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I stand corrected, bub.

Houston discards 1836 moniker and becomes Dynamo; MetroStars sale is discussed.
HOUSTON (Monday, March 6, 2006) — Houston 1836 is no more.

After offending many in the Hispanic community of their new home, Major League Soccer’s transplanted San Jose Earthquakes discarded their first nickname, announced on January 25, and became the Houston Dynamo.

Management of the new Houston team chose 1836 to commemorate the year its home city was founded. Latinos, however, associate 1836 with the Texas Revolution and that year’s bloody Battle of San Jacinto (about 20 miles east of Houston) when General Sam Houston led his Texas Army to defeat General Antonio López de Santa Anna’s Mexican forces. The Texas Republic then seceded from Mexico, to be annexed by the United States in 1845, just before the Mexican-American War of 1846-48.

While Russia’s Moscow Dynamo and Ukraine’s Dynamo Kiev were believed to be an influence in the new moniker, team president Oliver Luck offered another explanation — it was to honor the city’s ties to the energy industry. “Dynamo is a word to describe someone who never fatigues, never gives up,” he said. “The new name is symbolic of Houston as an energetic, hard-working, risk-taking kind of town.”

The announcement was made at a press conference today.

“We’d like to once again reiterate that at no time did MLS or (Anschutz Entertainment Group, the team’s owner-operator) ever want to offend any members of the community in Houston,” Luck said. “We want everyone to feel welcome and become a part of professional soccer in Houston.”

Any influence from the international soccer scene would be line with a trend that started with 2005’s two MLS expansion teams. Chivas USA carried the nickname of its parent organization, the popular Mexican team Club Deportivo Guadalajara. Real Salt Lake is a tribute to Spanish power Real Madrid.

The term dynamo is short for dynamoelectric machine which is a generator of electricity, while the word also refers to a forceful, energetic individual.

“We believe a parallel can be drawn to the two major communities in Houston: English speakers and Spanish speakers,” Luck said. “Together, (these communities) will create electricity at games unlike any other in MLS.”

After playing in San Jose for the first 10 years of MLS, the Houston Dynamo will open the 2006 season at home April 2 at Robertson Stadium on the University of Houston campus.