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Unread 14-01-2011, 23:23
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Billfred Billfred is offline
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Re: Acceptable Name?

Quote:
Originally Posted by DRAKE343 View Post
Billfred can probably shed some more light on this story, but a team he is involved with is sponsored by the University of South Carolina. Their mascot is the Gamecock, a fighting rooster. So when the team was first being developed a name thrown out was "The (second half of Gamecock) Bots," but they felt it was inappropriate for FIRST. I would say keep it rated G to make everyone comfortable.

P.S. I posted this and it was censored, so it was probably a good decision not to go with that name.
As someone who was in the room when this discussion happened, and as a graduate of USC, shed light I shall.

Nobody around campus, or even the state of South Carolina for that matter, bats an eye when someone shortens up Gamecocks. (Matter of fact, the shortened version makes it into the University's fight song twice.) Our mascot is Cocky, our football's offense is referred to as (that)-'N-Fire by certain Head Ball Coaches. However, modern interpretations of the word have caused the University to take a careful posture with it. They still lay claim to the trademark, but their trademark licensing documents (PDF link) explicitly prohibit using it by itself without some other trademark alongside it.

Considering how easily one can veer off the straight and narrow with the term (we won't talk about some of the bumper stickers seen around here), and considering that we were talking about high schoolers potentially traveling beyond areas where USC is USC, not South Carolina, we thought better of it. (Even going with Los Pollos Locos hasn't completely cleared us; I can't think of a time we've won a judged award where whoever wrote the citation for the emcee didn't work "cocky" into it.)

The moral of the story? Context is king. Considering how many other pyro-minded team names there are in FRC (Exploding Bacon, TnT, HOT, Fondy Fire...), I doubt you'd run into much trouble from others with BANG if you were consistent with its use in the explosive sense. (Truthfully, I wouldn't even have thought about it that way if you hadn't mentioned it...but my mind is like that.)

Just one requirement, though--your arm will have to pivot out and unfurl the team logo.

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William "Billfred" Leverette - Gamecock/Jessica Boucher victim/Marketing & Sales Specialist at AndyMark

2004-2006: FRC 1293 (D5 Robotics) - Student, Mentor, Coach
2007-2009: FRC 1618 (Capital Robotics) - Mentor, Coach
2009-2013: FRC 2815 (Los Pollos Locos) - Mentor, Coach - Palmetto '09, Peachtree '11, Palmetto '11, Palmetto '12
2010: FRC 1398 (Keenan Robo-Raiders) - Mentor - Palmetto '10
2014-2016: FRC 4901 (Garnet Squadron) - Co-Founder and Head Bot Coach - Orlando '14, SCRIW '16
2017-: FRC 5402 (Iron Kings) - Mentor

94 events (more than will fit in a ChiefDelphi signature), 14 seasons, over 61,000 miles, and still on a mission from Bob.

Rule #1: Do not die. Rule #2: Be respectful. Rule #3: Be safe. Rule #4: Follow the handbook.
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