New Orleans Saints (National Football League team)

The New Orleans Saints football team was probably named by businessman David Dixon, who created the created the New Orleans Professional Football Club, Inc. in 1962 to lobby for a football team. “Saints” was printed in the New Orleans (LA) States-Item on June 25, 1962.
 
“N.O. GOES PRO!” was the headline of the States-Item on November 1, 1966 (All Saints’ Day), when New Orleans was officially awarded a football franchise, but the “Saints” nickname had been popular before this date. The States-Item ran a name-the-team contest in November 1966, and there were 1,082 different suggestions. “Saints” was the most popular entry and also was the winner picked by the newspaper’s judges. On January 9, 1967, the States-Item reported that the “Saints” nickname had been unanimously chosen by the team’s stockholders.
 
The “Saints” nickname was influenced by the popular song “When the Saints Go Marching In.” New Orleans is sometimes called “Saint City” because of this song and the New Orleans Saints football team.
   
     
Wikipedia: New Orleans Saints
The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league’s National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The team was founded by John W. Mecom Jr., David Dixon, and the city of New Orleans on November 1, 1966. The Saints began play in Tulane Stadium in 1967 where they remained until the 1974 NFL season, when they moved to the new Louisiana Superdome (now the Mercedes-Benz Superdome).
 
The name “Saints” is an allusion to November 1 being All Saints’ Day in the Catholic faith. New Orleans has a large Catholic population, and the spiritual “When the Saints Go Marching In” is strongly associated with New Orleans and is often sung by fans at games. The team’s primary colors are old gold and black; their logo is a simplified fleur-de-lis.
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To seal the merger, Rozelle arrived in New Orleans within a week, and announced on November 1, 1966, that the NFL officially had awarded the city of New Orleans an NFL franchise. The team was named for the great jazz song most identified with New Orleans – “When the Saints Go Marching In”, and it was no coincidence that the franchise’s official birth was announced on November 1, which is the Catholic All Saints’ Day. When the deal was reached a week earlier, Dixon strongly suggested to Rozelle that the announcement be delayed until then. Dixon told an interviewer that he even cleared the name with New Orleans’ Archbishop Philip M. Hannan: “He thought it would be a good idea. He had an idea the team was going to need all the help it could get.”
 
Wikipedia: David Dixon (businessman)
David Frank Dixon (June 4, 1923 – August 8, 2010) was an American businessman and sports executive who helped create the New Orleans Saints NFL team, the Louisiana Superdome, World Championship Tennis (WCT) and the United States Football League (USFL). An alumnus of Tulane University, Dixon created the New Orleans Professional Football Club, Inc., to lobby for an NFL or an AFL franchise for that city starting in 1962.
 
25 June 1962, New Orleans (LA) States-Item, “Now the Goal Is in Sight” by Cro Duplantier, pg. 20, col. 7:
We’ve heard it suggested that the team, which could become one of the city’s great tourist attractions, should be called the Saints, capitalizing on another attraction with which the city is identified—jazz.
 
And now—with the day of decision at hand—we can see it and hear it— the band in the stadium striking up a familiar jazz tune as the New Orleans Saints come marching in to play their first game, the first game by a New Orleans based professional team of any kind.
 
17 August 1962, New Orleans (LA) States-Item, pg. 19, col. 1 ad:
SUPPORT PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL
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Attend the game, sign the cards, show the world that New Orleans is ready for big-time sports, The American League is watching and so is the entire football world. If for some reason you cannot attend the game (a pre-season game between the Houston Oilers and the Boston Patriots—ed.), please write us your views at the address below.
 
NEW ORLEANS SAINTS
P. O. Box 50404
New Orleans, Louisiana
 
Help us bring the NEW ORLEANS SAINTS marching in—in 1963!
 
17 August 1962, New Orleans (LA) States-Item, “And Tomorrow The Preview” by Cro Duplantier, pg. 18, col. 1:
The backers of the New Orleans Saints—first edition scheduled for 1963—and the members of the AFL’s expansion committee already have been offered considerable proof that their secret choice of New Orleans over other applicants for the league’s franchise was on solid ground.
 
23 August 1962, New Orleans (LA) States-Item, “Dixon Elated by Pledge Response,” pg. 11, col. 2:
DIXON said comments on the cards revealed a great deal of the thinking of the local sports fan.
   
