And what Beverly Hillbillies song are you talking about King? Maybe I'm wrong (and I think you're right about the characters supposedly being from Tennessee), but doesn't it go:

Let me tell a story 'bout a man named Jed

A poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed

Then one day he was shootin' at some food

And up through the ground came a bubblin' crude

Oil that is. Black gold. Texas tea.

Well the first thing you know, old Jed's a millionaire

The kinfolk said, "Jed, move away from there"

They said California is the place you want to be

So they loaded up the truck and moved to Beverly

Hills, that is. Swimmin' pools. Movie stars.

It's supposed to be Californee, not California.

But we ARE home to West Virginia University. Ahem.

Oops! My own brain freeze. Wrong song (Davy Crockett). But the Beverly Hillbillies were absolutely from Tennessee.

Gooooooo....Mountaineers!

I've always been kinda a fan of your team, and have a few friends that matriculated in (the morning in) Morgantown. Although for basketball I can't root for them anymore, since they are now in the same Big East as Georgetown (Goooooo...Hoyas!)

Sorry to muck up your certainty, but the exact location of Clampett's before moving is not stated in the series. While many think Tennessee, most folks who've paid attention think they were from the Ozarks--so either Arkansas or Missouri would be the correct answer. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beverly_Hillbillies

This just made me think about something I think about sometimes:

How long will it be until we see sports teams in America not named for cities/states but companies a la the Nippon-Ham fighters? This seems quite common in other parts of the world. Most(but not all) Japanese baseball teams have such corporate sponsorship names, not just the Japan-pork products previously mentioned. My favorite is the Yakult Swallows. For those not in the know, Yakult is a popular yogurt/health drink in Japan. (Swallows, get it?)

Do you think we'll see it in America sooner than later? Discuss. (I think the Anaheim Mighty Ducks was the closest we've come so far.)

New York Red Bulls in MLS. The future is now.

Good one Rupert- I forgot about them. That is along the same lines as the might ducks (mascots based on corporare entities. But what will be the big seachange is when we have the "Red Bull Caffeinated Bulls," or something of that fashion, with no city name in sight.

Actually, according to Wikipedia, the name Swallows dates back to Kokutetsu, the Japanese National Railways, the team's original owner in 1950.

That's interesting, I didn't know that. I wonder if the pun played a part in Yakukt eventually taking over their sponsorship. (It is a pun only in English of course- I wonder if anyone was in the know).

And as a tip to anyone reading, Yakult does in fact play in Tokyo, and they''re not really popular- so if you ever find yourself in Tokyo wondering what the Japanese strain of pro-baseball is like, they're you're best bet for a ticket. The other Tokyo team (unless I'm forgetting any), the Yomiuri (newspaper) Giants are like the Yankees of Japan, so much harder and pricier to get tickets for.

And I understand that the Foo Fighters have nothing against Foo.

I'm sorry. Long day.

Laugh out loud funny.

Thanky you

The Beverly Hillbillies were definitely from the Ozarks in the series, not Tennessee. This is something I've known since the original series aired in the 60s.

from the wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beverly_Hillbillies

At the beginning of The Beverly Hillbillies series, the OK Oil Company discovers oil in a swamp in the Ozarks owned by family patriarch Jed Clampett.

I read an interview with one of the originators of the show (many years ago, before the internet), and he said although it was never said specifically in the series if it was the Missouri or Arkansas Ozarks, he always pictured it in his mind that the Clampets were from the Missouri Ozarks, since he was from Missouri.

from the wikipedia article:

The Clampetts went back to the hills for Christmas during the first season but did not return there again until the eighth season, during which several episodes were filmed on location at Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri.

The (Green Bay) Packers' name is left over from an earlier semi-pro era, when they belonged to a meat company. (I think.???)

Like the Raybestos Brakettes.

The Packers were originally sponsored by the Indian Packing company and later by the Acme Packing Company. Both sponsorships were before the organization of the NFL.

The Green Bay Packers were the "company team" of the Indian Packing Co. in Green Bay. They were charter members of the NFL when it was formed in 1920. This was in the era of leather helmets and drop-kick field goals, when the forward pass was considered a wussy way to gain yards...

"Semi-pro"? Well, I'm sure the players were paid *something*. Maybe they were paid in meat...

The Hop Bitters of Rochester, New York, from the late 1870s are the earliest example I know of a professional sports team named after a product. Asa Soule was the manufacturer of Hop Bitters, a popular tonic made of alcohol (and presumably some other ingredients, but who cares?). He bought the baseball club and changed its name to help promote his product. At least one newspaper was outraged by this and refused to use "Hop Bitters" in its box scores.

The Nippon Ham Fighters just moved to Sapporo in 2004. They were based in Tokyo for many, many years before that. It's an easliy understandable slip--like calling the New Orleans Hornets the Charlotte Hornets.

On a related note, it's neat to look at the map of big league cities in Japan prior to 1988 when the Hawks moved to Fukuoka. There were six teams in Tokyo, four in Osaka, one in Nagoya (between Tokyo and Osaka) and one in Hiroshima. It's like looking at a map of major league baseball before the Dodgers and A's started the move west. Now it's a bit more spread out, though there are still 5 teams in Tokyo.