CALLER-TIMES INTERACTIVE: NEWS
Sun 05-Oct-1997
CC's hockey team has new identity Ice Rays
Team unveils name, logo at Coliseum gathering
By BRENT SCHROTENBOER
Caller-Times
Cloaked in anonymity for most of its brief and nameless existence, Corpus Christi's new minor-league hockey team finally gained an identity Saturday when the franchise officially became the Ice Rays.
The Western Professional Hockey League expansion team unveiled its name, logo and colors before a gathering of season-ticket holders and fans at Memorial Coliseum, displaying a chic and bold team emblem emblazoned with a blue, teal, black and silver design.
``We were looking for something that was identifiable with Corpus Christi,'' said Taylor Hall, the team's coach. ``I think the Ice part of it tells people we're an ice sport and stingrays are prevalent in the area. The color scheme and logo are just fantastic, too.
``We were tired of being the Corpus Christi Hockey Club. Now we're the Corpus Christi Ice Rays, and we're really, really excited to have an identity.''
The name was chosen from a list of four finalists and more than 1,000 initial entries from fans. Though the name Stingrays was the most popular choice, an East Coast Hockey League team in South Carolina held the name already, and local team management and investors instead opted for a variation.
As it turned out, Ice Rays, Bay Skates, Blue Ghosts and Ice Breakers made the final cut, with the latter name being eliminated because of copyright complications conflicting with a chewing gum product by the same name.
The final selection process was then ultimately controlled by the team's Canadian investors, though fans were allowed to give their input through a telephone-voting process set up by the Caller-Times.
``The phone voting was pretty much even on all of the final names,'' said Jay Johnson, the team's events director. ``And Stingrays was easily the most popular overall, but we weren't able to use it.''
One of the many fans who submitted a variety of wide-ranging names in the Caller-Times' name-the-team contest, 31-year-old Jeff Perron was given official credit for introducing the Ice Rays moniker. Combining the fact that stingrays are a ``fierce'' and prevalent creature in South Texas, Perron said he arrived at Ice Rays because ``nobody would think we'd ever have ice hockey down here so we needed to start the name with Ice.''
The selection and design of the team logo, meanwhile, was handled by BDSI, a Corpus Christi firm that won the job over several other design companies in the U.S. and Canada. BDSI gave the team ``eight or nine'' choices for a team logo, and team marketing director Bill Davidson said ``they were all unbelievable.''
``We're already talking about winning the league's logo-of-the-year award,'' Davidson said.
Merchandise sporting the new logo went on sale as soon as the name and logo were unveiled, and the team will offer a wide array of merchandise at the team store opening today at Sunrise Mall.
Though the Ice Rays don't begin play at the 3,200-seat Memorial Coliseum until October 1998, more than 400 deposits of $50 each for season tickets already have been taken, with more than 100 sold Saturday at the Coliseum.
``It's just huge,'' said Davidson, member of a team staff that has increased from four to 10 since the team signed a lease with the city in late July. ``The response from the community has been tremendous.''
Moving to the next step in the team's development as a franchise, Hall will begin scouting for future Ice Ray players during the remainder of the fall, winter and spring. He said he expects to have about ``four or five'' players signed by April or May, with the remaining players contracted by the end of next summer.