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Throwback Thursday: How the Timberwolves got their nickname

By Drew Mahowald

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This week’s Throwback Thursday post goes way back to before the Minnesota Timberwolves had even registered a win or a loss. This is even before the team decided what the primary and secondary colors would be.

I did some digging on the Minnesota Timberwolves official website and I found myself at this page, which describes how the Timberwolves nickname was chosen for the new NBA expansion franchise in Minneapolis. They did a pretty good job, in my opinion. I’m a fan of the Timberwolves nickname.

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Anyhow, according to the web page over on the Timberwolves official site, there were over 6,000 different entries and for a “Name the Team” contest that was held. Of the 6,000 entries, there were 1,284 different nicknames, all of which can be found here. After looking over each of the different nicknames, the final decision was narrowed down to two: the Timberwolves and the Polars. The decision was then left up to 842 city coucils around the state of Minnesota, and the majority favored the nickname “Timberwolves”.

Just think, though, the Minnesota Timberwolves were almost the Minnesota Polars. Personally, I think both nicknames are pretty solid, but I do agree with the majority of the 842 city councils that said Timberwolves was the way to go. Looking at some of the nicknames on the list of the 1,284 submitted from the link above, there were some very questionable submissions. My favorite submission is the “Double-Dribblers”. The Minnesota Double-Dribblers, how intimidating.

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    • The winner of the “Name the Team” contest was one of 17 who submitted the nickname “Timberwolves”. Tim Pope of Brooklyn Center, Minnesota won a trip to the 1987 All-Star Weekend events in Seattle.

    For more info on the naming of the team and some basic facts on timberwolves, the animal, and how they relate to Minnesota, click here. Hopefully, I was able to give you readers an interesting history lesson on our favorite NBA team. Now, back to our regularly scheduled coverage of the NBA Draft and how the Timberwolves won the lottery (!) the other night.

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