On This Date in Royals History: March 21
Board of Directors selects ‘Royals’ as Kansas City’s baseball team’s name
Director of Royals Hall of Fame, Curt Nelson contributed to this story.
On this date in 1968 — 53 years ago today — the Board of Directors selected ‘Royals’ as the name for Kansas City’s baseball team, following a study of more than 17,000 suggestions.
Shortly after Ewing and Muriel Kauffman were awarded the American League expansion franchise on Jan. 11, 1968, they ceded the naming of the team to Kansas City baseball fans through a ‘Name the Team’ contest in cooperation with The Kansas City Star. Some suggested names were odes to previous Kansas City baseball teams, others referred to Kansas City being the geographic heartland of the country, and some were references to Kauffman and his success in the pharmaceutical industry. Among the suggested names included:
Blues, Monarchs, Mules, Steers, Hearts, MoKans, Caseys, Scouts, Kauffers and Capsules.
Kauffman, according to Director of Royals Hall of Fame, Curt Nelson, was thought to be partial to Kings, Stars and Eagles, but the most suggested name by the fans — with 547 votes — was Royals.
The submission chosen by Kauffman and the board came from Overland Park, Kan. resident Sanford Porte. His entry was chosen for its ‘neatness’ and ‘logical reasoning.’ A photo of the original copy of Porte’s entry — dated March 10, 1968 — is shown to the left.
The origins of his suggestion comes from one of Kansas City’s longest-running traditions known as ‘The American Royal’ or more colloquially ‘The Royal’ which dates all the way back to 1899. The American Royal, as Nelson notes, began as the Herford Show in 1889 and was the first nationwide event for the exposition and the sale of pure bred cattle. The event drew 55,000 people in its inaugural year and established a Kansas City tradition that still continues today.
The American Royal grew to included one of the country’s most important horse shows in 1905, and was a significant economic force in helping Kansas City become known as an agricultural hub.
In 1980, the year Kansas City won its first American League pennant, The American Royal event grew into the country’s most well-known barbecue competition. To quote Curt Nelson, ‘Royals baseball and barbecue — there is nothing more Kansas City than that.’
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According to Nelson, other professional sports teams to don the name ‘Royals’ include:
The Montreal Royals were a minor league baseball team that held a special place in history. The season before Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, Robinson broke the color barrier in the Triple-A International League by playing for the 1946 Montreal Royals. Prior to that, in 1945, Robinson made his professional debut with, believe it or not, the Kansas City Monarchs.
The Rochester Royals of the NBA won the 1951 Championship over the New York Knicks. They later moved to Cincinnati in 1957, and as fate would have it, to Kansas City in 1972. Because baseball’s Royals already existed in Kansas City, the city’s new basketball franchise was forced to change its name to the Kings.
