History Lesson! How did the Buffalo Sabres get their name?

The Buffalo Sabres have one of the most distinguished names in professional sports. So how did they go about getting their iconic identity?

The Buffalo Sabres began play for the 1970-71 season, joining the NHL that year with the Vancouver Canucks. As with all new professional sports teams, Sabres owners Seymour and Northrup Knox, and Robert O. Swados, didn’t just choose the name because they liked the aesthetics. There was meaning behind it.

And this is why they did not just choose the name Bisons, since, if you go back into the history of Buffalo sports, you will find a lot of Buffalo Bisons out there. The list includes four baseball teams, a former American Basketball League team, two professional football teams, and two hockey teams. One of which played in the AHL between 1940 and 1970.

In other words, the name Bisons, while meaningful to the City of Buffalo, was simply overused. This led ownership into holding a ‘Name the Team’ Contest. Popular choices included the Buffalo Buzzing Bees, Buffalo Mugwumps, and Buffalo Flying Zeppelins, as the most notable.

Overall, the Knox’s received roughly 13,000 suggestions, yet only four of them chose the name Buffalo Sabres.

Something you want to realize is that the Name the Team Contest was not a vote. Instead, they were suggestions from prospective fans. Ownership would choose the name they thought would resonate best not necessarily with the City of Buffalo, but with the game of hockey. Here is how Christina Ledra and Pat Pickens quoted it back in 2016:

“A sabre is renowned as a clean, sharp, decisive and penetrating weapon on offense, as well as a strong parrying weapon on defense.” – via NHL.com, NHL team nicknames explained.

Of course, in the game of hockey, you need to at least achieve balance between offense and defense to some degree. And a sabre does just that. But, as you may also have realized, the Sabres have incorporated the bison into their logo on nearly every one of their uniform combinations. Including their current set.

So long live the Buffalo Sabres, a name unique to the game of hockey. And let’s be honest, Sabres definitely sounds better than Buzzing Bees, Mugwumps, and Flying Zeppelins.