Related
Internal Links
The Manchester Millrats will become the Saint John Mill Rats at the start of the next season. (PBL) New Brunswick's newest basketball team will keep its old name, with a slight twist, the Premier Basketball League announced Tuesday.
The franchise is relocating from Manchester, New Hampshire, to Saint John, N.B., this fall.
In New Hampshire, the team was known as the Millrats, referring to rodents that lived in Manchester's abandoned textile mills.
In Saint John, the new team will be known as the Mill Rats, said the team's general manager, Ian McCarthy. He said changing the name to two words emphasizes the workers who toil in Saint John's working mills.
"From what I've learned since I've been here, the fabric of this city is an industrial heritage, hard work, people are proud of putting in a day's work." McCarthy said the team's new logo will reflect that.
"It's a person, he's got a hard hat, he's got a hammer hanging off his waist. He's ready for a hard day's work."
When the move was announced, a contest was launched to rename the team. Mill Rats was one of the choices in the poll, which was conducted via text message. The name beat out other suggestions, including the Riptide and the Fog Devils.
"The hockey kids are called rink rats the basketball kids that practice all the time are called gym rats, and so now we have the mill rats," McCarthy said.
The team will be chosen in September, training camp is slated for December, and the regular season will start in January. Five teams are signed up so far, and the league may expand to Puerto Rico.
Share Tools
Latest New Brunswick News Headlines
- 'Unauthorized' pension change to be reversed
- Saint John's outgoing deputy mayor says an "unauthorized change" to the city's pension plan that would have benefitted the city's top earners if they retired early will be reversed. more »
- Fredericton invites citizens to weigh-in on new bylaw
- The City of Fredericton is inviting citizens to have their say on the municipality's new zoning bylaw. more »
- Workers' EI history to affect claim under new rules
- Human Resources Minister Diane Finley announced details this morning about the government's planned changes to employment insurance that would tighten the rules for Canadians collecting the benefit. more »
- 8 views on EI changes: 'political football' or 'eHarmony'?
- Human Resources Minister Diane Finley released more details of the government's plans for reforming employment insurance Thursday. Here's a sample of the reaction. more »
Top News Headlines
- Quebec faces mounting pressure amid student crisis
- The morning after nearly 700 people were arrested in protests in Montreal and Quebec City, Jean Charest announced he has replaced his top aide with his former right-hand man. more »
- Reclaiming the dead on Mt. Everest
- The difficulty, danger and expense of removing the bodies of climbers who died in Mount Everest's "death zone" mean most of the dead remain on the mountain as a stark reminder to other climbers of the risks. more »
- Conservatives move again to have robocalls suits tossed
- The Conservative Party has filed a second motion to dismiss the robocalls lawsuits filed by the left-leaning Council of Canadians, calling council chairperson Maude Barlow a 'virulent critic' of Prime Minister Stephen Harper who has 'orchestrated' the litigation. more »
- Suspect arrested in decades old N.Y. missing boy case
- A man has been arrested in the 1979 disappearance of a six-year-old New York City boy, in the first arrest ever made in a case that helped give rise to the nation's missing-children movement. more »
- Man dies after assault at house party
- 'Unauthorized' pension change to be reversed
- Workers' EI history to affect claim under new rules
- 300 litres of heavy water spilled at Point Lepreau
- Saint John managers ‘duped’ council, says deputy mayor
- Scrap metal plant sparks noise complaints
- Moose on the loose shot in Fredericton
- Food safety course necessary, trainer says
- Plastic bag fees should be legislated, council says
