Collective nouns

[Laurence Horn]

At 6:07 PM -0400 9/17/10, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>At 9/17/2010 04:28 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>"(the) Pack" is of
>>course headlinese for "the Packers", which would obligatorily govern
>>the plural, so that might make "the Pack have" rather than
>>"has...work to do" even more likely.
>
>Here of course it was the NC Wolfpack, not the Green Bay
>Packers.  But still headlinese (and the quote is from a headline)
>that omits the "the" seems not uncommon, or at least may have its
>reasons, and I would not cringe at a sentence reading "The Wolfpack have ..."
>
>Joel
>
And we have our own Wolf Pack here in Connecticut, the Hartford pro
hockey team (the American Hockey League affiliate of the NHL
Rangers), the main pro team in the state once whaling, or at least
the NHL Whalers, became extinct.  Checking "Wolf Pack World" online,
I find such highlights from last season as

"Leading 2-0 after two periods November 27 at home against Portland,
the Wolf Pack give up three quick goals to fall behind 3-2."

"The Wolf Pack snap a six-game winless streak (0-4-1-1)"

"the Wolf Pack start the second half of the season with a 2-1
overtime win at Providence"

--the plural agreement seems to be the only game in town.

Still, my all time fave AHL team name is the Rochester Americans, or
much more commonly "the Amerks", as I learned during my own years in
the Lilac City in the early '60s.  I can't think of any other context
in which Americans of any variety are known as Amerks.  Honorable
mention among AHL team nicknames has to go to the Hershey Bears (<
Hershey B'ars, 1934-36 < Chocolate B'ars, 1933-34).  A wee loss of
transparency, but the logo preserves the appropriate chocolatey color
for the ursine mascot.

LH

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