National Basketball Development League - Florida
Flame
Florida Flame Unveils Name, Logo
Fifth-grade teacher suggests name for NBDL team
 On
the count of three, two, one, Connie Gegen, a
fifth-grade teacher at Hancock Creek Elementary School,
and Brett Vickers, president of the area’s new
professional basketball team, unveiled the franchise’s
official team nickname.
The Florida Flame.
The logo, which mimics that of the Miami Heat’s
flaming basketball, features primary colors of blue and
green, which match those of the East Coast Hockey
League’s Florida Everblades, by design.
The Flame will open their 23-game National Basketball
Development League home season Sunday, Nov. 21, at
Germain Arena, which is also the home of the Everblades.
“When we convert the building to basketball, we
wanted to make sure it looks like our building just as
much as the Everblades’ building,” said Vickers, who
plans to interview a coaching candidate — one whose name
he wouldn’t disclose — over the weekend.
The Flame’s colors also match the green used by the
Minnesota Timberwolves and the blue used on the NBA
logo. (EDITOR'S NOTE: Not true on the
Green, True on the Blue.)
The ball on the logo is “warm red,” an orange color
used by the NBA expansion Charlotte Bobcats. It will be
used as an accent color on the uniforms, which have yet
to be designed by Reebok.
Gegen and Vickers displayed the logo at a Tuesday
afternoon news conference at the Channel Mark restaurant
in Fort Myers Beach.
Gegen, a 47-year-old mother of two, said she
submitted the nickname “Flame” shortly after noticing
the name-the-team contest in The News-Press.
“In one of the headlines, I saw the word ‘flame’ ”
said Gegen, who could not recall the exact headline or
date of the paper. “It just caught my eye. I kept
looking at it back and forth.
“I forgot about it for a couple of weeks.”
There were 423 responses to the contest. Four of
those were forwarded to the NBDL and the NBA for
approval.
Gegen won four season tickets for having her idea
chosen.
“I love basketball,” she said.
This article was taken from
www.news-press.com. All rights
reserved.
|
