Sports Teams With Numbered Nicknames

The following is a list of all the professional and collegiate sports teams, past and present, who use numbers as their team nickname. This list, while intended to be thorough, might not be exhaustive.

San Francisco 49ers (NFL) - Named after the prospectors who migrated to California during the 1849 gold rush

Philadelphia 76ers (NBA) - Nickname derives from the 1776 signing of the Declaration of Independence, which took place in Philadelphia

Houston Colt .45s (NL) - The original name of the Houston Astros, used from 1962-64; name was changed in 1965 in part because of objections by the Colt Firearms Company over novelties being sold with their brand name

Las Vegas 51s (PCL) - The AAA affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers; took its current nickname in 2001, in reference to the military testing grounds in Nevada called Area 51

Inland Empire 66ers (CL) - The Dodgers' A affiliate plays in San Bernadino and is named after the historic Route 66, which ran through that city

Houston 1836 (MLS) - Nickname was supposed to commemorate the 1836 founding of Houston, but the team was forced to change it before operations began since Mexican-American's objected to the connotation of the year Texas achieved independence from Mexico; team is now the Houston Dynamo

Vancouver 86ers (USL) - Nickname commemorates both the 1886 founding of Vancouver and the 1986 founding of the soccer team, now a member of the United Soccer League's first division; since 2001, team has been known as the Vancouver Whitecaps

Tulsa 66ers (NBADL) - NBA developmental team moved from Asheville to Tulsa in 2005 and named itself after the historic highway

Southern Georgia 36'ers (ABA) - Nickname derives from 1836, the year that the club's home city of Albany, Ga. was founded

Charlotte 49ers (NCAA) - Nickname was adopted by students because the University of North Carolina at Charlotte almost closed its doors in 1949; uniforms display gold mining motifs despite the fact that North Carolina has not had a substantial gold mining industry since the early 19th century

Long Beach State 49ers (NCAA) - Nickname is a reference to both the 1849 California gold rush and the 1949 founding of the university