Why Leeds Rhinos might have been Lions, Knights or Lollipops: story behind iconic club name revealed
It is hard now to imagine Leeds’ rugby league team being anything other than Rhinos, but if things had worked out differently they might have been known as Sharks, Knights, Bobcats - or even Lollipops!
Next season will be Leeds’ 30th under the Rhinos name, but it was not a popular choice when the moniker was adopted shortly after chairman Paul Caddick and chief executive Gary Hetherington took over at Headingley in the autumn of 1996. The club had been nicknamed Loiners since 1890 and the incoming owners decided it was time for a change.
They were seeking a fresh image and that required a suffix to the city name and a club mascot. A coupon was printed in the Yorkshire Evening Post asking fans for their suggestions and more than 1,000 responses were received, with around 120 different suggestions - including Headhunters, City Slickers, Rifles, Storm, Tigers, Losers and Lollipops.
Next step was for the club to narrow those 120 down to half a dozen possibilities to be put to a telephone vote run by the paper. The six were: Bobcats, Knights, Lions, Loiners, Rhinos and Sharks and club officials got together with marketing experts to make the final choice.
Bobcats came a distant last in the poll and was eliminated. Loiners was the most popular, but got less than 50 per cent of the vote. To the dismay of some fans, it was rejected on the basis of how do you market a Loiner?
Lions was also discarded, because Swinton already carried that suffix and it wouldn’t have been fair to them. So that left Rhinos, Sharks and Knights. The club decided Knights was too old fashioned and Sharks almost got the nod, but was ditched because of its dubious alternative meaning.
So Rhinos it was. As the club said at the time “a strong, aggressive animal that can run extremely fast” - all the qualities the team were hoping to display in Super League. Hetherington, who steps down as chief executive on Friday, recalled: “Paul Caddick played a big part in the decision. He had a social gathering and got everyone who was there to chant the various names - and Rhinos sounded the best.”
After a sticky start, the Rhinos identity became quickly established and mascot Ronnie Rhino is now an integral part of the club’s matchday operation and wider community. He became nationally famous in 1997 following the inspired decision to enter him as a candidate in the Leeds North West constituency at that year’s general election.
Ronnie received 232 votes and 0.5 per cent of the total ballot. He lost his deposit, but it was £500 well spent. Ronnie made his debut at a 32-22 home win against Oldham Bears on March 3, 1997 and that proved to be a busy year for the talisman, who married his sweetheart Rita later that season on the steps of Leeds town hall. The happy couple quickly produced two calves, Ricky and Rosie - though they mysteriously disappeared several years ago and haven’t been seen or heard of since.