“A small minority questioned the name New Orleans Saints, apparently thinking it had some pious connotation. We took it from the famous New Orleans song—When the Saints Come Marching In—and I assure you that our boys will not be saints on the football field in any sense of the word.”
 
2 July 1965, New Orleans (LA) States-Item, Peter Finney column, pg. 1, col. 1:
Dixon told The Associated Press he was sticking with the name “New Orleans Saints.”
 
1 November 1966, New Orleans (LA) States-Item, pg. 1, col. 1 headline:
N. O. GOES PRO!
 
1 November 1966, New Orleans (LA) States-Item, “$5 Per Game Ticket Cost Is Expected” by Nat Belloni, pg. 1, col. 4:
The New Orleans-based team (Saints or whatever) are scheduled to begin play next season with eight home games in regular season play and possibly an exhibition contest or two before league action begins.
 
1 November 1966, New Orleans (LA) States-Item, pg. 1, col. 5:
States-Item Holds
Contest to Find
Name for Team
Saints? Tarpons? Jazz Kings?
 
New Orleans is assured of a professional football franchise but an important detail remains.
 
We’ve got to name our team.
 
TO GET THE BALL ROLLING, the States-Item is sponsoring a contest to select an appropriate tag for our new pros.
 
The prize will be two season tickets to the premiere season.
 
A final choice of a name for the team, of course, will be up to the owners. They probably won’t be named for several weeks.
 
In the meantime, the States-Item thinks the public should be heard. It’s just possible that the owners may go along with the name that wins the contest. It will also indicate what name is preferred by a majority of fans.
 
ENTERING IS EASY. Deadline will be midnight, Nov. 15, 1966.
 
2 November 1966, Ne Orleans (LA) States-Item, pg. 1, col. 2:
STATES-ITEM CONTEST
Name Pro Team,
Get Free Tickets
If it were announced today that you had been selected as the new owner of the New Orleans professional football team, what would you name your ball club?
 
Among the names that have been suggested are the Saints, the Buccaneers, and the Jazz Kings.
 
Maybe you have an even better idea.
 
4 November 1966, New Orleans (LA) States-Item, pg. 1, col. 1:
PELICANS? CRAYDADS? PRALINES?
Grid Name Flood Mounts
“I suggest ‘the Pelicans.’ It is our state bird, too! Saints sounds sacrilegious to me.”
 
“New Orleans ‘Craydads.’ I think this is the best name because New Orleans and Louisiana are distinctive in their eating of crayfish.”
 
The New Orleans ‘Pralines.’ A sweet team and full of nuts?”
 
8 November 1966, The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), “Behind the Sports Scene” by Bob Roesler, sec. 2, pg. 6, col. 1:
There has been a heavy anti-Saints expression from readers. One persons suggests it’ll confuse the pros with St. Aloysius; another hints “Saints” is too religious; still another doesn’t like the idea of calling a hard-nosed linebacker a “Saint.”
 
10 November 1966, New Orleans (LA) States-Item, pg. 1, col. 2:
NAME THE PROS
Contest Getting
‘Varied’ Entries
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LETTERS AND postcards suggesting names ranging from the “saints” to the “Sugar Daddies” and from “Crescents” to “Cajuns” have been delivered to the States-Item already in its “Name The Pros Contest.”
 
12 November 1966, New Orleans (LA) States-Item, pg. 1- col.s 1-2:
Hurry! Name Pros,
Deadline Tuesday
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Letters and cards already flowing in urge name the team the Buccaneers, the Lafitte Pirates, the Bourbons and the Saints.
 
28 November 1966, New Orleans (LA) States-Item, pg. 1, col. 4:
CRABS, ORANGUTANS?
‘Saints’ Tops List
Of Names for Pros
What’s in a name?
 
Well, 4,950 persons made some suggestions in the States-Item’s Name the Pros contest. And names, there were 1,082 different ones submitted.
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THE NAME MOST suggested was Saints. In fact, 425 persons suggested Saints. The 10 names suggested most often other than Saints were: Crescents, 370; Buccaneers, Cajuns, 287; Creoles, 237, Dixielanders, 159; Rebels, 145; Sportsmen, 144; Masqueraders, 110; and NOLAS (New Orleans, Louisiana) 103.
 
