enthalpy

Wednesday, February 01, 2006


Yet another soccer related post. Houston picked up a Major League Soccer (Ha!) team this year, and what's worse than this fake sport coming to Houston? The fake controversy their disturbingly lame name has churned up among the socialist Latino soccer fans in the Bayou City.
By naming the team Houston 1836, the newly arrived Major League Soccer franchise has chosen to identify with a year that may divide the city rather than unite it. While the team intends to highlight Houston's founding along the banks of Buffalo Bayou, the year also commemorates the defeat of the Mexican Army by a largely Anglo Texan militia at the Battle of San Jacinto. Whether by ignorance or design, choosing 1836 has the potential to alienate Houstonians of Mexican origin, a group that is surely a large part of the team's fan base.
And so? Santa Anna was defeated and Texas independence was established in 1836, but Houston wasn't incorporated as a city until 1837. Sorry, but I still don't understand the question. Houston was incorporated in 1837, the Mexican army was defeated a year earlier, but 1836 makes for the lamest team name [soccer not withstanding] in all history. So why? Why the controversy?

I don't know. My soccer questions start with "why does it exist", so when that one is answered, I'll work on the last two.



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