Call me a homer, but I love the Nashville Predators brand. Can there be a better mascot for a NHL hockey team than a saber-toothed tiger? According to Trademarkology staff paleontologist, Dr. Wik I. Pedia, saber-toothed tigers (or more properly, "saber-toothed cats") could weigh almost 900 pounds and reach a height of 47 inches at the shoulder. Imagine being checked into the boards by that monster! Yet, our love of the Predators brand extends beyond the perfect suitability of the mark for the product and the fact that it is our home team. The Preds get the hat-trick because the back-story is also amazing.

Although the Predators NHL franchise first came to Nashville in 1998, the first Nashville Predator roamed our fair city thousands of years ago. In 1971, while excavating the foundation for a skyscraper in downtown Nashville, workers stumbled upon the remains of a Smilodon, or saber-toothed cat, in an underground cave (Locals speculate that the Smilodon was likely killed in a bar fight on Lower Broadway--Nashville's honky-tonks were pretty rough during the Pleistocene Era). The remains of the big cat are still on display at the building, which was recently renamed UBS Tower. It was this prehistoric Nashvillian that was the inspiration for the Nashville Predators brand.

The Nashville Predators brand proves that inspiration for selecting a great brand name can be found anywhere. It would have been easy to pick a music-related theme for the team. Instead, the Nashville Predators dug deep (boom!) to find a nexus between the history of Nashville and the spirit of hockey and provide us with a trademark we love. Go Preds!

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