Football club nicknames come about for all sorts of reasons. Liverpool play in red, so they’re known as ‘the Reds’, for example, whilst, at least according to one version of events, Dean Court was built next to a cherry orchard, so Bournemouth became known as ‘the Cherries’.
It is probably fair to say that Sunderland fit more into the latter category than the former; that is to say, a nickname that seemingly came out of nowhere and doesn’t seem to be linked to the club in a discernible way by those looking in on proceedings from the outside and wondering what it’s all about.
The Team of All Talents
The actual nickname for Sunderland is actually a relatively recent addition to the club’s history. In the early years, the team was formed as Sunderland and District Teachers Association Football Club by a schoolteacher named James Allan. It was around a year later that it was renamed to become Sunderland AFC, which was also the point at which playing for the club was no longer just the right of school teachers. The team joined the football league in the 1890-1891 season, having been managed successfully by Tom Watson for two years, before he left to win the top-flight title with Liverpool.
It was during the club’s time towards the end of the season that it earned its first nickname, albeit an informal one that never really stuck. They defeated Aston Villa 7-2 in a match, which led William McGregor, the one-time President, Director and Chairman of the Villains, to refer to them as ‘the Team of All Talents’. McGregor, of course, was also the founder of the Football League, so if he had something good to say about your football club, then you did your best to listen. The fact that they won the Football League one season after joining it suggests that McGregor may have been right.
It Was Selected by Vote
You might well think that something being decided by a vote negates the idea of it being a nickname. Yet in the case of Sunderland, that is exactly what happened; at least officially. As the rumours have it, then nickname comes from the fact that the south pier at Roker in Sunderland housed a gun battery back in 1805. A soldier stationed there heard a loud wailing one night, going to investigate the noise. When he did so, he discovered it was coming from a black cat, which resulted in the battery becoming known as the Black Cat Battery as a result of his discovery.
Sunderland AFC was formed 74 years later, with the football ground it played its games in being located not far from the Black Cat Battery. As a result, the unofficial name of the ‘Black Cats’ was given to Sunderland almost from the point of the club’s inception. When a supporter apparently smuggled a black cat into Wembley for Sunderland’s FA Cup final against Preston North End, the nickname became further entrenched. Nearly three decades earlier, thousands headed to neighbours Newcastle adorned with black cat mascots to enjoy an FA Cup quarter-final there.
It was in 2000 that the football club decided to ask its supporters what they thought the official nickname of the club should be. It is not outrageous to suggest that some of the suggestions on the ballot paper were not exactly the most thrilling in the world. Options such as ‘the Miners’, the ‘Light Brigade’ and ‘SoLs’ were all available. Unsurprisingly, supporters voted overwhelmingly to opt for the ‘Black Cats’ as the official nickname, which has been the case ever since when it comes to how the club official refers to itself and the players who take to the pitch in the red and white stripes.
Supporters Don’t Really Call Them That
Part of the problem with nicknames is that they have to happen organically. You can tell people to call you ‘Big Steve’ all you want, but if that moniker hasn’t been created by someone in the spare of the moment, it is unlikely to be something that sticks. Whilst supporters have long thought of the club as the Black Cats, it also isn’t really a name that fans of the club use to refer to themselves. There are some that feel that it doesn’t suit the team, whilst the earlier reports on the football club’s exploits saw them referred to as ‘the Rokerites’ by members of the press.
That was owing to the fact that they played their matches at Roker Park, but they didn’t use that as an official nickname and actually became the last club in the top-flight, as they were at the turn of the millennium, to adopt an official nickname. Although the Black Cats title won 48% of the vote, it was actually the name that came in second, with 37% of the vote, that most supporters refer to themselves as. People from Sunderland are known as ‘Mackems’, the origin of which as a word is the subject of much debate. Regardless, it is there to allow the people of Sunderland to differentiate themselves from Geordies in Newcastle.