Toronto Huskies, Let's Go Blue and White

On Tuesday night, the Toronto Raptors donned blue and white uniforms as part of the NBA’s Hardwood Classics promotion, which will see 12 NBA teams will celebrate their basketball history.

In 1946, the Toronto Huskies graced the city for a season of professional basketball as a member of the Basketball Association of America, which eventually became the NBA. Unfortunately, the franchise disappeared after a 22-38 season.

When the NBA returned to Toronto in 1995, the team had a “naming” contest and selected the popular choice of the moment, Raptors—most likely because of the popularity of the Jurassic Park movies.

And in that inaugural season, the team did play a game in the old Huskies uniform to honor their roots. But the big Barney was here to stay, much to the dismay of groups like TorontoHuskies.org

This season, the Huskies will appear at the ACC for six games and if the first night’s contest was any indication, the uniforms should become a part of the team’s history next.

The first Hardwood Classics game was an ugly defensive battle in which the Huskies domesticated the T-wolves from Minnesota, thus illustrating the infinite and infinitely better jokes and analogies available for fans and sports writers.

The mere possibly of ending the term “craptors” makes this name change worthwhile.  And on Wednesday, the Huskies could be dog-tired as they head to Milwaukee.

But Huskies was more than just a name change to something with a better connection to a basketball past. The team took the name and connected it to the 1940s theme from which it came.

The result was a fresh and up beat introduction, new music, and new dance pak moves—changes that went well with the clean-looking blue and white warm-up outfits and uniforms.

After years of going from purple to red or black and sometimes green, the clean white uniforms with blue lettering looked really good.

And after suffering through the some of questionable music selections, designed to “pump up” the team and the crowd, this theme permitted the 4Korners disc-jockey to expand his music horizons and come up with a few new (old) tunes.

As NBA promotions go, the Hardwood Classics Night was a success. But it does remind Toronto Raptors fans of the history of their NBA team and the history of professional basketball in Toronto.

And after last night, it looks like the Raptors should become the dogs and join Toronto’s other professional sports teams in Blue and White.

Let’s Go Huskies!