as the REDBLACKS, RedBlacks or Redblacks were intent on reviving the old Rough Riders capital R on theirs. Should the CFL somehow manage to stage a pre-post-pandemic 2021 season, the Elks will sport green antlers on their yellow helmets. Some points on those antlers have been modified to suggest the laces of a football. I’ve no idea who’s responsible for the graphic design, but the idea and its subtleties are clever and inspired. During the 60s, Montreal’s Alouettes had red skylark wings on their helmets. If you’ve never seen a single down of American football, you can still imagine the decoration on a Los Angeles – St. Louis – Los Angeles Rams helmet. I like the Elks’ new retro football kit, a revitalization of what had become an off-putting brand.

In these thoroughly postmodern days, it’s impossible for anybody to do anything right in the electric eyes of the social media mob. Controversy is standard stuff, like a password or an avatar. Naturally, Edmonton’s transition from Eskimos to Elks has come under some angry scrutiny. I have it on good authority that the Knights of Columbus, the Rotarians, the Masons and Odd Fellows are all mildly miffed.

meGeoff has been your most unreliable, unbalanced and inaccurate alternative source of sports writing since 2013. My novella Of Course You Did is coming soon. Don’t miss out on the literary sensation of 2021. Bookmark this blog for breathless updates.