September 13, 2023 – THEME WEEK DAY 3

We’re halfway through our theme week on NFL Team Name Origins! Today, we’re talking about the Baltimore Ravens, which has an exciting literary connection!
The Baltimore Ravens are a fairly new franchise, established in 1996 after Art Modell, who owned the Cleveland Browns at the time, announced plans to move the team to Baltimore. In a settlement between the league and the city of Cleveland, Modell agreed to leave the Browns’ history, team colors, and records in Cleveland so he could take his own personnel and team to Baltimore to form an expansion team.
The organization did focus groups, phone surveys, and fan votes to help pick a name for the new team. Ultimately, it came down to 3 names: Marauders, Americans, and Ravens. In a fan contest that drew more than 33,000 voters, Ravens was selected. It’s a reference to the famous poem The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe, who lived for a time in Baltimore and is buried there. Fans also liked the tie-in with the other birds in town, the Baltimore Orioles.
In June 1996, the team sold more than 50,000 season tickets in just 2 weeks. They played their first ever regular season game on September 1st of that year, in front of a crowd of 64,124, which was the largest in Baltimore professional sports history. The Ravens have been one of the more successful franchises since their inception, qualifying for the NFL playoffs 14 times since 2000 with 2 Super Bowl Titles (Super Bowl 35 in 2001 and Super Bowl 47 in 2013). Learn more here.