On this day in 1972, the Texas Rangers baseball team played their first official game on Opening Day of the 1972 MLB season. The Rangers, formerly the Washington D.C. Senators, had moved to Texas the fall before. The team’s new name was in honor of the Texas Rangers law enforcement agency. Domingo Garcia, a former Dallas City Council member and current president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, remembers protesting the name when it was announced. Most press coverage was positive. The Arlington Daily News described the new name as “befitting the motif of the Lone Star State.”
At times branding and marketing for the baseball team has played up its connection to the Rangers’ mythic image. Past logos featured the Rangers’ hat (1972-80) and badge (1998-2002). The mascot is a horse named Captain.
The team has done less to address their namesakes’ history of state-sanctioned racial violence. Calls for the Rangers to change their name became widespread during the 2020 protests against police brutality and racism. Karen Attiah wrote in The Washington Post that “one major sports team has avoided the spotlight and resisted meaningful engagement with the violent and racist implications of its name. In The Chicago Tribune Steve Chapman argued that the Texas Rangers’ “record of savagery, lawlessness and racism,” including ethnic violence, support of segregation, and violence against striking workers, demands a name change.
But the team disagrees. In a 2020 statement, the ball club argued that it “has forged its own, independent identity” and pointed out that it has invested $45 million in programs for underserved youth in Texas. The Texas Rangers remain an important part of US popular culture, but the movies, TV shows, and the baseball team obscure the Rangers’ violent history. Follow this blog or @Refusing2Forget on Twitter to learn more.
