League One Power Rankings - February

Tormenta Manager Ian Cameron looks out over
Tormenta Stadium following a goal. I'm cropped out of this photo.

So it's almost go time for the season. Teams have been training for a few weeks. Team bloggers and podcasters have been hard at work scouring the internet for bits of information and news that they can then synthesize down into something usable for you. Hours upon hours of reading reports, talking with sources and long nights is something someone who was good at this would do. 

I, however, am not that.

You've been here long enough to know that's not how things are done here. We ... we take a different path when it comes to power rankings. Today, we're ranking our League One teams based on the year the city they are named for was incorporated. Let's get to it. 

(All information is taken from Wikipedia)

12. Northern Colorado (Windsor, Colorado, 1890) 

If you live in Windsor, you get to be called a Winsord, which is kind of cool. On that fact alone they should be higher, but when you're the new kid on the block, you get stuck at the bottom of the rankings. Weird that 134 years old is the newest city in the league. I'm not really sure what I expected when I started this, but not that.

11. Central Valley Fuego (Fresno, California, 1885)

Named for the abundant ash trees along the San Joaquin River (Fresno is Spanish for "Ash Tree"), Fresno was the site of the first modern landfill in the United States. 

10. Spokane Velocity (Spokane, Washington, 1881)

Home to the world's largest basketball tournament, Spokane is nicknamed "Hooptown USA." Its name (Spokane, not "Hooptown") is Salishan for "Children of the Sun"

9. Union Omaha (Omaha, Nebraska, 1857)

The city was formally established at a picnic on July 4, 1854, which is the most midwestern story I've ever read. (It was incorporated three years later.) Reading through the history of Omaha and, yikes. From Wikipedia, "Calamities such as the Great Flood of 1881 did not slow down the city's violence." Seems bad.

8. Forward Madison (Madison, Wisconsin, 1856)

Of the 100 largest cities in the United States, Madison has more parks and playgrounds, per capita, than any other city in the country and was one of only five cities to have received a "Platinum Bicycle Friendly Community " ranking from the League of American Bicyclists. 

7. Chattanooga Red Wolves (Chattanooga, Tennessee, 1839)

In 1980, three KKK members opened fire on five black women in Chattanooga. They all survived and after an all-white jury acquitted the shooters. Four nights of rioting ensued. However, the five women ended up being plaintiffs in a civil lawsuit against the Klan who were ordered to pay more than half a million dollars to the women and created the legal strategy for dismantling the KKK.

5T. Greenville Triumph (Greenville, South Carolina, 1831)

Greenville is home to Furman University. The school was founded by Vardry McBee, who is considered to be the father of Greenville. As a Georgia Southern graduate who grew up when the two schools had a heated rivalry, I can't stay dispassionate about this. I hope Furman and all of Greenville... [Editor's note: let's just say Luke wishes nothing but the best for Furman and the greater Greenville area except for the times they play teams from Statesboro.]

That's not what I said, I said I hope ... [Editor's note: Moving on]

5T. Lexington SC (Lexington, Kentucky 1831)

Known as the "Horse Capital of the World," In 1850, the First African Baptist Church, led by London Ferrill, a free black man from Virginia living in Lexington, had the largest congregation of any church, black or white, in the state of Kentucky. 

4. One Knox (Knoxville, Tennessee, 1815)

Native Americans of the Cherokee tribe referred to the area that is now Knoxville as "kuwanda'talun'yi" which means Mulberry Place. In 1901, Kid Curry, a member of Butch Cassidy's crew, shot two deputies on Central Avenue in Knoxville. He escaped from the city's jail and left town on a horse stolen from the sheriff. 

3. South Georgia Tormenta (Statesboro, Georgia, 1803)

I considered going with the song Statesboro Blues, but no, we're going older than that. (Also, it is the official stance of Stormwatch912 that the Taj Mahal version of Statesboro Blues is the best version.) 

During General William T. Sherman's March to the Sea, a union officer asked a saloon operator for directions to Statesboro. He responded, "you're standing in the middle of town," which didn't speak well of the size of the town at the time. The solders destroyed the courthouse, which was used as a barn when court was not in session.

2. Charlotte Independence (Charlotte, North Carolina, 1768)

The Queen City. No, not Cincinnati. No, not Toronto either. Can it really be considered a nickname for your city if other cities are known for it as well? It was named for Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, who had become the queen consort of Great Britain and Ireland in 1761. Regardless of its claim to the Queen City nickname, Charlotte is the largest metropolitan area in the United States without a zoo. 

1. Richmond Kickers (Richmond, Virginia, 1742)

Site of the famous Patrick Henry "Give me Liberty or Give me Death" speech (offer not valid for slaves in that state), Richmond is where beer in a can was first made commercially available in 1935.