LAST UPDATED ON 2020-12-14 14:25:14

Cleveland Indians announce plan to drop team name; won't change until at least 2022

A day after a report from The New York Times broke late Sunday night, the Cleveland Indians officially announced their plan to move on from their longtime nickname on Tuesday.

Cleveland's longtime professional baseball franchise first went by the name "Indians" starting in 1915 and had kept the name through over 17,000 games, which include multiple playoff appearances, six American League pennants, and two World Series titles.

However, the team was subject to scrutiny in recent years in the form of protests from baseball fans and Native American groups. This move follows the decision by the NFL's Washington Football Team in July to drop a name long considered to be a racial slur towards Native Americans. The change also follows the team's decision in early 2018 to retire the longtime "Chief Wahoo" logo, with much of the 2019 season spent phasing out the logos and imagery of a cartoon mascot some considered to be demeaning towards Native Americans.

In a name and identity-changing process that would include many logistical choices, including work with uniform and merchandise manufacturers, an official replacement name has not been set. However, the team said they've been working since July to learn how its nickname "affected different constituencies" and "whether it aligned with [the team's] organizational values."

Original nicknames for the club before the "Indians" moniker came to be were "Blues", "Bronchos", and "Naps" after their inception into the American League in 1901 (this does not include the "Spiders", which were the National League franchise that called Cleveland home from 1887-1899).