That's My Team!

Paul Volponi is an author, journalist and educator. His twelve novels for young adults have been the recipient of a dozen American Library Association honors. His novel Black and White, winner of the International Reading Association Children’s Book Award, is a staple in many middle school and high school English classes. The Final Four is on the New York City Chancellor’s Ninth-Grade Reading List. You can learn more about his books at paulvolponibooks.com.

The unifying power of sports, writes novelist Volponi, means an affiliation with a certain team can create “lifelong bonds” and extend into the “collective consciousness” of the team’s city and beyond. Yet the provenance of many team names are often puzzling—Utah Jazz, anyone? Volponi dedicates a paragraph or two of context to dozens of team names—past and present, popular and obscure—whose origins span an encyclopedic array of history, science, literature, pop culture, geography, and other subjects. He also sprinkles in a collection of instructional but skippable sports-related challenges for those who are competitive about trivia. The book is full of fascinating factoids about mostly collegiate and professional teams, that also double as mini lessons in civic history: how the Great Depression inspired the naming of the Philadelphia Eagles, how the Oklahoma Sooners sprinted into existence, and why the Los Angeles Dodgers are an homage to the trolleys of their native Brooklyn. Even fictional teams like the Springfield Isotopes of The Simpsons get a nod. Written for teens but enlightening for any trivia or sports fan.

• Author’s Note Introduction 1: World History 2: American History 3: Literature, Language, and Mythology 4: Music and Pop Culture 5: Changing Society: Gender and Race 6: The Natural World 7: Geography 8: Industrial Revolution 9: Foreign Studies 10: People and Politics 11: Marine Sciences and Meteorology 12: Electives and Independent Studies Challenge Answers Notes Suggested Readings Index About the Author