Lakers nickname comes from a Lake Freighter
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K2
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 13, 2017 1:33 pm    Post subject:

activeverb wrote:
This interested me enough I did a bit of Googling and found this mention in a book:

A Minneapolis sportswriter named Sid Hartman came up with the name after a ship that traversed "the land of 10,000 lakes." (He served as GM for the original Lakers too.)

Now whether that's true or not is anyone's guess. I've seen this explanation a few places now, but the details are always sparse and no original source of the information is given. It may be true or it may simply be a bit of lore/myth that has been handed down over the past 70 years.

Anyway, Hartman is still around and kicking. He write a biography called Sid!: The Sports Legends, the Inside Scoops, and the Close Personal Friends, so I suspect if the story is true it's in there.
Link


Sid Hartman's 97 years old and still has a radio show. He's the ONE who convinced Ben Berger and Morris Chalfen to buy the Detroit Gems and relocate them to Minneapolis.


Sid Hartman wrote:
In the summer of 1947, Hartman says, “I went to Detroit with a check in my hand. We bought the Gems for 15 grand.” Later, in the so-called “Land of 10,000 Lakes,” a naming contest determined that they would be rechristened the Lakers.

Hartman, relying on contacts in college basketball to help him make personnel decisions, hired the coach who would oversee the dynasty, John Kundla, and signed the players.

http://www.startribune.com/sid-hartman-lakers-memories-come-to-life-again/417730633/
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Jellojigglin
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 13, 2017 9:20 pm    Post subject:

So who has the most Laker knowledge of our teams history. I never believe wiki as it gets edited so many times. I also think that radio host is dead.
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Aeneas Hunter
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 13, 2017 9:26 pm    Post subject:

A naming contest sounds a lot more believable than the idea that the team was named for ships on a lake that is 150 miles away.
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 13, 2017 9:29 pm    Post subject:

Ben Vereen wrote:
lol @ all this.

Again, this was one of the most interesting episodes on Laker Line many years back as longtime Laker statistician Frank Pollack was a guest and was stumping everyone, even Stu Lantz about many Laker facts, especially that was driving callers crazy was the little fact about the Great Lakes Steam Ships that the team was named after. Caller after caller kept answering the conventional land of a thousand lakes answer and getting a strict NO.
Finally he explained the answer and Stu was shocked that even he never knew.

Take it up with Frank Pollack if you do not believe.
Thanks for this amazing research I look forward to more Laker fans sharing this history.
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 13, 2017 11:42 pm    Post subject:

Aeneas Hunter wrote:
Ben Vereen wrote:
lol @ all this.

Again, this was one of the most interesting episodes on Laker Line many years back as longtime Laker statistician Frank Pollack was a guest and was stumping everyone, even Stu Lantz about many Laker facts, especially that was driving callers crazy was the little fact about the Great Lakes Steam Ships that the team was named after. Caller after caller kept answering the conventional land of a thousand lakes answer and getting a strict NO.
Finally he explained the answer and Stu was shocked that even he never knew.

Take it up with Frank Pollack if you do not believe.


I’ve never heard of Pollack,


Chick Hearn mentioned him in literally every single road broadcast. He was Chick's right hand man for stats.

http://www.insidesocal.com/tomhoffarth/2016/02/11/remembering-frank-polak/
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K2
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 14, 2017 12:18 am    Post subject:

Jellojigglin wrote:
So who has the most Laker knowledge of our teams history. I never believe wiki as it gets edited so many times. I also think that radio host is dead.


Radio host and sports columnist Sid Hartman is 97 and still active these days. You might even try tweeting him @sidhartman, he's credited with building the Lakers' first dynasty and was part of the process to rename the team when it was relocated from Detroit.

Both Mychal Thompson and the late great Frank Polak have mentioned the team was named after the ships. However, after reading Sid Hartman's account, it appears they may have been mistaken.
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Huey Lewis & The News
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 14, 2017 12:51 am    Post subject:

Jellojigglin wrote:
So who has the most Laker knowledge of our teams history. I never believe wiki as it gets edited so many times. I also think that radio host is dead.


It's a play on "The Lake Show" which was the nickname given to the 94-97 teams.
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 14, 2017 12:55 am    Post subject:

K2 wrote:
Jellojigglin wrote:
So who has the most Laker knowledge of our teams history. I never believe wiki as it gets edited so many times. I also think that radio host is dead.


Radio host and sports columnist Sid Hartman is 97 and still active these days. You might even try tweeting him @sidhartman, he's credited with building the Lakers' first dynasty and was part of the process to rename the team when it was relocated from Detroit.

Both Mychal Thompson and the late great Frank Polak have mentioned the team was named after the ships. However, after reading Sid Hartman's account, it appears they may have been mistaken.
Thanks I'll try reaching out.
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 14, 2017 9:53 am    Post subject:

VegasLakerFan wrote:
Aeneas Hunter wrote:
Ben Vereen wrote:
lol @ all this.

