When the California Gold Rush began in 1848, American football didn’t exist. But those aggressive gold miners would give their nickname to a football team one hundred years later.
Gold was first found in Northern California in January 1848, and it took about a year for the news to travel and inspire thousands of fortune seekers to head west. The miners who arrived in 1849 encountered a number of fortunate coincidences. They were relatively early compared to the competition that would follow over the next six years; they could put a pan in the river and pull out gold. Also, California was still disputed territory. Before 1850 (when California became a state), the gold was free. There were no taxes or land rights’ arguments. These fortunate early gold miners were quickly dubbed the “forty-niners.” There were published reports around the country about them, and there was a book, The Forty-niners, Or, The Pioneer’s Daughter published in 1879.
Meanwhile, the first game of American football was played in 1869 in New Jersey, and even then it didn’t really look like football, more like soccer mixed with rugby. (Why are there two kinds of football? Get the story.)
When the first Northern California football team was founded in 1946, the name came logically. The team’s mascot was a gold miner named Sourdough Sam (pictured above). Perhaps because of the name, the team has never left San Francisco.
(And why is the Super Bowl called a “bowl?” Does it have anything to do with bowling?)
aawweessoommee i love the 49ers!
the 49ers are going to win the superbowl this year on february 3, 2013.
I guess a high school tournament is called a ‘Saucer’? – no, wait … a Cup? If it were a REALLY small tournament a ‘Demi-tasse?’
In Europe they could call their soccer finals ‘Vats’, or better yet ‘Cauldrons’ or even ‘Crucibles’? And don’t let’s forget to remember those horse racing events called Plates. We could call our local Pub-league baseball bashes ‘Mugs’ and an after dinner billiards match a ‘Snifter’.
I’m sure that with a little imagination we can find some sports to ‘match’ up with all the rest of the neglected dinner set. Hey, we could call an Eating contest a….. GOBLET!!!
very interesting
Shouldn’t they be the Sutters or the Millers??
I think it is not free of co-relation in meaning between the super bowl and bowling. Although it’s seen like a free connection beween “superbowl and bowling” in context or syntaxes but it is not free from meaning relationships ethimologically. And may feel free to read and write both supebowl and bowling in any contextual expression. Thank you!
I love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Your facts are in dispute; they are named the 49′ers after the year in which Claudius married Agrippina the Younger. Look at the 49ers history section on the Webnet; they were almost called Agrippina’s Centurions but the name was shot down.
Names don’t keep teams from leaving, though I can’t imagine the 49ers anywhere but San Francisco, a great sports town! Some teams have moved and taken names with them that don’t make much sense in their “new” locales. The Los Angeles Lakers (NBA) name made much more sense in their orignal home of Minnesota, the “land of ten thousand lakes”. Also in LA, the Dodgers (MLB) supposedly took their name from the long-ago Brooklyn everyday pedestrian adventure of “dodging” streetcars to get around. The team moved 55 years ago, the name stayed. Meanwhile NBA fans have been used to the name “Utah Jazz” for a while now, but the name only makes sense when you realize the team’s original home was New Orleans.
Minor league teams have the best names. The baseball team in Savannah, GA is the “Sand Gnats”, and there’s a baskeball team in Vermont called the “Frost Heaves”. (If you’ve driven in New England in the winter you get it!)
no 49ers
wow way kool
The 49ers are about the leave SF for a new stadium in Santa Clara, CA. Sad!
Wow… talk about history. That’s pretty neat!
They should be called the 69ers ’cause of football.
The Sand Gnats? Best sports team name ever!!!
[...] “49ers” — Goal in them there Hills — of San Francisco where the Haight — Is in the Street — The Golden Gate and pieces of — Wait — Oui only dealing in limited skills. — Research is not in our passing. — Our goal is simply harassing. — The Staff of multitudinous personalities — not trying for Castro outclassing. – Another Bowl of Roses — Uber sniffing by upturned noses — of a Foot or a Ball or both. — At the same time. –>>L.T.Rhyme This entry was posted in DICTCOMHOTWORD, L.T.Rhyme and tagged LT, LTRhyme, the HOT WORD on February 2, 2013 by LTRhyme. [...]
I Really Enjoy The Story
I’m So Impress,i Love It!!!!!!
One would have to be born under a rock, a post 1980 public high school graduate or a Democrat to not know about the California Gold Rush and the forty-niners.
hi
C’mon guys. You don’t have to be so critical all the time. This is really awesome.
wow, that’s very interesting, our social studies teacher told us this because he is a 49ers fan, 49ERS ALL THE WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I always thought it was because the California Gold Rush started around 1849, well you learn something new everyday they say.
49! Like this! They’re so cool.
Actually, they aren’t the 49ers. They’re the Forty-Niners.
And you need to do a lot more research on the subject. California was governed by territorial law in 1848 (it was acquired by the United States in 1846,) which was quite specific about land rights. Yes, you could easily make a claim on a piece of land of specific dimensions, and take the gold from that land, but you did not have ownership or permanent rights. Many ‘camps’ had additional rules, such that no chinese were allowed a claim.
And the people who arrived in 1849 found almost all of the good claims were gone, and were mostly relegated to land where little gold was likely to be found.