Oh, there were some beauties: Mocassins, Mud Bugs, Go-Go Boys, Roving RIver Boys of New Orleans, Armadillos, Creole Tiger Paws, Peacocks, Fieldlarks, Battle of New Orleans, Jazz Carnival Pros, Cotton Pickers, French Quarters, Crescent City Pelican Invaders, Crabs, Desire St. Trolleys, Franchies and many more.
 
One woman suggested the team be called the Orleans Orangutans in a tribute to the orangutans that were killed in the Audubon Zoo Park Fire. Besides, she said, football players look like orangutans.
(Continued on pg. 4, col. 6—ed.)
Names like Pirates, Rebels, Southerners, VooDoos, Steveores, Explorers, Flambeaus and Knights.
 
7 December 1966, New Orleans (LA) States-Item, pg. 1, cols. 1-3:
R. J. HYMEL GETS TICKETS
“Saints’ Is Winning Entry
In ‘Name Pros’ Contest
S is for strength.
A is for ability.
I is for integrity.
N is for noteworthy.
T is for teamwork.
S is for spirit.
 
And, this means success.
 
It also spells the winning entry in the States-Item’s Name the Pros contest.
 
It netted two season tickets to next season’s National Football League games here for Roland J. Hymel Jr., 712 Jade, an insurance man.
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THERE WERE 1,082 different suggestions, ranging from Alligators to Zouaves, from Bourbanites to Pralines.
     
7 December 1966, New Orleans (LA) States-Item, Peter Finney column, pg. 30, col. 3:
The New Orleans (Saints, Buccaneers, Creoles, Jazz Kings etc.) can take heart from the Dallas Cowboys.
 
16 December 1966, New Orleans (LA) States-Item, Art Burke column, pg. 22, col. 1:
My guess right now is that the nae of the team will be the “Saints.” It has been the name originally suggested by the promoter of pro football here during the past six years, Dave Dixon. And it proved the most popular name, by far, of football fans in the recent contest conducted by the New Orleans States-Item.
 
9 January 1967, New Orleans (LA) States-Item, pg. 1, col. 2:
It’s Official;
Orleans Pros
Are Saints
It’s official—they’re the Saints!
 
Stockholders of New Orleans’ National Football League team have voted unanimously to give the team the name favored by most entrants in the recent States-Item’s name-the-team contest.
 
The musically-derived name was announced, appropriately, by musician Al Hirt, one of the team’s owners.
 
“We want the people to know that the name was taken from the jazz number—‘When the Saints Go Marching In’—and has nothing to do with religion,” said Hirt.
 
Hirt said majority owner John Mecom Jr. and the rest of the stockholders felt it best to go with what they felt to be “the will of the people.”
 
A spokesman for the team management said no colors have been decided upon yet, but he French tricolor is under study, as well as the Fleur-de-lis as a symbol.
 
(Trademark)
Word Mark NEW ORLEANS SAINTS
Goods and Services IC 041. US 107. G & S: FURNISHING ENTERTAINMENT SERVICES IN THE NATURE OF PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL GAMES. FIRST USE: 19661228. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19661228
Mark Drawing Code (1) TYPED DRAWING
Serial Number 72261748
Filing Date December 30, 1966
Current Basis 1A
Original Filing Basis 1A
Registration Number 0844767
Registration Date February 20, 1968
Owner (REGISTRANT) NEW ORLEANS SAINTS PARTNERSHIP 615 HOWARD AVE. NEW ORLEANS LOUISIANA 70130
(LAST LISTED OWNER) New Orleans Louisiana Saints, L.L.C. Benson Football, Inc, a Texas Corporation LIMITED PARTNERSHIP TEXAS 5800 Airline Drive Metairie LOUISIANA 70003
Assignment Recorded ASSIGNMENT RECORDED
Disclaimer THE WORDS “NEW ORLEANS” ARE DISCLAIMED APART FROM THE MARK AS SHOWN.
Type of Mark SERVICE MARK
Register PRINCIPAL
Affidavit Text SECT 15. SECTION 8(10-YR) 20180813.
Renewal 3RD RENEWAL 20180813
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