Again, this was one of the most interesting episodes on Laker Line many years back as longtime Laker statistician Frank Pollack was a guest and was stumping everyone, even Stu Lantz about many Laker facts, especially that was driving callers crazy was the little fact about the Great Lakes Steam Ships that the team was named after. Caller after caller kept answering the conventional land of a thousand lakes answer and getting a strict NO.
Finally he explained the answer and Stu was shocked that even he never knew.

Take it up with Frank Pollack if you do not believe.


I’ve never heard of Pollack,


Chick Hearn mentioned him in literally every single road broadcast. He was Chick's right hand man for stats.

http://www.insidesocal.com/tomhoffarth/2016/02/11/remembering-frank-polak/


If I’m reading that correctly, he would have gotten involved with the Lakers in the mid-1980s. He wasn’t even born when the Lakers were named, and he would have been a little kid when the team moved to LA. This is just some story he heard. The Hartman story is a lot more credible, and he was actually there.
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 14, 2017 5:25 pm    Post subject:

Aeneas Hunter wrote:
VegasLakerFan wrote:
Aeneas Hunter wrote:
Ben Vereen wrote:
lol @ all this.

Again, this was one of the most interesting episodes on Laker Line many years back as longtime Laker statistician Frank Pollack was a guest and was stumping everyone, even Stu Lantz about many Laker facts, especially that was driving callers crazy was the little fact about the Great Lakes Steam Ships that the team was named after. Caller after caller kept answering the conventional land of a thousand lakes answer and getting a strict NO.
Finally he explained the answer and Stu was shocked that even he never knew.

Take it up with Frank Pollack if you do not believe.


I’ve never heard of Pollack,


Chick Hearn mentioned him in literally every single road broadcast. He was Chick's right hand man for stats.

http://www.insidesocal.com/tomhoffarth/2016/02/11/remembering-frank-polak/


If I’m reading that correctly, he would have gotten involved with the Lakers in the mid-1980s.


Close -- if he worked 23 years with Chick and Chick died in 2002, then that would mean he started in 1979.

Quote:
He wasn’t even born when the Lakers were named, and he would have been a little kid when the team moved to LA. This is just some story he heard.


Not sure what his birth year has to do with what he knew -- he worked for the team for three decades and Chick obviously trusted him. You can try to undermine his credibility if you wish but he was certainly in a greater position to know than you or I.

Frankly I'm kinda stunned you don't remember hearing Chick calling his name -- do you remember Dennis Minishian or Susan Stratton?

Quote:

The Hartman story is a lot more credible, and he was actually there.


Except the Hartman story just says they were named in a naming contest, it doesn't actually contradict what Frank Polak said.

Plus there's this: http://bit.ly/2xG3Nr0
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activeverb
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 14, 2017 7:39 pm    Post subject:

Aeneas Hunter wrote:
VegasLakerFan wrote:
Aeneas Hunter wrote:
Ben Vereen wrote:
lol @ all this.

Again, this was one of the most interesting episodes on Laker Line many years back as longtime Laker statistician Frank Pollack was a guest and was stumping everyone, even Stu Lantz about many Laker facts, especially that was driving callers crazy was the little fact about the Great Lakes Steam Ships that the team was named after. Caller after caller kept answering the conventional land of a thousand lakes answer and getting a strict NO.
Finally he explained the answer and Stu was shocked that even he never knew.

Take it up with Frank Pollack if you do not believe.


I’ve never heard of Pollack,


Chick Hearn mentioned him in literally every single road broadcast. He was Chick's right hand man for stats.

http://www.insidesocal.com/tomhoffarth/2016/02/11/remembering-frank-polak/


If I’m reading that correctly, he would have gotten involved with the Lakers in the mid-1980s. He wasn’t even born when the Lakers were named, and he would have been a little kid when the team moved to LA. This is just some story he heard. The Hartman story is a lot more credible, and he was actually there.


Yep. The question is where this guy Pollak got his information from, and we'll probably never know that.

As far as the naming contest, I assume Lakers was offered up as a choice for people to vote on. But who knows if it was picked because of the sailing vessel connection, or if the people who were voting even made that connection.

I've seen this story related a few times, but it always has some gaping holes in it.

I guess if someone asked me today where the name Lakers came from I'd say "it was chosen in a naming contest after the team moved from Detroit to Minneapolis, and some people believe it was based on sailing vessels called Lakers."
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ChickenBeckerman
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 18, 2017 10:02 am    Post subject:

kinda bummed actually that there are so many laker fan's who've never heard of Frank Polack. We've all benifited so much from his work as Chick attested pretty much during every broadcast.
Especially towards the end of Chick's career, he was still so quick with those ensembles of stats, facts and information tidbits that would orchestrate seamlessly through the broadcast. We can all thank Frank Polack for that and for being the best in the business during that amazing era as Chick & Stu's behind the scenes backbone.
Who he was and what he meant to the lakers org/broadcasting team is immeasurable.


Last edited by ChickenBeckerman on Wed Oct 18, 2017 10:15 am; edited 2 times in total
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 18, 2017 10:05 am    Post subject:

Also Mychael Thompson I recall has mentioned the steamship origin enough times as well.
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